After livestreaming for about 23 minutes on YouTube on Wednesday, a roundtable conversation from San Francisco State University featuring Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled was suddenly disconnected.
"This video has been removed for violating YouTube's Terms of Service," a message said on the page.
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The livestream had at least 900 viewers when it was abruptly shut down, going dark when an old video of Khaled was being shown in which she defended her former activities.
On Tuesday, the day before the event, online video communication platform Zoom announced that Khaled's participation would violate company policy and that it would not allow its platform to be used as the host. Zoom disabled the registration link, and Facebook, which initially said it would host the online event, also disabled the link on Wednesday morning, leaving organizers scrambling to find a new platform.
The Sept. 23 event, titled, Whose Narratives? Gender, Justice, & Resistance: A conversation with Leila Khaled, was organized by San Francisco State University's Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies (AMED). It was hosted by SFSU professors Rabab Abdulhadi, who has a history of anti-Israel activism, and Tomomi Kinukawa.
Khaled played a critical role in two airplane hijackings as a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a US-designated terrorist organization.
She was one of the hijackers on TWA Flight 840 from Rome to Tel Aviv in 1969 and on El Al Flight 219 in 1970 from Amsterdam to New York City. She was released in both cases.
In 2017, she was barred entry to Italy.
"People have the right to fight those who occupy their land by any means possible, including weapons," Khaled said in the video right before the feed stopped.
Nearly 90 Jewish and pro-Israel groups expressed outrage and concern about the event to SFSU president Lynn Mahoney, who repeatedly defended the event by invoking freedom of expression.
The Lawfare Project, an NGO that defends human rights on behalf of Jewish and pro-Israel communities around the world, had complained to Zoom that Khaled is affiliated with the PFLP.
"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," the company said in response to the Lawfare Project complaint.
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