Syracuse University Professor Osamah Khalil’s opinions on terror are by now well documented. So too is it clear that Syracuse University has a well earned reputation as being unsafe for Jews, with a convicted murderer on its campus at a pro-Hamas encampment for days, and professors who openly call for the destruction of Israel.
Khalil, Chair of the International Relations Program is also head and co-founder of Al Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network which has been linked to terror by the Swiss government and is funded by George Soros’s Open Society Foundation. Khalil has endorsed all forms of armed resistance against Israel, a full suspension of military aid to Israel and supports BDS.
And now, we learn that as the founder of “Al-Shabaka,” Prof. Khalil directed a concerted lobbying effort to rescind an American law limiting the issuance of licenses for collecting satellite imagery of Israel. The Kyl-Bingaman Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, 85 FR 44059, prohibits U.S. agencies from issuing licenses for satellite imagery and surveillance of Israel at a level more detailed resolution than is available from commercial sources. Al-Shabaka lobbied against this restriction, and it does not take much imagination to realize to whom this information would be useful.
Prof. Khalil -- during his term as Al-Shabaka Vice President, Treasurer and Director -- authorized lobbying to relax or eviscerate these prohibitions which, if images reached Hamas, would ease the road for Hamas to spy on Israel in planning its October 7th massacre.
Whatever entities Prof. Khalil was serving through his work with Al-Shabaka, his work seems to have been meant to aid intelligence gathering. There are four Palestinian designated terrorist organizations on the State Department list. If it can be shown that Prof. Khalil was lobbying for the benefit of these designated terrorist groups, his efforts would constitute material support for designated terrorist organizations in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2339B.
Were student researchers unwittingly involved in intelligence activities or material support for terrorist organizations? Were Syracuse University resources used for these purposes? These questions must be answered by an objective investigation.
Prof. Khalil was also involved in lobbying efforts to reduce Palestinian terror organizations’ liability for war crimes. The Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act allows Americans victims of terrorist war crimes to sue foreign entities for compensation if those entities accept any U.S. foreign aid. Al-Shabaka engineered a legislative workaround that not only avoided liability for a $655 million judgment issued against the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Organization for war crimes committed during the Second Intifada, but which also avoided liability for any future war crimes they may wish to unleash on victims.
For a tenured professor to be linked to an organization lobbying in support of legislation that encourages war crimes is shocking. Coupled with lobbying to ease Palestinian Arab spying efforts, the question arises as to whether it is possible that Prof. Khalil knew something of Hamas' plans before October 7th.
As October 7th unfolded, Prof. Khalil’s nonprofit organization, Al-Shabaka, released a statement (described in media as “disgustingly brazen”) declaring that “we stand alongside those committed to this effort and the liberation of Palestinians worldwide.” Against this framing, it is shocking to learn that Al-Shabaka received over $550,000 in grants from George Soros’ Open Society Foundation. Media Research Center opined that “it is beyond horrific that the Soros fortune is being used to support Al-Shabaka and numerous other backers of terrorism, murder and war crimes.”
Further political positions advanced by Prof. Khalil and Al-Shabaka in the aftermath of October 7 are equally troubling. The Syracuse Faculty manual is clear in prohibiting writing materials to gain public acceptance for materials known to be misleading or untrue.
The Al-Ahli hospital explosion on October 17, 2023 that originally was said to have killed hundreds of people was initially blamed on Israel, but as early as October 23, The broad consensus “ . . . is that the explosion was caused by an errant rocket fired from inside Gaza that struck the parking lot outside the hospital.” Yet, as late as December 2023, Al-Shabaka continued to tweet that the hospital strike was Israel’s fault. This propaganda is indefensible.
It is in the aftermath of October 7th that Professor Khalil’s long trail of different activities seem to show a disturbing pattern. Ironically, long before the massacre on Israel, Prof. Khalil bemoaned the emergence in the U.S. of “detrimental policies that were implemented in response to September 11.” As with his Prof. Khalil’s work urging the relaxation of spying protections for Israel, he pushed as recently as 2021 for the relaxation of post-9/11 terror protections on American soil, claiming there was no need for such “invasive and pervasive surveillance” because “terror plots were manufactured.”
Through the lens of hindsight, the following pre-October 7th statements are chilling:
Prof. Khalil’s ominous threat in 2020 that “preparations for that [defeating Israeli security] are underway. Palestinian administration sub-contracted to war lords.”
While the October 7th invasion included breaking of international border walls, Prof. Khalil called for this very form of violence years earlier when urging describing the destruction of the border wall with Egypt as “quite simply a victory of, and for, the Palestinian people. One can only hope that this time will be the first wall of many to fall in Palestine. It demonstrates what Palestinians can do when they act as a collective body.”
Significantly, Syracuse administration has banned calling for an intifada, tagging such a statement as a quest for violence, issuing pre-printed cards to students stating “you have been asked by a University official to remove flyer with the word ‘Intifada’ as the University deems these flyers as advocating for genocide which is harassment and a violation of University policy.” Khalil not only freely calls for Intifada, but urges that this violative language standing alone does not go far enough: “Merely calling for an intifada is not the same as planning and preparing for one.”
The University deems this statement to be a violative call for genocide, and then unleashes Prof. Khalil to inflict this harassing behavior on students while intensifying the call by urging that the genocide be accompanied by appropriate planning and preparation. The harm perpetrated on Jewish students by harassing them with this open call for not only genocide, but careful planning and preparation as well, is incalculable.
As Hamas wrested control of Gaza from its predecessor Palestinian Authority (PA), Prof. Khalil encouraged deserting the PA in favor of terror-designated Hamas, stating “in the name of all those who have sacrificed their lives for freedom and justice in Palestine, it is imperative that Palestinians act now.”
Osamah Khalil is the head of Syracuse University’s International Relations Department This is someone we trust to educate American students?
Sadly, at Syracuse University the Pro-Hamas mob includes the head of the International Relations department. Multiple Senators and Congressman have called for Syracuse University to lose federal funding due to rabid anti-semitism, and we add to those calls that SU Chancellor Kent Syverud and Board Chairman Jeffrey M. Scruggs of Goldman Sachs must review the statements and affiliations of the pro-Hamas members of their faculty and take steps to ensure that there is no faculty member who supports terrorism.
Ronn Torossian is an Israeli American entrepreneur. He is President of the Syracuse Jewish Parents Council. The Syracuse Jewish Parents Council is the umbrella organization representing 450+ Zionist families involved with Syracuse university which collectively represent billions of dollars to the SU community.