Who is Tara Tarawneh? UPenn student sparks outrage by calling Hamas attacks 'glorious' in viral video 

University of Pennsylvania student Tara Tarawneh has garnered immense backlash across social media platforms after glorifying Hamas’ attack on Israel. Recently, the graduate described October 7 as “glorious, joyful, and powerful” during a demonstration. She continued to applaud the armed organization which left internet users disgusted.

Trigger Warning: The following article contains antisemitic sentiments. Reader's discretion is advised.

The Philly Palestine Coalition recently marched against the Gaza assault. Tara Tarawneh gave a concerning speech during the same. While referring to Hamas as “freedom fighters” she said in the protest that was live-streamed:

“Do you guys remember the photo of the kids and men laughing and smiling as they sat on top of the Israeli military jeep captured by our freedom fighters? Do you remember that picture? How about the picture of the bulldozer breaking through the border? Do you remember that picture? And the several other joyful and powerful images of which came from the glorious October 7. I want you to picture those in your mind. I want you all to remember how you felt when you saw those images and heard the news.”

Tarawneh went on to say that she felt “so empowered and happy” and “confident” when she heard of the attack on Israel.

Popular conservative social media page Libs of TikTok took to X to upload a video of the livestream. At the time of writing this article, the video had amassed over 2.3 million views.

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“Humanitarian, turned out to be… a violent, dark savage”: Tara Tarawneh is a human rights activist

Gil Kerbs' LinkedIn post. (Image via LinkedIn @Gil Kerbs)

Gil Kerbs, a UPenn alum and the founder of Newt, took to LinkedIn to put Tara Tarawneh on blast. He revealed that the latter studied at King’s Academy in Madaba, Jordan in 2020. She went on to become a student at the prestigious university where she studied English literature and art.

Tarawneh also has her own blog titled Artmejo where she has revealed that she is “deeply passionate about creating art and art history.”

According to Kerbs, Tarawneh is a passionate human rights activist who has written letters in support of Palestine in the past. According to her blog, she has worked with the publications- News Decoder and Taleed.

UPenn graduate comes under fire for antisemitic speech (Image via DonnaV82101841/X)

Speaking about her recent actions, Kerbs said,

“the great humanitarian, turned out to be… a violent, dark savage.”

At the time of writing this article, Tarawneh had made her Artmejo Instagram account private.

Nonetheless, netizens took to the internet to slam the activist.

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“Needs to be added to watchlist”: Netizens put Tara Tarawneh on blast following demonstration speech

X users were flabbergasted by the video. Many demanded the graduate educate herself about what is currently taking place in Gaza. Others went on to denounce UPenn for seemingly condoning such antisemitic sentiments. A few comments online read:

Netizens react to the viral video (Image via libsoftiktok/X)

Netizens react to the viral video (Image via libsoftiktok/X)

Netizens react to the viral video (Image via libsoftiktok/X)

Netizens react to the viral video (Image via libesoftiktok/X)

At the time of writing this article, neither the university nor Tara Tarawneh had addressed the controversial video.