Thea Abu El-Haj is an associate professor at Barnard College, Columbia University, in the field of education. A Palestinian-American academic, she received her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and has previously taught at Rutgers University. Her research centers on Arab and Muslim immigrant communities in the United States, focusing particularly on Palestinian identity, nationalism, and resistance.
Thea Abu El-Haj’s Actions and Endorsements
Promoting the BDS Movement
In 2016, Abu El-Haj co-authored a piece with Fida Adely advocating for the American Anthropological Association to boycott Israeli academic institutions. Their article accused Israel of “systematic deprivation” of Palestinian education, while linking to sources that referenced Hamas propaganda as academic material.
Whitewashing Terror-Affiliated Campuses
In the same article, Abu El-Haj cited Israeli raids on campuses like Al-Quds and Arab American University in Jenin as unjustifiable attacks on education. In each case, the raids were targeting Hamas-aligned student groups distributing terror propaganda.
Distorting Israeli Security Measures
Abu El-Haj’s public writings and lectures repeatedly frame Israeli self-defense as aggressive militarism while omitting the context of rocket fire, tunnel warfare, and hostage-taking by groups like Hamas.
Supporting Radicalized Narratives
She has been a vocal proponent of the Birzeit University “Right to Education” campaign—a tour known for elevating students who promote antisemitic conspiracy theories and justify violence as resistance.
Selective Scholarship as a Political Tool
Books & Essays
- Unsettled Belonging (2015): A book centered on Palestinian-American youth post-9/11 that casts America and Israel as joint oppressors.
- “I Was Born Here, but My Home, It’s Not Here” (2007): A paper that questions U.S. belonging and paints Palestinian-Americans as marginalized by design.
Blog Contributions
- Savage Minds and Jadaliyya: Abu El-Haj has contributed to both publications—known for their anti-Israel editorial line—where she amplifies claims of Israeli apartheid and scholasticide while never acknowledging terrorism.
Threat to Campus Environment
By consistently endorsing only one side of a deeply complex conflict, Thea Abu El-Haj has helped normalize the demonization of Israel and Zionism in elite academic spaces. Her promotion of groups linked to terrorism, and her refusal to engage with the realities of Hamas’s role in Palestinian life, presents a biased narrative that discourages open inquiry and creates an unsafe learning space for Jewish and Israeli students.
Her Radical Impact on Campus
Thea Abu El-Haj’s activism goes far beyond scholarship. She exploits her academic credibility to validate radical anti-Israel narratives and legitimize the BDS movement—while ignoring the clear evidence of terror group influence on Palestinian campuses. Her presence in academia symbolizes the shift from educational integrity to ideological warfare, where complexity is erased and extremism is endorsed.
