Friday, February 24, 2017
Elder of Ziyon
Joseph Mikarov tirelessly exposes the antisemitism and hate from Israel haters and BDSers on Twitter. I asked him to write something for EoZ and his response is a tour de force:
Much has been written about the BDS movement and its anti-Israel activities. The individual leaders of this movement should be watched closely. This article aims to re-introduce the reader to one of the more prominent BDS organizers and activists in the United States. In addition, I will also detail the upcoming anti-Israel hate fest he and his organization are planning in Washington D.C. next month on March 26, protesting the annual AIPAC Policy Conference, and, of course, promoting their Free Palestine agenda.
The activist to whom I refer is Abbas “Falasteen” Hamideh. This isn’t the first article written about Hamideh and it certainly won’t be the last. Abbas Hamideh is the co-founder of Al-Awda [The Palestinian Right to Return Coalition], an extremist organization which, simply put, is against the State of Israel’s right to exist. Many, including myself, concur that the organization is rife with anti-Semitic bigots.
Hamideh and his followers don’t hide their aspirations to delete Israel, nor do they make any apologies for their extremist views. On his Twitter profile Hamideh reminds us that he “doesn’t compromise on one inch of Palestinian land” – from Cleveland – where he lives and leads a comfortable life. But to his credit, he loves Jews. “Real Jews” that is. The ones who attend Holocaust denial conferences in Iran and protest against Zionists together with anti-Semites. Another “Real Jew”, who happens to be Hamideh’s favorite Jew, is convicted criminal and staunch Hamas supporter, US attorney Stanley Cohen. Hamideh, however has difficulty hiding his anti-Semitism. He frequently describes Jews as “Shlomos”, a derogatory and anti-Semitic term. Hamidehs “love” for the United States of America is also questionable. In a video filmed on the streets in Cleveland, Hamideh promotes racism and ethnic cleansing by shouting “This is not your country. Go back to Europe.” It’s very similar to what he tells Jews in Israel, “Go back to Poland, Russia, or even Morocco”.
Over the years, Hamideh has organized countless BDS rallies in an attempt to indoctrinate young students to his extremist ideology. The mere fact that certain colleges and universities in the United States allow Hamideh to speak and spew his anti-Israel rhetoric is mind-boggling. For example, in 2015, the University of Maryland allowed SJP [Students for Justice in Palestine – a campus proxy for BDS] to host an event where Hamideh was invited to speak. The invite stated, “We are honored to host Palestinian activist Abbas Hamideh as our guest speaker”. The New York School of Law also invited Al-Awda for a poetry evening. Notice that the Muslim American Society also sponsored the event. More on this organization and ties to terrorism can be found here.
Yet another example is an invite to Oberlin College. The video presented by Hamideh during the visit was narrated by his friend Tariq Shadid, aka “Doc Jazz”, who frequently demonizes Israel .
A further instance is when Hamideh teamed up with “anti-Zionist” Anna Baltzer on a divestment campaign on behalf of BDS.
Yet another example is an invite to Oberlin College. The video presented by Hamideh during the visit was narrated by his friend Tariq Shadid, aka “Doc Jazz”, who frequently demonizes Israel .
A further instance is when Hamideh teamed up with “anti-Zionist” Anna Baltzer on a divestment campaign on behalf of BDS.
It’s also important to note that Hamideh is a proud supporter of the Islamic terrorist organizations Hezbollah and Hamas. The same Hezbollah that organizes rallies and where chants of “Death to America” are heard. Hamideh regularly praises Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, even describing him as the “most honorable Arab-Muslim leader of our time”. No wonder he was questioned by the FBI.
Hamideh is an enthusiastic supporter of Iran as well, and continuously implies that Iran should wipe Israel off the map. His praise of Islamic terrorist organizations has been well-documented by many – here , here , and here – and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Regarding Hezbollah, it’s important to note that the group is a listed terrorist organization in the United States. That same list includes Hamas, which Hamideh proudly and openly supports as well. In fact, the new “leader” of Hamas is on a U.S. Specially Designated [Terrorist] Nationals list. Others on the list include ISIS, Al-Qaeda, PFLP, Boko Haram, and many more.
As for Hamas, Hamideh doesn’t hide his support for the radical Islamic death cult nor for the terrorists walking into restaurants in Tel-Aviv and shooting children. He actually takes it a step further and mocks the victims. Hamidehs close assistant, treasurer of Al-Awda Anas Amireh makes no effort to hide his support for terrorists either. Here is an example of Amireh promoting shooting and ramming cars into Jews. Amireh posted this 3 weeks after a Palestinian terrorist rammed his car into three month old Chaya Braun murdering her in her carriage in Jerusalem. Chaya was an American citizen.
Al-Awda was once a popular anti-Israel [many would say anti-Semitic] 501(c)3 non-profit tax-exempt organization . However, looking at the 2014 990 form, it would seem that the organization has been losing popularity, since total grants and membership fees have declined from $220,844 in 2010 to $79,054 in 2014. My assessment is that rabid elements of anti-Semitism have steadily been creeping into mainstream BDS and pro-Palestinian organizations, forcing more moderate activists and organizations to disconnect.
In the past, Hamideh would organize Al-Awda conventions while inviting Hamas supporters and BDS activists such as Ali Abunimah, Rania Khalek, Remi Kanazi, Lamis Deek and others. Naturally, they would also discuss BDS strategies “For the Return”. As of late, there have not been any Al-Awda conventions scheduled – likely due to the fact that funds are low because of the extreme direction which Hamideh and company have taken. Mainstream pro-BDS activists can’t afford to be associated with activists like Hamideh for fear of losing funding from government-backed NGO’s, as well as support from liberal Jewish organizations.
