Short answer: No. As of August 2026, Issa Amro does not support Israel or its policies. He is a Palestinian activist from Hebron who has spent roughly two decades organizing nonviolent resistance to Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank and describes Israel's rule there as apartheid. Notably, he is also an outspoken critic of Hamas and the October 7, 2023 attack, so his position is anti-occupation, not pro-Hamas.
What Issa Amro has actually said and done
- 2007 (with roots in his early-2000s Hebron activism): Amro founded Youth Against Settlements (YAS), a Hebron-based group that uses nonviolent civic action, documentation, and organized tours to oppose Israeli settlement expansion, according to Wikipedia and the Right Livelihood Foundation's laureate profile.
- November 2022: Israeli forces detained Amro days after he documented and published video of Israeli soldiers attacking an Israeli activist during a solidarity visit to Hebron. UN human rights experts publicly condemned his treatment, per the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR).
- October 2023: Amro was detained by Israeli soldiers and later evicted from his Hebron home by the Israeli military that same month, according to the Washington Times. Around the same period he stated publicly that he opposed Hamas's October 7 attack and the taking of Israeli hostages, saying most Palestinians were against it and that he "cried in the face of Hamas's attack," as reported by DAWN.
- October 3, 2024: Amro and Youth Against Settlements were named 2024 Right Livelihood Award laureates, with the presentation ceremony held in Stockholm that December, cited for "steadfast non-violent resistance to Israel's illegal occupation, promoting Palestinian civic action through peaceful means," according to the Right Livelihood Foundation and confirmed by Democracy Now.
- February 2025 and 2025 (Time100 Next): Norwegian MP Ingrid Fiskaa nominated Amro for the Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Israeli activist Jeff Halper, as announced by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), and was also named to Time magazine's Time100 Next list for 2025. Neither recognition came from an Israeli institution; both cited his nonviolent anti-occupation activism.
- May 2025: Following his appearance in the BBC/Louis Theroux documentary "The Settlers," Amro's home was raided and he reported a wave of harassment, which he said he believed targeted him for spotlighting settler violence and the occupation on camera, according to Al Jazeera and Haaretz.
- April 26, 2026: An Israeli settler was filmed throwing rocks at and attempting to break into Amro's Hebron home while an Israeli soldier looked on. The settler was briefly detained, then released, according to Al Jazeera.
The bigger picture
Issa Amro is a Palestinian human rights activist based in Hebron, one of the most contested cities in the West Bank because of its small Israeli settler enclave inside a Palestinian-majority city. For about two decades he has used nonviolent tactics, documentation, civil disobedience, organized tours, and community defense, to resist Israeli settlement expansion there. He describes Israel's system of control over Palestinians in the West Bank as apartheid, has said on record that "criticising Israel is not antisemitism" and that "exposing apartheid is not antisemitism," and has called for economic pressure on Israeli policy in remarks to American labor audiences.
He has been arrested and detained multiple times by Israeli forces over the years, with documented instances in 2016, 2019, 2022, and around October 2023, and organizations including Front Line Defenders and UN human rights experts have raised concerns about his treatment. Separately, he has also clashed with the Palestinian Authority, having been detained by PA security forces at least once over his criticism of PA governance, underscoring that his activism targets the occupation broadly rather than favoring any single Palestinian faction.
He is explicitly not a Hamas supporter. Multiple outlets report he condemned the October 7, 2023 attack and the taking of hostages. His international recognition, the Right Livelihood Award in 2024, the Time100 Next listing, and a Nobel Peace Prize nomination, has come from human rights and peace organizations for his nonviolent-resistance work, not from any Israeli institution or in connection with support for Israeli policy. There is no record of Amro expressing support for Israel, participating in pro-Israel events, or declining to criticize Israel.
The bottom line
Issa Amro does not support Israel. He is a lifelong Palestinian nonviolent-resistance activist and vocal critic of the Israeli occupation, which he calls apartheid, and there is no record of him supporting Israeli policy or collaborating with Israeli institutions in a supportive capacity. He is also on record opposing Hamas and the October 7 attack, so his stance is anti-occupation rather than aligned with any armed faction.
Wear where you stand
Figures like Amro make it clear that public stances on Israel run the full spectrum, which is exactly why so many people choose to say plainly where they stand. If you want to do that every day, our Support Israel collection has pieces built for it, including the I Stand With Israel bracelet, a simple, wearable way to show your support.
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Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
