EXCLUSIVE: UW Gaza camp ringleader identified as former Seattle Times columnist Aziz Junejo

The identity of one of the ring leaders inside The University of Washington's Gaza camp has been revealed to be Aziz Junejo, a former Seattle Times columnist and current columnist with the Mukilteo Beacon.

Junejo has been in charge of directing black bloc Antifa militants and other activists to defend the camp using military-style tactics. He also relays information to the activists about any potential "threats" to the camp, such as the presence of Jews and Christians.

On Sunday, The Post Millennial captured Junejo on video holding a meeting with a large group of anti-Israel activists inside the camp near the west barricade on the Quad.

He used a megaphone to inform them about a pro-Israel march approaching the camp and instructed his activists to "hold the line." 

(Pictured: Aziz Junejo, center. Courtesy: @AnatoliaFergus on X)

The University of Washington also supplied metal barriers and police presence to keep the factions separate, though the Gaza camp militants commandeered the barriers for their own use.

During the counter-protest, black bloc Antifa militants surrounded the Gaza camp and positioned themselves behind the metal barriers. They were armed with improvised shields and weapons and used umbrellas and flashlights to keep journalists and photographers from documenting what was going on within the camp.

“They’re almost done with the program…They’re coming!” Junejo told the group, regarding the counter-protest of Christians and Jews marching for Israel. The counter-protest had intended to walk through the camp, but were unable to do so due to police and school-provided barricades.

“Hold the line!” Junejo demanded, an order which was met with a rallying cry from the activists.

Junejo is one of many outside activists who have taken up residence in the University of Washington's Gaza camp, formed on the quad nearly three weeks ago. The Gaza camp is not run by students, but by outside activists and militants. 

Junejo is a prominent member of the Muslim community in western Washington. He immigrated to the area from Pakistan in 1962 after his father took an engineering job with Boeing, according to a 2002 article from the AP.

One of the demands of the Gaza camp activists is for the University of Washington to divest from Boeing, an ask which university officials have rejected.

While at The Seattle Times as a freelancer from 2005-2014, Junejo worked as a columnist for the now-disbanded “Faith and Values” section. He centered his work around Islam in America while offering a Muslim perspective on societal issues.

(Courtesy: @AnatoliaFergus on X)

Despite leading a group of far-left extremists and ordering them to block Jews and Christians from entering the Gaza camp, Junejo wrote in his exit piece: “My thanks to The Seattle Times and its readers for allowing a Muslim’s perspective. I promoted peace and condemned terrorism in all its forms.”

“When we open our minds to learn about our fellow citizens’ faiths and beliefs, we become better Americans,” he added.

Furthermore, Junejo, who was a former host of a cable access talk show called “Focus on Islam,” praised President Biden in 2021 after he reversed former President Donald Trump’s travel ban on terror-inflicted countries in the Middle East.

Junejo also fought back against the Mukilteo community, just north of Seattle, after community members voiced extreme opposition to plans of a Mosque being built in the neighborhood. His pushback was effective and the Islamic Center of Mukilteo was established.

Although his biography on X, formerly known as Twitter, lists himself as a columnist for the Seattle Times and the Mukilteo Beacon, the Times confirmed to the Post Millennial that he was a freelance columnist for the paper between 2005 and 2014 and has not written for the publication since.

However, he appears to still contribute to the Mukilteo Beacon, with his most recent item published five months ago.

Junejo is not the only adult leading the charge inside the camp.

University administrators were seen negotiating with one of the encampment activists, identified as 39-year-old Michael Moynihan, who has been charged for blockading the I-5 freeway in downtown Seattle in January for over 6 hours to support Hamas.

A prominent local anarchist communist, an elderly man named Robert Mast, has also been photographed inside the encampment, including whispering to a group of black bloc Antifa militants.

Since the Gaza camp was erected, Jews on campus have been blocked from walking and harassed, Israeli flags have been stolen and destroyed, antisemitic slurs were used against Jewish students, buildings were vandalized with antisemitic and anti-cop graffiti, and vigils and rallies were held for terrorists.

Journalists have also been assaulted and had their video cameras spray painted while one Jewish student was threatened by masked hammer-wielding men who were yelling at them in Arabic.

The Post Millennial reached out to the Mukilteo Beacon and the University of Washington for comment.