Arian El-Taher
Overview
Ariän El-Taher [Arian Taher] has defended the Hamas terror organization, glorified violent protesters and spread hatred of Israel. He has also lobbied in the United States Congress in support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.As of August 2023, El-Taher’s LinkedIn profile said he had worked as a “Human Rights Law Advisor” in both the U.S. Congress and the United Nations since January 2015.
As of January, 2020, El-Taher indicated on Twitter that he was a writer for the online publication Truthout, as well as a “Pediatric Surgeon-in-the-Making” and a “US Advocate for the State of Palestine.”
As of August 2023, the Washington State Department of Health website listed El-Taher as having an expired Pharmacy Technician license (VA00072455), under the name “Arian Taher.” El-Taher’s license expired on July 4, 2019.
Also as of August 2023, El-Taher’s LinkedIn said he was studying medicine at the University of Washington (UW).
As of the August 2023, El-Taher’s LinkedIn said he was located in Seattle, Washington.
In January 2020, El-Taher went by the username Ariän El-Tahry and the handle “@areltahry” on Twitter. As of August 2023, El-Taher went by the username “Arian (Ariän) El-Taher” on LinkedIn.
Defending Hamas
On October 19, 2019, El-Tahry tweeted: “...Hamas is a legitimate (previously elected, as a protest-vote) political party, albeit flawed. Calling it ‘extremist’ is not international-law, but a CLASSIC racist-dogwhistle to signal Israel that she won't work w/ Hamas (Gaza's govt), & therefore won't include Gaza in talks.”On November 2, 2019, El-Taher tweeted: “Palestine does not have a military. It has a handful of militants w/ homemade rockets that amount to exaggerated-fireworks, whose destructive power is, e.g., minor damage to a concrete wall.”
Hamas rockets have destroyed homes in Israel and caused multiple casualties as well as deaths. In May 2019, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar publicly thanked “Iran for providing his terror group the rockets it used to strike deep into Israel.”
On November 13, 2019, El-Taher tweeted: “Western MSM [Mainstream media]...only reports the rogue groups in Palestine who EVENTUALLY shoot a homemade ‘rocket’, not the OCEANS of previous Israeli violence (physical/structural) that leads to rogue retaliation.”
One day earlier, 200 rockets were fired from Hamas-controlled Gaza into Israel.
Glorifying Violent Protesters
On May 16, 2018, a Hamas senior official, Salah al-Bardawil, stated that 50 out of 62 protesters killed during the May 14 Gaza border protest were Hamas operatives. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also claimed that three of its members were killed at the same protest.
On January 2, 2019, El-Taher tweeted: “International law endows the captives of that concentration camp the legal right to violence, as a means for escape and freedom.
On November 22, 2019, El-Taher tweeted: “...WEEKLY, Palestinians march in UNARMED protest, despite oncoming bullets for their Gandhian approach…”
The violent riots during the “March of Return” continued into 2019 and included armed protesters using gunfire, penetrating Israeli territory, launching incendiary kites into Israel and throwing IEDs, hand grenades and Molotov cocktails. Some of the attacks were carried out by Hamas operatives.
El-Taher continued: “We must act, at the very least, by unanimously putting fire under the a**es of our Zionist-supporting political leaders. Our leaders have allowed the genocide of Palestine, week after miserable week, to die en-masse.
On that same day, he continued to support the violent protesters, tweeting: “We must show—globally!—the Palestinian ppl that protest in Palestine is NOT futile, is NOT w/o MASSIVE external uproar & political-change.”
On December 22, 2019, El-Taher tweeted: “So, day after day, the overwhelmingly Gandhian protests of countless Palestinian CIVILIANS in Gaza are the last-resort plea of a people abandoned by the world & held captive in a massive concentration camp...”
On December 27, 2019, El-Taher tweeted: “The 86th week of protests in Gaza is now concluded. Protestors (
unarmed) themselves were relatively calm & in less numbers…”On January 8, 2020, El-Taher tweeted: “And let’s recall 2018. On a Friday of 5/2018, Israel massacred
unarmed protestors in Gaza.”On January 10, 2020, El-Taher tweeted: “I will retweet this every Friday at 6-7am (local time in Gaza), for as long as the Great March of Return continues among my gandhian, courageous, selfless people.”
Hatred of Israel
On December 11, 2019, El-Taher tweeted: “Zionists not only want to exterminate Palestine — they even want to exterminate our ability to bleed & wail while they do so…”On December 4, 2019, El-Taher tweeted: “...Israel's massacre of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla (carrying humanitarian aid) occurred a YEAR AFTER Netanyahu took office….”
The Mavi Marmara was the lead ship in the “Freedom Flotilla” that attempted to sail to Gaza in May 2010. Activists aboard the ship agitated for violent confrontation and chanted a slogan glorifying the killing of Jews. When Israeli security forces boarded the Marmara, protesters attacked them with iron bars, metal chairs, knives, stun grenades and firearms, rocks and bottles. A United Nations report found that the flotilla agitators initiated an organized, violent confrontation with Israeli forces, and that the Marmara was carrying no humanitarian aid, only weaponry.
On November 29, 2019, El-Taher tweeted: “Gaza is the world’s largest concentration camp — a term I & others do not use flippantly. Yet, Palestinians respond to such Israeli-manufactured misery AND terror with unarmed Gandhian resistance…”
On November 14, 2019, El-Taher tweeted: “Israel is genociding Palestine, while simultaneously committing genocide-denial & denying that ‘Palestine’ or any ‘Palestinian’ ever existed.They not only exterminate Palestinian bodies, but outright history itself...”
On that same date, he tweeted: “...Israel won’t be satisfied until it’s annihilated all of Gaza... Don’t call it ‘disproportionate’. Call it genocide.”
On November 12, 2019, El-Taher tweeted: “#FirstWorld torment is forcefully moving thru the motions of my day—inundated at work—while my ppl in Gaza are under genocide by the world’s most criminal settler-colonial state…”
On November 2, 2019, El-Taher tweeted: ‘Israel must be understood as a project of white-settler colonialism, whose efficient success in exterminating & expelling the dark natives of the land (Palestinians) is owed to its fellow-Western purveyors of white settler-colonialism.”
On May 30, 2019, El-Taher promoted an “anti-AIPAC protest” and wrote: “Anyone who’ll be in downtown Chicago, today—and who believes in justice for Palestine—join our anti-AIPAC protest...”
The stated mission of theAmerican Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is to “strengthen, protect and promote the U.S.-Israel relationship in ways that enhance the security of the United States and Israel.”
Supporting BDS
On April 1, 2019, El-Taher tweeted: “I’ll be lobbying in Congress next week (with a national group of Palestinian organizers) in part for BDS.”On July 24, 2019, El-Taher tweeted: “...I don’t care which politician supports BDS. I care who will allow ME to do BDS.”
On August 2, 2019, El-Taher tweeted: “This
article is of paramount significance! It arrives a time when the BDS movement—the historic, nonviolent method for Palestine’s liberation—is under PEAK attack...Authored by none other than Dr. @AliceRothchild.”Rothschild has created and promoted an anti-Israel documentary, spread anti-Israel conspiracy theories and demonized Israel.
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/arian.eltaher
Photos & Screenshots
