Ammar Haji

Overview

Ammar Haji demonized Israel on campus with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Houston (UH) in 2018.

As of July 2019, Haji’s LinkedIn page said he was a “Mechanical Engineering student” at UH, and that he studied “Mechanical Engineering” at Wharton County Junior College (WCJC) from “2015 - 2017.” His LinkedIn also said that he was a Gas Engineering Intern at CenterPoint Energy, since January 2019.

Demonizing Israel on Campus

On April 12, 2018, Haji was featured in SJP UH Facebook photos during the group’s Israel Apartheid Week (IAW).

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is presented internationally as a “series of events that seeks to raise awareness of…Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people.” One of its goals is to build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. IAW has been renamed Palestine Awareness Week.

One April 12, 2018 Facebook photo featured Haji holding a sign that said: “THEY OCCUPIED + COLONIZED OUR LAND AND NOW THEY ARE OCCUPYING OUR SPACE HERE ON CAMPUS.”

In another SJP UH photo posted on Facebook that day, SJP activist Omar Hussein was featured holding a sign that read: “The IDF is a terrorist organization.” SJP UH activists also held signs that read “Zionism is Racism,” while another activist held a sign that read: “IT’S NOT WAR IT’S GENOCIDE.”

Among the activists participating in SJP UH’s IAW was Tarek Abdoh, who has threatened violence against Jews and demonized Jews on Twitter.

On April 28, 2015, Abdoh tweeted: “I am gonna throw rocks at yahood [Jews] this summer and no one is stopping me.”

On June 26, 2015, Abdoh tweeted: “I need to go throw some rocks at the yahood [Jews].”

Other SJP activists protesting at SJP UH’s IAW included Mamoon Hindi and Jasmine Shaath who have spread hatred of Jews and Israel on social media.

On May 26, 2015, Hindi tweeted: “F**king Yahood [Jews] man.”

On June 29, 2015, in reply to a tweet that read: “Shia LaBeouf looks like a dirty cave dweller now.” Hindi tweeted: “for a dirty yahoodi [Jew], yes he does.”

On July 28, 2012, Shaath tweeted: “FALASTEEN BLADNA WIL YAHOOD KLABNA <3 [Palestine is our country and the Jews are our dog].”

On March 6, 2013, Shaath tweeted: “Allah yil3an el yahood!” [May Allah curse the Jews!]— a phrase she tweeted on at least two other occasions.

SJP UH - Supporting Violence

On November 1, 2015, SJP UH shared a post on Facebook promoting demonstrations supporting anti-Israel violence. The rallies, held in both Houston and Austin, were co-organized by SJP UH and the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) at Austin, TX (PSCAT) and urged: “…Long Live the Resistance! Long Live the Intifada!”

October 2015 saw an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” saw young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab scores of Israeli civilians.

On August 18, 2014, SJP UH and UH MSA co-organized an event featuring Sheikh Omar Suleiman. SJP UH’s Facebook announcement billed Suleiman as a “vocal human rights supporter.”

In 2014, Imam Omar Suleiman called on Twitter for a “Third Intifada” to destroy Israel. His tweet perpetuated the incendiary claim that Israel intended to desecrate the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

SJP UH - Pushing BDS

On November 1, 2015, SJP UH shared an event on Facebook announcing plans for a UH Divest campaign and new Facebook page. The event aimed to discuss “all potential strategies” to bring BDS to UH. Proposed strategies included:

Revamped tabling and silent demonstrations

Discussing BDS and ways to succeed/make an impact with friends from other campuses

BDS Workshops to teach the student body what BDS is and why we support it

Connecting with and helping other minority organizations on campus

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.