Honouring the Exploits of a Celebrated Terrorist

PFLP hijacker Leila Khaled. Photo: Sebastian Baryli

"Zoom is committed to supporting the open exchange of ideas and conversations, subject to certain limitations contained in our Terms of Service, including those related to user compliance with applicable US export control, sanctions, and anti-terrorism laws."

"In light of the speaker’s reported affiliation or membership in a US-designated foreign terrorist organization, and SFSU’s inability to confirm otherwise, we determined the meeting is in violation of Zoom’s Terms of Service and told SFSU they may not use Zoom for this particular event."

Zoom’s deputy general counsel, Lynn Haaland

"SFSU cannot provide support to a member of a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. Full stop. To do so will expose them to liability under federal criminal law, and the very severe associated penalties, and should certainly run afoul of university leaders’ consciences."

"We urge SFSU, in the strongest possible terms, to take its cues from Zoom and prevent this event from happening. There should be no scenario where an American university has any engagement with a notorious leader of a designated terror group (the PFLP) — who also happens to be a virulent antisemite and two-time plane hijacker."

Benjamin Ryberg, chief operating officer, director of research, Lawfare Project

 

"We hope Zoom’s de-platforming sends an important message to SFSU that Professor Rabab Abdulhadi’s repeated attempts to indoctrinate students with her hatred of Israel and condoning of terrorism is a dangerous abuse of her faculty position, and it has dangerous consequences, including the inevitable targeting of Jewish students at SFSU."

"Unfortunately, though, SFSU continues to provide a daily platform for Abdulhadi to exploit in order to achieve her hateful political ends. And Zoom’s canceling of this event only addresses a symptom of a much larger problem — faculty being permitted to use their academic positions and classrooms to indoctrinate students under the guise of education — which is why we asked SFSU’s president to vigorously address this abuse, but President Mahoney hid, once again, behind a mistaken understanding of academic freedom."

"Academic freedom does not protect faculty when their clear intent is to use the classroom or other academic spaces for promoting their own political causes, and the responsibility for preventing this ongoing abuse lies with universities."

Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, director, AMCHA Initiative

A San Francisco State University seminar titled “Whose Narratives? Gender, Justice and Resistance: A Conversation with Leila Khaled” organized by Professor Rabab Abdulhadi of the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas program, had invited the 76-year-old Palestinian Leila Khaled to be the featured speaker of the seminar. An event that did not go unnoticed by Jewish groups who protested the appearance at an American university of a member of the U.S.-outlawed terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. 

 

Khaled graffiti on the Israeli West Bank Barrier near Bethlehem 

Leila Khaled had been involved in two separate incidents of plane hijacking on behalf of the PFLP, an organization she remains connected to. She is a known terrorist, one glorified by the Palestinian Authority for her engagement in violent exploits against Jewish Israel. Dr.Abdulhadi of SFSU had assigned her students to produce signs and tee-shirts glorifying those exploits synonymous with murder, terrorism and violence. The Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Facebook page was posted by her with messages demonizing Israel and supporters of the Jewish state. 

As seminar organizer she had arranged with Zoom, Facebook and YouTube to broadcast the event to a wider audience. The activists and supporters of the Jewish state that the  seminar and its organizer slandered went into action, pointing out to the social media platforms that the PFLP is a terrorist organization outlawed in the U.S. by law, that Leila Khaled is a convicted terrorist. Her message and that of the seminar itself is one of victimhood, hatred and vengeance, the declaration that Israel's very existence represents a crime against Palestinian aspirations for statehood, the solution to which is the destruction of the Jewish state.

 

She was tasked by the PFLP as part of a team to hijack TWA Flight 840 from Rome to Tel Aviv, in August of 1969, diverting the Boeing 707 to Damascus in the belief that the-then Israeli ambassador to the United States, Yitzhak Rabin, would be on the flight. A photograph of Khaled (now a resident of Amman, Jordan} holding an AK-47 rifle while wearing a kaffiyeh became a popular reproduction, following the hijacking, during which no one was hurt, but the plane was blown up once everyone disembarked.

A year later, Khaled with another PFLP member, a Nicaraguan-American, went aboard El Al Flight 219 from Amsterdam to New York. Their hijacking effort failed when Israeli sky marshals went into action, overpowering Khaled and killing her partner, Patrick Arguello. She had two hand grenades in her possession at the time, and Arguello had shot a member of the flight crew during their attempt at hijacking the plane. She was arrested and imprisoned in Britain, later released in a hostage exchange.

PFPL plane hijacker Leila Khaled in South Africa

(photo credit: AFP PHOTO/GIANLUIGI GUERCIA)

The seminar was refused hosting by both Zoom and Facebook. The event was broadcast live on You Tube on Wednesday, 23 September, but twenty minutes into the seminar, the feed was cut by YouTube and the video removed on the basis that it was violating the YouTube Terms of Service. Khaled had not had the chance to speak when the event was dropped. Last week, SFSU President Mahoney published an opinion piece, to appear in The Jewish News of Northern California, citing academic freedom and diversity as justification for proceeding with the seminar and Khaled as featured speaker.