DSA candidate interned at Hamas recruitment school in West Bank
Darializa avila Chevalier, a socialist Democratic House candidate from New york, has a controversial background involving her internship at a Hamas-linked West Bank university, An-Najah National University. During her time there in 2014, the university was flagged as a hub for Hamas recruitment and radicalization, with student activities celebrating terrorism and links to Hamas figures. Avila Chevalier taught courses at the university and participated in trips that involved teaching children and engaging in cultural exchanges funded by organizations like Columbia University and Tomorrow’s Youth institution, both of which did not respond to follow-up requests.
Following her return to America, she became an outspoken advocate for pro-Palestinian causes, co-founding a group at Columbia University called Apartheid Divest, aimed at opposing Western influence. She has made comments equating American policies and products with systems of oppression and colonial violence, previously endorsing radical positions such as abolishing police and prisons, and opining on her disdain for America by comparing it to Hamas, calling it a nuclear power that used force. She explained that her Middle East trip was formative in shaping her worldview, linking global conflicts with American oppression.
Her past social media activity included deleted posts supporting anti-police and anti-prison sentiments, as well as expressing pro-Palestinian and anti-American views. She has publicly distanced herself from Hamas support amid recent violence but previously made statements criticizing the U.S. and comparing it to terrorist groups. She won her Democratic primary with endorsements from Democratic Socialists of America and NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani and is running in November alongside other DSA-backed candidates aiming to challenge the Democratic establishment. Her background and activism have drawn important scrutiny given her connections to radical groups and her outspoken stance on American foreign and domestic policies.
New York socialist House candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier interned at a Hamas-linked West Bank school before returning to America to portray her country as evil.
Avila Chevalier taught “professional competency courses” at An-Najah National University between May 2014 and July 2014, according to her LinkedIn profile and comments to the press. International watchdog and Israeli government reports flagged An-Najah as a hub for terrorist recruitment and radicalization before and after her visit, with students staging a giant Hamas-themed graduation during her stay. Hamas had even recognized An-Najah — a public campus under the Palestinian Authority — as a “greenhouse for martyrs,” according to Anti-Defamation League translations archived in 2013.
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The socialist candidate won her Democratic primary in June with endorsements from the Democratic Socialists of America and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The 2014 internship laid the groundwork for Avila Chevalier’s induction into Mamdani and the DSA’s movement more than a decade later. She is now running in November alongside nearly a dozen DSA-backed New York candidates driving a radical upset in the Democratic Party.
An-Najah National University and Avila Chevalier’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Washington Examiner. She told City & State New York in June that her Middle East visit was “really formative” for her worldview, tying global events to supposed American oppression.
“The connections just solidified in my mind,” she told the outlet. “Oh, these are not only like systems, they are the same system. It was the same tear gas made in the USA that was being dropped on Gaza that was also being used against [Black Lives Matter] protesters in Ferguson.”
Hamas’s ‘Islamic Bloc’
An-Najah has hosted the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated “Islamic Bloc” student group for decades even after it became Hamas’s campus recruitment vehicle, according to researchers at the University of Bergen and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. In 2002, Israel identified former Islamic Bloc leader and An-Najah student Qais Adwan as a Hamas explosives expert responsible for bombings that killed at least 60 people.
Students at An-Najah created a museum-style exhibit to honor one of Adwan’s plots, which involved a suicide bomber killing 15 at a Jerusalem restaurant, according to multiple news reports. A university spokesperson dismissed the exhibit as a “student activity run by students,” but it was so controversial that late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat ordered its closure.
Israeli and PA agents also arrested several An-Najah students and faculty since at least 2010 on suspicion of terrorist activity, according to multiple reports.
In June 2014, during Avila Chevalier’s internship, dozens of An-Najah students marked their graduation celebration with large Hamas banners and flags, an Israel Defense Forces investigation found. The IDF posted photos of what it said were graduates holding up three fingers, a trendy symbol honoring Hamas for recently kidnapping three Israeli teenagers. The terrorist group later admitted to murdering the captives, which set the stage for the 2014 Israel-Hamas war.
The Virginia nonprofit Tomorrow’s Youth Organization provided Avila Chevalier’s internship with funding from Columbia University, according to her statements. Her West Bank trip also involved teaching children English in refugee camps and creating data and reports for Tomorrow’s Youth Organization, her LinkedIn resume says. Tomorrow’s Youth Organization provided its professional competency courses at An-Najah during her internship with funding from the Jordan-based nonprofit Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation.
Columbia University and Tomorrow’s Youth Organization did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment. Tomorrow’s Youth Organization “connects local university students with American interns who help empower them to articulate and begin the path towards their professional goals,” the nonprofit organization said in 2013. “This class time allows for cultural exchange between American and Palestinian youth — a privilege most people our age don’t have access to.”
Stopping American ‘colonial violence’
Avila Chevalier turbocharged her pro-Palestinian advocacy upon returning to America. She co-founded the extremist group Columbia University Apartheid Divest in 2016 as a Columbia graduate and later participated in the group’s 2024 campus encampment protest in which activists illegally occupied the campus. CUAD declared it was dedicated to the “total eradication of Western civilization” that year.
The candidate later deleted Twitter posts between 2018 and 2022 in which she endorsed abolishing prisons and police and quipped that she used the American flag as a napkin, archived webpages show. She also distanced herself from Hamas supporters earlier this month in a podcast interview, saying it was “wrong” for the terrorists to target civilians during its October 2023 massacre in Israel.
Before she deleted her old tweets, however, Avila Chevalier’s disdain for America was on full display as she compared the country to Hamas directly. “Only one is a nuclear power that’s ever used that kind of force,” she wrote in 2021.
“Not to mention the countless other forms of colonial violence that it’s enacted but you know,” she continued, adding a sarcastic smiling emoji.
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