Pro-Hamas students with sympathies for terrorists are here among us. We've already seen them flagrantly violating campus codes and common decency by expressing pro-Hamas, anti-Israel, and antisemitic beliefs at once prestigious colleges and universities. It gets worse, though, as students with ties to Hamas are also allowed to attend their graduate schools, which is just what happened at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, with the campus being a short distance from the White House and U.S. Capitol building.
According to National Review, which linked to an archived version of the Georgetown website, Mapheze Saleh is set to graduate from Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) in 2026 and lists her hometown as "Gaza, Palestine." She also goes by Mapheze Ahmad Yousef Saleh, as National Review pointed out.
As her page also reads [emphasis added]:
Mapheze, a first-year student from Gaza, earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and information at the Islamic University of Gaza, Palestine and a master’s degree in conflict analysis and peace building from the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace & Conflict Resolution at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, India. Prior to joining the MAAS program, Mapheze worked as a researcher at the Qatar Embassy in New Delhi, and has also previously served as Executive Director at Indo-Pal Foundation, an organization that advocates for Palestinian rights, and as contributing writer for the Middle East Monitor, Al Jazeera, and various Palestinian media outlets. In addition, she has worked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Gaza, which provided her with a greater understanding of regional security, particularly in relation to Palestine. Through her professional experiences, Mapheze has developed an expertise in regional and international relations with an emphasis on conflict resolution and security studies, and also solidified her commitment to public discourse and cross-cultural communication. Mapheze also has a passion for writing short stories and a keen interest in photography, art, and poetry, which she finds to be a way to enrich her understanding of contemporary cultural issues. She joined the MAAS program to engage in a stimulating intellectual environment and to interact with students, scholars, and practitioners from diverse backgrounds.
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Beyond all the mention of "Palestine," Saleh was also wrote for Al Jazeera, a propaganda outlet that has been kicked out of Israel, and has also been banned in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates for inciting terrorism. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Gaza, where Saleh has worked, is also a mouthpiece for Hamas. So when it comes to how such work "provided her with a greater understanding of regional security, particularly in relation to Palestine," it was likely only in relation to what Hamas wanted her to learn.
As a side note, if she truly wishes "to enrich her understanding of contemporary cultural issues," perhaps she should not affiliate herself with propaganda outlets and organizations affiliated with terrorists whose aim is not merely to spread antisemitic views, but also to murder Jews simply for being Jews.
It gets even more wild from there, though. National Review also uncovered how Saleh is the daughter of an advisor for Hamas. As the article also mentioned:
...She also happens to be the daughter of Ahmed Yousef, who served as a top adviser for the terrorist organization Hamas under Ismail Haniyeh’s leadership. It appears the apple didn’t fall far from the tree — Mapheze herself has worked with entities connected with the designated terrorist organization.
...
...Since its violent takeover of the territory in 2007, Hamas has exercised de facto control over Gaza and established a “government” by force. Mapheze’s father Ahmed Yousef served in that Haniyeh-led organization, in a role variably described as “an adviser to Hamas’s Foreign Ministry,” a “senior adviser to the Hamas Foreign Ministry,” “foreign ministry director-general in Gaza’s Hamas government,” or “top political advisor to Haniyeh in the Hamas foreign ministry.”
In Arabic-language media that has been reviewed by our translation team, Mapheze — whose name is sometimes transliterated differently — has been open about her own role with the Hamas government. She served with the Hamas government’s Committee to Break the Siege in Gaza, which happened to be chaired by her father.
Her familial relationship with a Hamas figure is also out in the open. An article from the Hindustan Times, posted on her own Facebook profile, refers to “Maphaz, whose father, Ahmed Yousef, was a senior political advisor to the Hamas leadership.” Her Instagram content indicates a close relationship with her terror-tied father, too.
Like her father, who has co-written books such as The End of the Jewish State: Just a Matter of Time, Mapheze has expressed her opposition to Israel. Since the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023, her social-media profiles have glorified Hamas and its acts of terror while belittling the experience of Israeli civilians held hostage.
Since the October 7 attack, Mapheze repeatedly expressed support for the terror attack and glorified those who carried out the atrocities.
Among her posts was a propaganda video that claimed Hamas was forced to carry out the attack because Israel is supposedly a “fascist occupation state,” Israel has “judized [sic] their Quds” (an apparent attempt at claiming Jews have “Judaized” Jerusalem), and Jews are trying to build “their alleged temple on the ruins of Al-Aqsa.”
In later months, her social media profiles were replete with tributes to Hamas terrorists such as Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Deif (considered a mastermind of the October 7 massacre), and more recently, several other senior Hamas and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade terrorists who had been eliminated by Israel during the war.
The article includes a screenshot of an Instagram post glorifying how Hamas terrorists used paragliders to kill concert goers at a musical festival on the morning of October 7. Her Instagram account is adorned with plenty of Palestinian flags, including in the days after the attack.
Saleh has also voiced anti-American sentiments, despite attending a university in our nation's capital. "Mapheze has also expressed hatred for the United States, declaring: 'America is the plague,'" National Review mentions.
This doesn't bode too well for the university, which National Review notes did not respond:
There are also concerns as to how much Georgetown University knew about these potential violations and the risk the situation posed to other students, particularly Georgetown’s Jewish community, given Hamas’s openly antisemitic charter. When asked about its knowledge of Mapheze’s work in Gaza, Georgetown University provided no response. However, within hours of CAMERA’s inquiry, Mapheze’s profile, which acknowledged her “work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Gaza,” disappeared from the university’s website. Likewise, Mapheze did not respond to a request for comment.
This is hardly the only recent news involving Georgetown and Hamas. According to Fox News, Georgetown Law Students for Justice in Palestine had organized an event for February 11 that featured Ribhi Karajah on "Palestinian prisoners."
Karajah, a U.S. citizen and a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was involved in an August 2019 roadside bombing that killed a young Israeli, 17-year-old Rina Shnerb and seriously injured her father and brother. PFLP has been a U.S.-designated terrorist organization since October 8, 1997, over 20 years before the attack involving Karajah. The event has merely been postponed, though there is pressure for the university to cancel.
These scandals stand in strong contrast to a statement that the university put out on October 8, 2023 involving the attack that Hamas launched on Israel the day before that expressed support for the Jewish community.
Such a piece exposing Saleh comes weeks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that could see pro-Hamas students deported, with the move even applauded by Democrats in Congress.
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