Ameer Idreis

Overview

Ameer Idreis has promoted hatred of Israel and engaged in anti-Israel activism. Idreis is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Idreis was a 2022-2023 academic-year finalist in a fellowship sponsored by the anti-Israel group, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME).

As of May 2023, Idreis’s LinkedIn profile said he had been a research assistant at School of Cities, University of Toronto (U of T), since January 2023 and the Ontario Professional Planners Institute (OPPI) representative at the Graduate Geography & Planning Student Society (GGAPSS) since November 2022.

As of the same date, Idreis’s LinkedIn said he had been studying at U of T for a master’s degree in city/urban, community and regional planning since 2022 and that he graduated from Queen’s University (Queen’s) with a bachelor’s degree in political studies in 2021.

As of May 2023, Idreis’s website said he was located in Toronto, Ontario.

Hatred of Israel

In January 2023, Idreis was featured by CJPME as one of their 2022-2023 academic fellowship finalists. Idreis’s CJPME profile said that his research “looks at how urban planning and the naming of public spaces by Israel has been an aspect of Israeli settler-colonialism and has contributed to the oppression of Palestinians…”

On December 7, 2022, Idreis published an article in the Gargoyle student newspaper, titled: “O Walled-Off Town of Bethlehem: Christmas Under Occupation.” In the article, Idreis claimed the “Separation/Apartheid Wall…acts as one of many means of settler-colonial exclusionary control.”

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.

In June 2021, Idreis signed a “A Letter Against Apartheid,” reportedly published by a group of Palestinian artists, which alleged: “This May, the Israeli government committed yet another massacre in Gaza by indiscriminately and relentlessly bombing Palestinians…”

In May 2021, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists fired over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at major population centers in Israel. Israel responded by launching “Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW),” carrying out targeted military strikes in Gaza.

The letter continued: “To frame this as a war between two equal sides is false and misleading. Israel is the colonizing power. Palestine is colonized. This is not a conflict: this is apartheid.”

The letter also claimed: “Families in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah continue to face ethnic cleansing and displacement from their homes.”

In May 2021, Palestinian violence erupted in anticipation of an Israel High Court ruling on eviction proceedings concerning over 70 Palestinian tenants illegally residing in Jewish-owned properties in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

The letter stated: “We ask governments that are enabling this crime against humanity to apply sanctions…and to cut trade, economic and cultural relations” with Israel.

In May 2021, during OGW, Idreis signed an open letter that accused Israel of “the random destruction of residential buildings, hospitals, schools, and infrastructure” in Gaza, claiming they were “war crimes.” The letter also accused Israel of “apartheid and settler colonialism with the aim of ethnic cleansing.”

During OGW in May 2021, Hamas reportedly used civilians as human shields to defend against Israeli counterstrikes. Hamas also launched rockets from densely populated civilian areas, stockpiled weapons in private homes and situated key operations facilities in civilian apartment buildings, near mosques, hospitals and schools.

The letter expressed support for BDS and urged the Canadian government “to impose military and economic sanctions on Israel,” and Canadian art organizations and institutions “to end any form of collaboration with Israeli state-financed and sponsored art and cultural activities with Israel.”

Anti-Israel Activism

On May 15, 2021, during OGW, Idreis tweeted photos from an anti-Israel protest in Toronto. One of his tweets said: “#Palestine #Solidarity” and included a photo of a banner that said: “END THE OCCUPATION. Victory to the Intifada!”

The term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” carries the connotation of violence. Palestinian intifadas waged against Israel have been marked since 1987 by hundreds of hijackings, shootings, stabbings, bombings and suicide missions.

On May 29, 2021, Idreis tweeted photos from anti-Israel protests in Toronto. Idreis’s tweet included a photo of a sign featuring the map of Israel drawn with “STOLEN LAND” written repeatedly over it, and a sign that said: “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA PALESTINE WILL BE FREE.”

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is a chant used [00:02:47] to call for the elimination of the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state. In April 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the chant as antisemitic.

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.