Aladdin Hiba

Overview

Aladdin Hiba has spread demonization of Israel. He also voted for a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) resolution as a student senator at the University of South Florida (USF) in 2016. Hiba has also promoted the USF chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) on social media.

As of September 2019, Hiba’s LinkedIn page said he graduated from USF in 2018, with a bachelor’s degree in “Health Services/Allied Health/Health Sciences.” 

Hiba’s LinkedIn page said he served as the USF senate president from May 2016 to May 2017. Hiba was also a senator in USF’s student government from 2014 to 2018, where he chaired multiple committees.

While a student senator, Hiba reportedly opposed the USF student government abiding by “the Sunshine Law,” which is meant to ensure that government meetings in Florida, including USF meetings, are open to the public.

As of September 2019, Hiba’s LinkedIn page also said that he was an administrative assistant at Premier Gastroenterology in Brooksville, Florida, since September 2018.

Spreading Demonization of Israel

Aladdin retweeted a July 20, 2014 tweet that said: “@AladdinH1 Help us raise awareness with #Chicago protest to the atrocities in #Gaza !!!” 

Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.  

The tweet included a link to a Facebook page for a protest called: “Chicago Day Of Al- Quds.” 

The Iranian government initiated International Quds Day in 1979, as an annual protest against Israel’s existence. The protest has historically been a platform for anti-Semitism.

Aladdin retweeted a May 27, 2014 tweet from the anti-Israel website Electronic Intifada (EI) that said: “How to practice #BDS in academe | by @stevesalaita.” 

The tweet linked to an EI article by anti-Israel professor Steven Salaita, who accused Israel of “colonization” and alleged that Israel’s supporters have a “colonial fetish.” The photo in the article showed a display labeling Israel’s security barrier as an “apartheid wall.”

Israel’s security barrier, 97 percent of which is a low chain-link barrier, was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.

Hiba retweeted a May 8, 2014 tweet from the anti-Israel website Mondoweiss that said: “.@dancohen3000: Thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel mark Nakba Day at #MarchofReturn.” 

The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.

The tweet linked to an article accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing and said: “Samer Issawi, the iconic Palestinian hunger striker who was released from Israeli prison in December 2013, spoke about the prisoners struggle and the futility of negotiations.”  

Samer Issawi is a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) who received a 26-year prison sentence in 2002. During the second intifada, Issawi manufactured and distributed pipe bombs and, in several incidents, fired indiscriminately on Israeli civilian vehicles.

Supporting BDS

In April and May 2014, Hiba retweeted 19 tweets promoting a BDS campaign at USF that was led by SJP USF. The tweets mentioned the campaign or used the hashtag “#USF4HumanRights” or the Twitter handle @SJP_USF.

On January 26, 2016, Hiba posted a video to Facebook where he said he voted for a BDS resolution in the USF student senate less than a week earlier. The resolution was part of a BDS campaign led by SJP USF.

SJP USF - Promoting BDS  

On February 10, 2014, SJP USF posted a video to Vimeo promoting its “Divest 2014” campaign. The video claimed that USF invested in companies that made “fighter jets and rockets that the IDF uses against civilians in the Gaza strip.”

On May 28, 2014, the USF Foundation, which manages USF investments from donor contributions, reportedly rejected an SJP USF petition calling on the school to divest from multiple companies doing business with Israel. 

On January 14, 2015, SJP USF purchased [00:05:18] space on a Tampa, Florida billboard to demand that USF stop its investments “in Apartheid Israel.”

On January 20, 2016, the USF Oracle, USF’s student newspaper, reported that a BDS resolution passed in the student government, as a result of SJP USF’s BDS campaigning the previous two years. 

On January 25, 2016, SJP USF President Rahma Elmohd posted a Facebook video urging the USF student government president to sign the resolution.

On January 27, 2016, the USF Oracle reported that the USF student government president and vice president both vetoed the resolution. 

On February 4, 2016, the USF Oracle reported that a second BDS resolution was submitted by USF student senator and member of SJP USF Hala Alkattan. That resolution was identical to the previous one which was supported by SJP USF but was categorized differently so that the USF student government president and vice president could not veto it.

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.

Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/100001727072175/

https://www.facebook.com/1582206162053894/ 

Twitter:https://twitter.com/AladdinH1 

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/aladdin-hiba-aa9a2b78