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Ammar Awawdeh
Ammar Awawdeh has expressed support for Hamas and spread hatred of Israel. In 2018, Awawdeh was charged with “money laundering, grand larceny, conspiracy, criminal possession of stolen property,” and “endangering the welfare of an incompetent person” for “allegedly bilking a wheelchair-bound homeless woman out of more than $1.5 million between October 8, 2015 and October 17, 2018.”
Awawdeh was an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the College of Staten Island (CSI), part of City University of New York (CUNY) in 2013.
In June 2014, Awawdeh was listed on the CSI website as a 2014 graduate.
In June 2018, Awawdeh’s Facebook page said he was the CEO at the Lunar Group, headquartered in New York City.
On August 1, 2014, Awawdeh wrote on Facebook: “I been representing Palestine so much lately, my friends call me Hamas.”
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 7] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
On July 24, 2014, during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in Gaza, Awawdeh wrote on Facebook: “My name is Ammar Awawdeh, born & raised in Brooklyn Ny! & I #supportgaza #hamas #freepalestine”
Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
On July 12, 2014, Awawdeh shared a video on Facebook and wrote: “If you were ever wondering about why Israel & Palestine have problems just watch this video. It will literally explain 2 you in details everything. This video is breath taking. #freepalestine”
The video was produced by the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). It accused Israel of “institutionalized discrimination” against non-Jews and represented Israeli security policies as unjust. The video portrayed Israel as an oppressive force and described peace talks as “theater to cover a land grab.”
On July 30, 2014, Awawdeh shared an anti-Israel video on Facebook that contained the chant [00:03:59]: “Khayber Khayber Al Yahood!”
“Khaybar Khaybar, ya yahud, Jaish Muhammad, sa yahud [Jews, remember Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning]” is a chant recalling the early seventh-century Battle of Khaybar. At Khaybar, Muhammad and his followers massacred the Jews of that town and enslaved the surviving women as “wives.” The chant is often heard at anti-Israel rallies in the United States.
Alawadeh commented: “Awesome video.”
In October 2018, Awawdeh was one of five people charged for extorting over $1.5 million from a 62-year-old, mentally disabled, wheelchair-bound, homeless woman named Michelle Carter.
In 2015, Awawdeh reportedly stole a significant portion of the proceeds from one of the victim’s checks, which totaled just over $799,000. The money was part of a settlement the victim received from losing her legs after getting hit by a subway train.
Awawdeh, who at the time owned a bodega (deli) with his father on Roosevelt Island, reportedly spent the stolen money on gambling trips, a Las Vegas bachelor party, and a Caribbean honeymoon. In 2016, Awawdeh reportedly stole another check for $886,000 from Carter, as well as her Bible, which she kept the check inside. Awawdeh deposited the check into the bank with the help of a friend who was a bank manager from Staten Island.
In October 2018, Awawdeh was arrested and charged with “first- and second-degree grand larceny, first-and second-degree criminal possession of stolen property, second-degree money laundering, fourth-degree conspiracy, and endangering the welfare of an incompetent person.” If convicted, Awawdeh could face up to 25 years in prison.
On May 9, 2013, Awawdeh joined SJP activists in commemorating the Nakba during CSI at SJP’s “Nakba Week.” Awawdeh was featured in a “Photocollage of several students holding up signs representing 1/531 villages that were depopulated during the Nakba.”
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by drawing a comparison to the Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, meaning “catastrophe.”
On March 5, 2016, CSI SJP shared an NYC SJP blog post on Facebook to “commemorate International Working Women’s Day as an inseparable aspect of the fight for Palestinian liberation.”
The post declared: “Women who facilitate Zionist aggression in Palestine do not have any common ground with women resisting it.”
The blog post praised international hijacker Leila Khaled for “committing her life to be a freedom fighter in the struggle for Palestinian liberation.”
Leila Khaled is a leading member 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 [00:36:07] for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.
NYC SJP’s blog post went on to praise PFLP terrorists Khalida Jarrar and Rasmea Odeh.
Khalida Jarrar is a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization. She has reportedly been the head of the PFLP in the West Bank since 2016. In 2015, an Israeli military court sentenced Jarrar to 15 months in prison for calling to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Israel arrested Jarrar again in 2017 “on suspicion of involvement with terrorist activities and violent public disturbances.” In 2019, she was arrested by Israel with 50 other PFLP operatives following a deadly 2018 bombing attack.
Odeh was a key military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a PFLP supermarket bombing that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh later moved to the United States but was deported to Jordan in 2017 for immigration fraud.
The post alleged “Israel is a state that was built on the murder and rape of Palestinian women” and claimed “the state forces women to give birth at checkpoints, where more than half of the babies died as a result.”
The post concluded “Smash the Patriarchy! Smash the Settler Zionist State! Free Palestine, and Free Women EVERYWHERE!"
On October 6, 2016, CSI SJP posted a photo montage of four Palestinian teenangers, titled “4 Palestinian Teenagers EXECUTED in Cold Blood by Zionist Occupying forces in less than 32 hours. Ages 13-19.”
One teenager pictured was 19 year-old Fadi Aloon.
Fadi Aloon was shot by Israeli security forces after he stabbed a 15-year-old Israeli boy. Several hours before the attack, Aloon posted “Either martyrdom or victory” on his Facebook page.
Another youth pictured was Muhannad Halabi.
Halabi murdered two Israelis and injured two others, including a 2-year-old, during a stabbing spree.
One day earlier, Halabi posted on his Facebook page that "the [t]he third Intifada is here" and wrote "[w]ake up from your slumber and save al-Aqsa. Let the revolution erupt."
Also pictured was Hudhaifa Suleiman aged 18, who participated in a Hamas-organized riot where “hundreds of Palestinians...threw firebombs, rolled burning tires and threw rocks at [Israeli] soldiers.”
On February 22, 2015, CSI SJP posted an Al-Jazeera article that claimed “Hundreds of Palestinians flee as Israel opens dams into Gaza Valley.” Al-Jazeera later admitted the story was false , as there were no dams in Southern Israel that could be opened.As of July 2019, CSI SJP still had not removed the post.
On October 6, 2015, CSI SJP, shared an NYC SJP “statement of solidarity” with a “Day of Rage” rally held at the Israeli consulate in New York on October 6, 2015. The event was co-sponsored by a number of anti-Israel organizations including NY4Palestine, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and NYC SJP and urged support for a “Day of Rage” called for by “Palestinian forces.”
At the bottom of that statement was a graphic of a keffiyeh- masked Palestinian throwing a rock, with the caption “Let the Intifada pave the way for People’s war!”
The “Days of Rage” in October of 2015 were heralded by Hamas as the advent of a new intifada. They directly resulted in the deaths of Israeli civilians by shootings, stabbings and car rammings.
Protesters at the rally alternately screamed slogans “Long Live the Intifada! Intifada! Intifada!” and “Settler settler go back home, Palestine is ours alone!” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”
On January 29, 2015 , CSI SJP posted an article on Facebook from the anti-Israel website Electronic Intifada supporting professor Steven Salaita. The CSI SJP post said: “Down with foreign government lobbies bribing universities to silent dissenters and organizers against settler-colonial states!”.
In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.
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 Student 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.
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