Abraham Assi

Overview

Abraham Assi [Abraham M. Assi] spread hatred of Israel as the founder and first president of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Texas Arlington (UT Arlington). Assi founded SJP at UT Arlington in August 2014.

In May 2016, Assi was listed as the Primary Contact person on SJP UT Arlington’s mavorgs.collegiatelink.net page.

As of January 2021, Assi’s LinkedIn page said he graduated from UT Arlington in 2018 with a master’s degree in Business Administration and Management. Assi also received a bachelor’s degree in Operations Management and Supervision from UT Arlington, in 2015.

Assi’s LinkedIn page also said that he worked as a Cyber Security Consultant at Fidelity Investments, from “Aug 2020 - Present.”

As of January 2021, Assi’s Facebook page said he lived in Fort Worth, Texas.

Spreading Hatred of Israel

On January 6, 2015, Assi wrote on Facebook: “Any type of rationale made to defend the slaughtering of thousands of innocent Palestinian lives by the state of Israel is just a continuation of propaganda made to keep the majority ignorant.”

Assi added: “Israels main objectives are resources, power, and the continual demolition of the Palestinian culture. No matter, to say you support Israel as it stands now is to say you support injustice and hate.”

On September 4, 2014, Assi led a “March for Palestine,” to protest Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE). The march was co-organized by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UT Arlington with Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at UT Arlington.

Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

Assi reportedly said: “I was raised on a lot of war stories, so I have a first account viewpoint on the injustice being done to the Palestinian people,” and that “These injustices include the separation of Palestinian people from the Israeli people, the Israeli military occupation since 1967, genocide in Gaza and denial of basic human rights…”

Protesters marched chanting [00:16:09]: “No more war crimes! No more Apartheid! No more genocide! Free, free Palestine!”

Reverend Craig Hunter, of Denton, Ohio’s Trinity Presbyterian Church, spoke at the march. Hunter accused [00:08:33] Israel of “state terrorism.” Hunter also claimed [00:10:37] that “the root problem is Zionism” and equated Israel to Apartheid South Africa.

At the conclusion of the march, Jenny Nguyen, then-president of SDS at UT Arlington, promoted [00:19:17] the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. Nguyen urged students to start a divestment campaign at UT Arlington and invoked PFLP terrorist Leila Khaled as a role model, mentioning [00:20:43] “that airline hijacking thing.”

Khaled is a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970. As of 2017, Khaled was a member of PFLP's Political Bureau.

Khaled has said that the second intifada failed because it was not violent enough, advocated for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.

The PFLP claimed credit for the 2014 Har Nof Massacre where six people were murdered during morning prayers in a Jerusalem synagogue. The PFLP also claimed credit for the 2001 assassination of the Israeli tourism minister.

Anti-Semitism at UT Arlington

In February 2017, Canary Mission first investigated UT Arlington students and discovered social media postings replete with hatred of Jews, praise for Hitler, threats of violence against Jews and calls for another Holocaust.

Anti-Semitic postings came from members of student activist groups, such as UT Arlington’s SJP and MSA chapters, and from UT Arlington students who had no official group affiliation. Examples of such social media posts are set forth below.

SJP and MSA UT Arlington - Anti-Jewish Social Media Posts

On July 2, 2014, Heba Asi, an SJP and MSA UT Arlington activist, tweeted: “It's not the Israeli soldier that are doing all the kidnapping it's the rabis [sic] and the Jews in pig tails lol.”

Asi then added: “@heyitstam_ yeah. Lol but I call them Abraham Lincoln with pigs tails on their heads lol.”

Asi continued: “@heyitstam_ haha I can't deal with how ugly they are

”

Asi concluded with: “@heyitstam_ I hope they all burn in hell.”

On July 26, 2014, Ismail Said Aboukar, an SJP and MSA UT Arlington activist, tweeted: “@CullenCody all the major corporations that run the US are owned by Jewish people. How do you not know this?”

On January 2, 2014, Aboukartweeted: “Jewish people are a**.”

