Ahmad Aboukar

Overview

Ahmad Aboukar was the 2017-2018 treasurer of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and an activist with the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at Ohio State University (OSU).

Aboukar was also a member of the Facebook group “Muslim Students Association - THE Ohio State University [sic].”

As of June 2023, Aboukar’s LinkedIn profile said he was the founder, in 2019, of Lead & Steel, “a nonstandard weapons R&D boutique in the defense industry.” He had been CEO of the company since January 2019.

Also as of June 2023, Aboukar’s LinkedIn said he received a JD from the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law in 2022, and graduated from OSU with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2017.

As of the June 2023, Aboukar’s LinkedIn said he was located in the Columbus, Ohio, metropolitan area.

SJP OSU

Students for Justice in Palestine at OSU (SJP OSU) was formerly known as the Committee for Justice in Palestine (CJP), until 2016.

SJP OSU - Spreading Incitement 2013-2015

On September 23, 2015, SJP OSU promoted an event on Facebook titled: “#AlAqsaUnderAttack: The Treatment of Sacred Palestinian Places of Worship Under the Occupation.”

The event’s Facebook description claimed that there have been “attacks of Masjid Al-Aqsa, the third-holiest site in the Islamic faith, by the Israeli Defense Forces.”

On September 13, 2015, masked Palestinian rioters barricaded themselves inside the Al Aqsa Mosque. They set off fireworks, starting a small fire, and threw stones and debris stored inside the mosque at Israeli police. The police later found pipe bombs the rioters had prepared to launch at Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount plaza.
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In October 2015, there was an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” was characterized by young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab Israeli civilians. The attacks were incited by Palestinian leaders propagating the libel that Israel intended to desecrate the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

On November 3, 2014, SJP OSU co-sponsored and promoted on Facebook a “Hands Off Al Aqsa!” event.

The event’s Facebook description said: “When will we stop rallying? When Palestine is FREE! Religious freedom is under attack! As humans, we cannot stand around and watch as Palestinians are robbed of their religious freedom.”

On October 30, 2014, after a terrorist attempted [00:00:13] to assassinate Rabbi Yehuda Glick, triggering a temporary closure of the the Temple Mount, SJP OSU posted to Facebook an Al-Jazeera article titled: “Shutdown of Al-Aqsa mosque a ‘declaration of war’ say Palestinian leaders.”

SJP OSU - Spreading Hatred of Israel 2014-2016

On April 2, 2016, SJP OSU promoted on Facebook an event the group hosted as part of Birzeit University’s “Right to Education” tour.

The Right to Education Tour brings Birzeit University students to U.S. campuses, where they claim that Israel is obstructing the rights of Palestinians to higher education. This claim mischaracterizes the sweeps Israeli security forces have made to shut down terror cells operating on the Birzeit campus, including cells linked to Hamas.

On November 6, 2015, SJP OSU posted an article on Facebook that claimed Israel harvested organs from the bodies of killed Palestinians. The accusation was made by the chief Palestinian delegate at the United Nations, Riyad Mansour. Israel’s then-U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon wrote to the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanding that he condemn the accusation.

On October 2, 2014, SJP OSU posted a graphic on Facebook that read: “#JSIL.”

The hashtag “#JSIL” means “Jewish State in the Levant” and is used as a way of comparing Israel to the Islamic State (ISIS), also known as the Islamic State in the Levant (ISIL).

SJP OSU’s Facebook post linked to an Al Jazeera social media stream post that spread an effort by Twitter users “to rebrand Israel as [Islamic State and the Levant] ISIL, renaming it ‘The Jewish State of Israel in the Levant.’”

On September 26, 2014, SJP OSU posted on Facebook a graphic featuring a series of misleading maps that presented lands once controlled by Britain, Egypt and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian land,” purportedly stolen by Israel. SJP OSU also featured these maps as part of their mock “apartheid wall,” during Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) .

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is presented as “an international series of events that seek to raise awareness of…Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people” and build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

SJP OSU - Demonizing Trips to Israel 2016

On December 1, 2016, SJP OSU hosted an event objecting to a trip to Israel geared towards student government leaders, sponsored by an Israel advocacy group.

Yousef Yacoub, SJP OSU’s then-treasurer, wrote on Facebook that he would track student “senators, directors, and members of senior staff,” who indicated interest in the trip.

On November 18, 2016, Yacoub wrote on Facebook: “I see you, and I promise you that if you go on this trip without hearing our voices, I will take action. At the first General Assembly of next semester, I will bring forth a resolution for all of your impeachments.”

On April 4, 2016, SJP OSU shared to Facebook a quote from an article published anonymously a month earlier in the Tufts University student newspaper, that demonized Birthright-Israel.

Birthright Israel is a heritage trip to Israel for Jewish young adults from across the world.

The article claimed that Birthright was “violent” and that “To make Birthright fun and safe means eradicating an Arab populace.” The article also said that “Birthright is the erasure of our right to our homeland, and it promises our homeland to one in four students at this university.”

