Hassan Abdel Salam is one of two founders of the Abandon Harris movement. He is also the Executive Director of the Civil Rights Alliance for America, which is the organization that is organizing and coordinating the Abandon Harris movement. While conducting academic research for almost one year on the occupation in Jerusalem in 2022, Hassan Abdel Salam publicly called for the liberation of Palestine. In December 2022, Hassan Abdel Salam was detained and tortured for 23 days by Israeli forces. For 12 days, alongside his research assistant, he engaged in a hunger strike. He has taught courses and presented on genocide, torture, displacement, refugees, and discrimination.

Hassan Abdel Salam has been teaching students how to strategize to advance human rights for ostensibly powerless vulnerable groups. Drawing on his years of teaching human rights strategy, Hassan Abdel Salam imagined and continues to imagine the Abandon Harris movement as a vehicle to end genocide.