Texas Congresswoman demands UT Austin lawyer's removal over podcast linked to group which praised Oct. 7 terror attack: Exclusive

A Texas Congresswoman is demanding that the University of Texas at Austin remove an attorney from its law school over her affiliation with a podcast that partners with an organization that promotes terrorism and praised the Oct. 7 attack in Israel.

Rhiannon Hamam, supervising attorney at the UT-Austin School of Law Ginni Mithoff Program was one of 57 people who were arrested during anti-Israel protests at the University of Texas at Austin in late April. All charges were dropped by the Travis County attorney’s office, according to the Texas Tribune. All protesters were initially charged with criminal trespass.Booking picture for Rhiannon Hamam.

Hamam is still listed as an employee of the Ginni Mithoff Program. The Ginni Mithoff Program exists to help students “engage in pro bono work to increase access to justice, build their lawyering skills, and develop a lifetime commitment to providing legal services to those in need.”

Hamam co-hosts the Popular Cradle Podcast, which is made in partnership with the Palestinian Youth Movement.

[RELATED: UT-Austin lawyer co-hosts podcast made in partnership with group that promotes terrorism and praised Oct. 7 attack]

According to data collected by NGO Monitor, the Palestinian Youth Movement has a history of promoting terrorism.

Following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, the Palestinian Youth Movement proudly took to Facebook and wrote “PALESTINE LIVES! THE RESISTANCE LIVES!”

”In the past several hours, the resistance in Gaza stormed the illegitimate border fence, reentering 1948 Palestine for the first time in many of our lives,” the group wrote. “With these developments come new equations in the Palestinian struggle, and a shifting of the ground beneath our feet, the reverberations of which we can only begin to imagine. Gaza, the cradle of our resistance and the lifeblood of our struggle, is pushing us closer to the hour of liberation than ever before.”

In an exclusive comment to Campus Reform, Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) said Hamam’s actions are “abhorrent.”

”Just as I condemned the antisemitic words and actions of faculty at Cornell University, my alma mater, so too do I condemn Rhiannon Hamam’s bloodthirsty ideology and support of terrorism,” Van Duyne said. “The actions and abhorrent nature of faculty such as Hamam are one more reason why many in Congress continue to pursue avenues to restrict or remove federal funding from universities who shield and tolerate these barbarians on campus.”

Van Duyne said Hamam’s social media posts, which include “Glory to our martyrs,” should prevent the lawyer from being employed at UT Austin’s law school.

”Such a statement glorifying the mass slaughter of innocent Jewish civilians, including babies who were cooked in ovens, Holocaust survivors gunned down in cold blood, and the use of horrifically violent rape as a weapon of war must absolutely disqualify Hamam from holding a position within such a prestigious and well respected school of law,” Van Duyne said.

”I trust the University of Texas will properly investigate and take appropriate action to remove Rhiannon Hamam from the Law School faculty.  I have this faith because of the responsible, direct, and decisive actions taken by the University of Texas and President Jay Hartzell to prevent violent antisemitic campus occupation, vandalism, and destruction of property like we saw at other universities across the country,” Van Duyne added. “President Hartzell and university leadership are to be commended for how they patiently and professionally dealt with the campus agitators, including Rhiannon Hamam, when students and campus tranquility were threatened on the Forty Acres.”

Following her arrest, Hamam wrote on X: “I was in jail with some baddies. Free them all. Free Palestine.”

On Oct. 11, just days after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel, Hamam wrote on X: “We advance our struggle.”

[RELATED: Meet the UT-Austin lawyer arrested at Hamas-endorsed protest, who wrote ‘We advance our struggle’ after Oct. 7 attack]

”The oppressed and colonized are always maligned, always made out to be savages, always erased, dehumanized, never enjoy support from powerful or wealthy or colonial interests. It is part of being colonized. Palestine lives regardless and in spite of. We advance our struggle,” Hamam wrote.

”There is absolutely no playbook for how to deal with witnessing this. I feel completely at a loss - but then I remember act act act move move move speak speak speak - it’s going to take so much - and it’ll be so worth it. Imagine Palestine after liberation!” Hamam wrote on Oct. 27, 2023.

On Nov. 16, 2023, Hamam also posted to X “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Hamam also wrote “Glory to our martyrs” on Dec. 7, 2023.

Glory to our martyrs. Nothing in my life has made me yearn for the existence of heavenly paradise and an unceasingly painful hell like the past two months.

— Rhiannon (@AywaRhiannon) December 7, 2023

Campus Reform reached out to UT Austin for comment.