On February 22, 2016, SJP OSU promoted a poster on Facebook that condemned a free trip to Israel awarded to Oscar nominees. The poster suggested that laws distinguishing between Israeli citizens and foreign nationals were “a defining feature of an apartheid state” and said: “Free Trip To Israel At The Expense of Palestinians” and “#SkiptheTrip, Don’t endorse Israel Apartheid.”

SJP OSU - Supporting an Anti-Israel Agitator 2017

On December 25, 2017, SJP OSU posted to Facebook: “#FreeAhedTamimi” and attached an article from the anti-Israel publication Mondoweiss, which claimed: “Israel has transferred Ahed Tamimi to three different detention facilities in the last five days even though she has not yet been charged with a crime.”

Ahed Tamimi has a long history of physically attacking Israeli soldiers. Tamimi is the daughter of Bassem Tamimi, who is known for exploiting young children as political props in staged confrontations with Israeli soldiers.

On December 24, 2017, SJP OSU tweeted: “#FreeAhedTamimi.”

OSU Divest 2015-2017

OSU Divest was established in January 2015: “in response to the ever-worsening human rights crisis in the occupied Palestinian territories.”

The group claimed that by “advocating for divestment from corporations, we are not condemning or attacking a country, a community, or a people,” and “our initiative does not support any particular political stance.”

In March 2015, OSU Divest introduced a BDS resolution at OSU’s University Student Government (USG). The divestment resolution was voted down.

On March 23, 2016, OSU Divest worked closely with SJP OSU board members to present another divestment resolution to the USG.

During the pre-vote discussion of the 2016 bill, which was published by secretary of the USG, OSU Divest activists accused Israel of “apartheid.” One claimed that United States presidential election candidates “all paraded to AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] to pledge allegiance to a foreign government.”

The resolution failed in a secret ballot by 21-9 votes, with 15 abstentions.

The stated mission of AIPAC is to “strengthen, protect and promote the U.S.-Israel relationship in ways that enhance the security of the United States and Israel.”

In February 2017, OSU Divest pushed their 2016 divestment resolution again, this time promoted by the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at OSU, onto USG’s election ballot. The divestment bill targeted companies providing technology used for security purposes in Israel. The bill claimed the companies were “complicit in human rights abuses.”

OSU Divest received the 1,895 signatures required for their 2017 divestment initiative to be placed on the USG ballot as a referendum. The 2017 divestment bill was ultimately defeated.

OSU Divest 2018

On January 25, 2018, twelve USG senators co-sponsored an anti-Israel motion submitted to the OSU student senate, that was approved via a “secret vote.”

The divestment resolution allowed the “student government to create a committee of senators to investigate OSU’s investment in companies that might be linked to domestic human rights violations.”

A January 25, 2018 article in OSU’s student newspaper, “The Lantern,” reported that the resolution contained links to multiple websites promoting BDS and accusing Israel of “apartheid.” The resolution also contained multiple references to anti-Israel divestment resolutions passed by student governments at other universities in the U.S.

During the discussion on the resolution, 38 OSU students reportedly spoke against the resolution and 8 spoke in favor. One student described the resolution as “intentionally dishonest,” while other students cited “its anti-Semitic undertones.”

The Lantern article noted the resolution was “on track to fail,” however then-sophomore Maria Humayun proposed that the resolution be amended and “less explicitly linked to the Israeli-Palestine conflict.” Another student, Ezequiel Herrera, reportedly proposed an amendment to add a statement denouncing the BDS movement, however USG Senators rejected the proposal.

The Lantern article also reported that the first round of secret ballot voting resulted in a revote, because more votes were recorded than senators present. USG offered no explanation for the discrepancy.

Sophie Chang, then-USG speaker and vice president, was reportedly responsiblefor approving the voting mechanism of a secret ballot and “refused to state how many senators voted in favor of the motion.”

Ultimately, Chang announced that the USG approved the divestment resolution following a second round of secret ballot voting, however the resolution was not implemented.

On December 5, 2018, Ahmad Abusharkh and the OSU Coalition for BDS (OSU4BDS) presented a new divestment resolution to the USG. This resolution specifically called to “support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctioning of Israeli products,” as well as calling for an academic boycott against Israel.

The USG voted down the resolution, 30 to 7.

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.

MSA

The MSA was established by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in January 1963 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with the goal of "spreading Islam as students in North America." A 2004 FBI investigation uncovered an internal Muslim Brotherhood document in which a brotherhood leader identified the MSA as "one of our organizations."

The MSA reportedly has “nearly 600 chapters” located in the United States and Canada, and is “the most visible and influential Islamic student organization in North America,” boasting conferences, special events, publications, websites and other activities.

The organization includes a number of previous chapter presidents with explicit links to terrorist groups. Included are al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki (Colorado State University), Somali al-Shabaab militant leader Omar Shafik Hammami (University of South Alabama) and Pakistani Taliban recruiter Ramy Zamzam of the MSA's Washington, D.C. council.