One example of loss of support is the apparent fallout between Hamideh and Linda Sarsour – director of the Brooklyn-based Arab American Association of New York [AAANY]. We all remember Linda Sarsour as one of the main organizers of the recent Women’s March. Since then Linda has been exposed as a fraud, following a series of tweets which surfaced. Much has been written about Sarsour over the years, including concerns about her pro-Sharia stance and terrorist ties to Hamas. At around the time Sarsour started campaigning for Bernie Sanders, the two refrained from communicating on social media as well as not meeting at random BDS events. Prior to this period, Hamideh and Sarsour were in constant contact as seen here, here, and here – even joking about ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel.
I was highly concerned that the Sanders campaign was dealing with a close associate of Hamideh and so I started to ask questions. I wrote to a few newspapers, online publications, and elected officials. Since then it appears that the disconnect has intensified – probably due to the fact that Sarsour wanted to further distance herself from Hamideh for fear that it would be exposed nationally. Perhaps it had to do with videos I posted exposing Hamideh, or maybe it was because information was leaked that a possible NY Post article on the subject may have been in the works. One of the videos posted included Hamideh leading a BDS rally in Cleveland while encouraging the chant “Khaybar Khaybar ya yahood" – basically a call to slaughter Jews. The origin refers to the battle in the city of Khaybar [town in Saudi Arabia] where Mohammed led an army to slaughter Jews. Whatever the reasons, Sarsour obviously led the disconnect and Hamideh has since fired back at Sarsour on social media.
Hamideh is now organizing his “SupportPalestineinDC” hate fest, due to take place on Sunday March 26th. The rally is being held to “support Palestine and protest AIPAC simultaneously”. BDS will be a major focal point at this event, with guests like pro-Assad, Hamas, and Hezbollah supporter Rania Khalek due to speak.
Last year, the event attracted extremely bizarre groups and individuals. One of these unhinged anti-Semites is “Brother Nathanael”, founder of “Real Jew News”, who is a guest columnist for anti-Semitic websites such as Rense and Smoloko. Others included the Westboro Baptist Church, who showed up yelling homophobic slurs and blaming catastrophes and disasters on homosexuals and Jews. Hamas supporter Max Blumenthal also showed up and chased Rabbi Shmuley Boteach down the street yelling and screaming. Abby Martin [to whom I refer as “the bastion of journalistic integrity”] was also there, showing us how professional “journalists” conduct themselves. Last but not least, let’s not forget “Code Pink”, which classifies itself as a “feminist organization” yet supports the Iranian Ayatollahs.
One especially bizarre addition to this year’s event is a gentleman known as James “Jimmy” Fry. In all honestly, he is a small-time anti-Semite who, according to his Facebook page, is a “Teacher and advocate for the people of Virginia Beach” and a “Counter PSYOPS expert”. Apparently, he also ran for the Virginia Beach school board and claimed to be a substitute teacher. Hamideh has recently befriended Fry and their friendship is well-documented on social media. As of late, Fry has expressed extremely vile anti-Semitic views with tweets that mock and belittle the Holocaust. In addition, his Facebook page includes videos of himself ranting about “Dirty F------ Jews”. Another example is Fry joking about certain people making “good lampshades”, an obvious reference to the claim that Nazis made lampshades using the skin of Jews. After I exposed all of this numerous times on social media, Hamideh seemed to have ceased engagement with Fry.
I’m bringing up James Fry, but not because he’s an intellectual who could potentially be dangerous. He truly is an insignificant, classic small-time anti-Semite – who, in most cases, we would completely ignore. However, my purpose in mentioning him is to provide the readers with an understanding of how the link between the James Frys of the world and the global BDS movement is becoming stronger and more apparent over time. We are witness to far too many examples of rabid anti-Semitism within BDS, such as those documented here, here, and here.
Just recently a story received attention concerning a Muslim Texas teacher, Nancy Salem. Salem was exposed on social media for her open anti-Semitism. In one instance, Salem told her daughter before a recent trip to Israel to “Kiss the Palestine ground for me and kill some Jews”. Another incident depicts Nancy joking about “gassing Jews” and that “not enough died”. In case you were wondering, yes, Nancy was a BDS activist at UTA University of Texas, Arlington, associated with the local SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) chapter.
This is essentially the direction in which BDS has been heading for several years, since all the groups and individuals mentioned above have one common enemy – Israel, and to a growing extent, Jews. Further evidence is the Electronic Intifada, which is the leading BDS and pro-Hamas publication in the United States. It has not condemned these actions. Recently, in a pathetic attempt to win over liberal anti-Trump Jews, their extremist founder and editor Ali Abunimah, who proudly coined the term “Defense Force” for Hamas, has expressed “outrage” [in one tweet] at an anti-Semitic attack in St. Louis. Sadly, this “outrage” is clearly a sham. Anyone “outraged” by anti-Semitism can’t be a supporter of Hamas nor would they retweet Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan who claimed, “Jews mix blood of Christians in their holy matzoh”.
All in all, if last year’s rally led by Abbas Hamideh in DC was any indication of what’s to come next month, we will witness a gathering of anti-Semitic, anti-American [West], homophobic, terrorist supporting bigots who are not interested in peace nor human rights.
