Ala'a Abu-Spetani

Overview

Ala’a Abu-Spetani has equated Israel with Nazi Germany, promoted incitement, spread hatred of Israel and engaged in anti-Israel activism.

In 2016, Abu-Spetani was an activist with the anti-Israel campus group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (SJP at UAB). She also attended the SJP South regional conference in January 2016.

Abu-Spetani is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

In April 2016, Abu-Spetani was elected to the “E-board 2016-2017” of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at UAB (MSA at UAB), where she served as the secretary.

As of May 2024, Abu-Spetani’s LinkedIn profile said she was an emergency medicine resident doctor at the John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County in Chicago, Illinois.

Also as of May 2024, Abu-Spetani was listed online as holding a temporary medical permit in emergency medicine, license number 125080751, issued on July 1, 2022 and set to expire on June 30, 2025. Her National Provider Identifier (NPI) number is 1750962429.

As of the same date, Abu-Spetani was listed [p. 28] as having graduated from UAB’s Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine with a doctor of medicine degree in 2022. Her LinkedIn said she also graduated from UAB with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience in 2018.

As of May 2024, Abu-Spetani’s LinkedIn said she was located in Chicago, Illinois.

Equating Israel with Nazi Germany

On July 20, 2014, during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) against Hamas terrorists, Abu-Spetani tweeted: “It took long enough to stand up to Hitler. Thought people would learn by now.”

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

On August 5, 2014, Abu-Spetani tweeted: “If you didn’t think the Gaza situation was like the holocaust before, what can you say now?” Abu-Spetani’s tweet linked to an article that misquoted an Israeli cabinet minister, claiming that he called for placing Palestinians in “concentration camps.”

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as one possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Over 40 countries have adopted the definition as well.

Promoting Incitement

On April 15, 2022, Abu-Spetani tweeted: “the third holiest site in Islam is under attack year after year and somehow the outrage is negligible. Masjid Al Aqsa is like the Capitol building or the White House or any important landmark that you’d be horrified to learn was under attack. #FreePalestine.”

The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been a pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before the existence of the modern Jewish state. Such propaganda has led to multiple periods of violence against Israeli civilians.

Also on April 15, 2022, Abu-Spetani tweeted: “...IOF soldiers attack worshippers at Al Aqsa mosque. They dare to fight back with rocks and suddenly Gaza is under fire and the media tunes in. / This is the story of Ramadan in Occupied Palestine.”

“IOF” stands for Israeli Occupation Forces, a derogatory name used by anti-Israel activists to demonize Israel’s army in place of its official name, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Although romanticized as a form of “popular resistance,” rock throwing remains a deadly form of violence.

Ramadan is an Islamic holy month during which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and are meant to engage in self-reflection, repentance and the giving of charity. Ramadan is frequently marked by increased anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric throughout the Arab world, Palestinian violence in Israel and heightened tensions centered in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Hatred of Israel

As of November 2020, Abu-Spetani’s since-deleted Twitter account had a background photo of a masked militant waving the Palestinian flag from atop the Dome of the Rock, located on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, where the Al-Aqsa Mosque is also located. The graphic showed a bloody handprint and text that read: “NO MORE BLOOD.”

Abu-Spetani originally shared the graphic on Facebook in July 2014, during OPE.

On August 1, 2014, Abu-Spetani tweeted: “...well yeah it sucks that Hamas isn’t the 4th most powerful military and doesn’t have an iron dome.”

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, European Union, Israel and other countries. Founded in 1987, it has killed thousands of Israeli civilians through mass shootings and suicide bombings. Hamas has also kidnapped children, families and the elderly and held them hostage in Gaza. It has desecrated [slide 2] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.

The Iron Dome is an Israeli missile defense system designed to intercept and destroy rockets and artillery shells. During Israel’s 2014 “Operation Protective Edge,” the Iron Dome intercepted hundreds of Hamas rockets launched from Gaza towards southern, central and northern parts of Israel.

Also on August 1, 2014, Abu-Spetani tweeted: “Muslims dont hate Jews. They hate Israelis who try to throw Palestinians out of their own country.”

On July 31, 2014, Abu-Spetani also tweeted: “zionists aren’t Jews. Jews don’t side with them don’t you know? They claimed the religion just to steal Palestine. Look it up.”

Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture.

On July 28, 2014, Abu-Spetani tweeted: “don’t you see what Israel is doing then? Boxing the Palestinians in an open air prison! And they can’t fight back.”

Referring to Gaza as an "open-air prison" is a way to delegitimize the United Nations-approved [pp. 39–41] joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip imposed in 2011 to prevent Hamas from acquiring more sophisticated rockets.

On July 22, 2014, Abu-Spetani tweeted: “How much exactly the US is influencing the genocide going on in Palestine…”

On July 18, 2014, Abu-Spetani shared a graphic on Facebook with a caption that read: “STOP OCCUPATION FREE PALESTINE.” The word “Occupation” was depicted with red dripping blood and the letter ‘O’ at the beginning of the word was represented by a red Star of David.

On July 8, 2014, Abu-Spetani tweeted: “Condemn the Apartheid State of Israel for their Human Rights Violations against the Palestinian peoples…”

Anti-Israel Activism (BDS)

On August 23, 2014, during OPE, Abu-Spetani was listed on Facebook as the host of an anti-Israel protest.

The Facebook event page featured a group photo taken at an anti-Israel protest that included Abu-Spetani holding a sign that read: “NO MORE ARMS TO ISRAEL.”

On August 9, 2014, Abu-Spetani indicated on Twitter that she attended a demonstration against Israel.

On July 31, 2014, Abu-Spetani tweeted: “It’s hard to boycott Israel when practically EVERY AMERICAN COMPANY SUPPORTS IT. And when YOU LIVE IN AMERICA- their biggest supporter.”

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.

BDS

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true.

One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”

Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”

In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”

The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.

BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.

The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.

Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.

BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.