Anzar Lateef

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. 

On September 28, 2021, Lateef tweeted: “... There are no terrorists in Gaza There are no Palestinian Terrorists ‘Palestinian Terrorism’ is a fictional concept that does not exist.”

On August 17, 2021, Lateef tweeted: “...Hamas is simply a Resistance movement turned government belonging to another ideology.”

On August 7, 2021, Lateef tweeted: “Even the spiritual leader of Hamas Sheikh Ahmed Yassin (may God's mercy be on him, or "may his memory be a blessing" as Jews say) said it's not about Israel being Jewish; he 'd treat his own brother the same way if he kicked him out of his home.”

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin has been described as the “mastermind of Palestinian terror” behind many suicide bombings against Israeli civilians on buses and in cafes during the second intifada. In January 2003, Yassin said in an interview: “Suicide attacks and jihad reinforce national unity in the ranks…Our voice is one of struggle, of jihad and of suicide…”  

On July 26, 2021, Lateef tweeted: “The Holy Land Foundation were in fact righteous men.”

The five men associated with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) and also indicted for funneling funds to Hamas in the guise of humanitarian aid, are known as the HL5.
On July 15, 2021, Lateef tweeted: “Hamas doesn't strike from Civilian areas. That's Israeli Propaganda. Hamas strikes from from closer to the border. And Hamas tries its best to avoid Civilians.”

In May 2021, the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) called out Hamas and other Gaza-based terror groups for “indiscriminate launching of rockets and mortars from highly populated civilian neighborhoods into civilian population centers” in Israel in violation of international humanitarian law. 
  
Also on July 15, 2021, Lateef tweeted: “Blaming Hamas for fighting back is like blaming a woman for punching her rapist.”

On May 26, 2021, Lateef tweeted: “... Hezbollah is a Lebanese political party. Hamas is a Palestinian Resistance Political Party. Taliban was a bunch of students who went killing rapists...”

Hezbollah has long been known as an anti-Semitic and genocidal terror organization dedicated to destroying Israel. 

On May 20, 2021, Lateef tweeted: “... Hamas Rockets are homemade arts and crafts projects that amount to nothing more than fireworks.”

As of May 12, 2021, Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades website advertised some of its long-range missile capabilities, known to include a variety of deadly rockets, some precision-guided with a range exceeding 250 kilometers. 

The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades is the military wing of Hamas.

Celebrating Intifada Violence

On September 30, 2021, Lateef responded to comments on a tweet by Mohammed El-Kurd that celebrated the second intifada and wrote: “The People who were killed from the side of the Zionist Colony were either IDF [Israel Defense Forces] terrorists or former IDF terrorists. Anybody else was simply used as Human Shields by the IDF Terrorists. The only people you have to blame are the IDF terrorists for using others as human Shields.”

The second intifada (2000-2005) was characterized by more than 120 suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians on buses and in cafes.

Since the early 2000s, the term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” has carried the connotation of violence.  

Lateef retweeted a September 28, 2021 tweet that read: “Today marks the 21st anniversary of the start of the Second Intifada, the Palestinian uprising against Israel's illegal occupation & apartheid. Here is what happened 21 years ago:”

On September 26, 2021, Lateef tweeted: “Every Israeli who died in the second Intafada was the result of the actions of Israeli Leaders. The Intafada was all about Balance, they were simply responding to Israeli Atrocities.”

Promoting Incitement 

On August 5, 2021, Lateef tweeted: “Israel is always the aggressor. They aggressed in Aqsa. Any protest and rock was a reaction to Israeli Actions. Not to mention the Ethnic Cleansing of Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood …”

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. 

Incitement surrounding Al-Aqsa and Sheikh Jarrah were leading factors in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists firing over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at Israeli population centers from May 10 to 21, 2021. In response to rocket attacks from Gaza, Israel launched “Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW),” striking military targets in the terrorist-controlled enclave.

Israel responded by launching “Operation Guardian of the Walls(OGW),” carrying out targeted military strikes in Gaza. 

On May 22, 2021, Lateef shared to Twitter “timeline” graphic “of what happened” during Israel’s OGW against Hamas in Gaza. The graphic claimed that on May 7, 2021, “Israeli forces storm Al-Aqsa Mosque… and fired tear gas… onto the worshippers resulting in over 200 injuries.” 

Also, on May 22, 2021, Lateef tweeted: “Because the Israelis attacked the holy mosque. It's all in the timeline. Hamas literally asked them to stop, but they kept attacking the Holy Mosque during Ramadan.”

In April 2021, at the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a series of viral videos circulated on Palestinian social media showing Palestinian youths physically assaulting Jews in Jerusalem. Israeli police and civilians were reportedly attacked by rioters with firecrackers, stones and glass bottles. Amid the escalation, Hamas fired rockets into Israel from Gaza. Israel responded by striking a Hamas weapons manufacturing site, a weapon smuggling tunnel and a military post.

Demonizing Zionists

On October 8, 2021, Lateef tweeted: “Dude, Zionists who became the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] literally systematically raped and massacred in order to terrorize the Palestinians so that they may be driven out so that Zionists could gain a Jewish Ethnic Majority by driving out the existing majority.”

On August 30, 2021, Lateef tweeted in reference to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war: “Zionists were thirsty for blood, after all the whole country was founded by driving out 85% of the Native Palestinians via rapes and massacres.”

Hatred of Israel

Lateef retweeted an October 7, 2021 tweet that read: “It's always good to start off your morning by trashing France or Israel. Sets a good tone for the rest of the day.”

On September 29, 2021, Lateef tweeted: “No it hasn't. There's a European Colony called Israel, Europe's last colony, built upon the massacre of the Natives. Israel has always been the colonial force, the Native Palestinians must get their Universal Right of Return.”

The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. International law mandates no absolute right of return and UN Resolution 194, which defined principles for “refugees wishing to return to their homes,” was unanimously rejected by Arab nations following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

On June 10, 2021, Lateef tweeted: “The entire Israel is in itself a Colony. And Gaza is placed under siege. And WB [Westbank] is suffering an apartheid regime.”

Solidarity with Yasmeen Mashayekh

In November and December 2021, Lateef tweeted multiple times in support of Mashayekh who was [00:11:08] in the middle of a national controversy over anti-Semitism she spread on social media that year.

In October 2021, Mashayekh was listed as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Senator for USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering (Viterbi). In May 2021, she tweeted: "I want to f**king kill every motherf**king Zionist.” She also tweeted: “yel3an el yahood [curse the Jews].” 

Mashayekh has also spread violent hatred of Israeli Jews, called for the destruction of Israel and America, expressed support for Hamas and glorified terrorists.

Mashayekh was condemned after Canary Mission exposed her anti-Semitic tweets.

On December 15, 2021, Lateef tweeted in defense of Mashayekh, writing: “Fight, Kill, Is there anything wrong with saying either about the KKK [Ku Klux Klan] or anything similar?”  

Supporting BDS

On July 28, 2021, Lateef tweeted: “BDS is the minimum.”

On July 24, 2021, Lateef tweeted: “Look how many big companies are complying with the BDS movement. Ben and Jerry's is just one, many more to come.”

On July 19, 2021, ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s announced it would stop all product sales in “Occupied Palestinian Territory.” The BDS movement celebrated the decision, calling on the ice cream company to boycott the State of Israel in its entirety. However, company owner Unilever overrode the subsidiary’s decision after multiple US states decided to divest public funds from Unilever.  

On May 19, 2021, Lateef tweeted: “... I mean, just cuz BDS is spreading awareness doesn't make it wrong.”

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

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