On January 1, 2014, Aboukar tweeted: “im pretty sure jews have always been hated by everyone ever.

On February 26, 2013, Aboukar tweeted: “#LiesToldInSchool the holocaust.”

SJP and MSA UT Arlington - Supporting Terror Organizations

On July 31, 2014, Dana Amar, the 2016 SJP UT Arlington vice president, tweeted: “Hamas are freedom fighters. Not terrorists.”

On July 30, 2014, Heba Asi tweeted: “I'm all for the destruction of the Zionist state Israel and 100% pro hamas.”

On July 31, 2014, Asi tweeted: “Any one who isn't pro hamas has either never been to Palestine, uneducated, or a Zionist.”

SJP and MSA UT Arlington - Equating Israel with Nazi Germany

On July 31, 2014, Elhaum Langroodi, an SJP UT Arlington 2015 Officer tweeted: “@BatulAboukar guess she's never heard of Hitler or Netanyahu or any other terrorist.”

On July 2, 2014, SJP UT Arlington activist Heba Asi tweeted: “Natenyahu = Hitler @BarackObama @netanyahu @cnn@FOXTV.”

On the same day, Asi tweeted: “Saying you like Hitler is like saying you like Israeli. They're not any different.”

On March 19, 2015, Asi tweeted: “‘@netanyahu: Every family, soldier, citizen, Jewish or not are important to me!We will form a strong government to work for them.’ #OkHitler.”

SJP and MSA UT Arlington - Spreading Hatred of Israel

On July 23, 2015, SJP UT Arlington activist Heba Asi tweeted: “Israel is mad they haven't been able to wipe out GazaStrip like they did the other occupied lands. Stop the genocide or stop playing victim.”

On August 5, 2014, Ismail Said Aboukar, an SJP and MSA UT Arlington activist, tweeted a doctored photo of two smiling female Israeli soldiers purportedly holding signs that read: “We kill children.”

On July 26, 2014, Aboukar tweeted: “@CullenCody Israel owns the United States financially.”

The Firing of SJP UT Arlington Associate Nancy Salem

Among the activists exposed for making anti-Semitic tweets was Arlington-based preschool teacher Nancy Salem, who was affiliated with several SJP UT Arlington activists as well as officers.

On February 21, 2017, following international media coverage of Salem’s tweets, it was announced that Salem had been suspended from her teaching duties, pending an investigation. The following day, Fox News reported that Salem had been fired.

On February 23, 2017, a local Concho Valley, TX news outlet reported the President of SJP UT Arlingtonwrote an email claiming that they “do not know who Salem is...”

The following day, February 24, 2017, the Algemeiner newspaper reported evidence of an affiliation between Salem and several SJP UT Arlington activists, including its board members.

The Algemeiner also reported that an SJP UT Arlington “spokesman” said that one of their activists, Ahmad Hajmahmoud, whose anti-Semitic tweets were also exposed by Canary Mission, “had ‘dropped his membership and will no longer be continuing with us.’”

On April 2, 2017, the National SJP newsletter disclosed“every [SJP UT Arlington] officer except one resigned,” following Canary Mission’s exposure of the chapter’s anti-Semitism.

As of December 2020, SJP UT Arlington’s Facebook page remained inactive, the group’s last post made on February 18, 2017, shortly following the outing of its members’ anti-Semitic postings.

SJP

SJP is a student organization engaged in anti-Israel activity on North American college and university campuses.

The first chapter of SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley by Professor Hatem Bazian. Bazian has spread classic anti-Semitism, reportedly promoted religious anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group. In 2004, Bazian called for “intifada” in America.

SJP organizes anti-Israel campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks, often in collaboration with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Muslim Students Association (MSA) campus chapters.

SJP has been a major force in pushing the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses. Chapters have initiated dozens of BDS resolutions in student governments, which have been proposed on or around Jewish holidays, a time when many Jewish students are off-campus.

SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, disrupted pro-Israel campus events and demonized pro-Israel campus organizations.

Chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for numerous terrorists and whitewashed terrorism.