Didier Ortiz

Overview

Didier Ortiz has expressed support for terrorism, equated Israel with Nazi Germany and spread hatred of Israel and America. Ortiz is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Ortiz was reportedly president of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in 2014.

As of March 2023, Ortiz’s Twitter bio said in Spanish that he was a Biology teacher. As of the same date, Ortiz was listed as a science teacher on the website of Hollywood Hills High, a magnet school in the Broward County (Florida) public school system. 

As of March 2023, Ortiz was listed on ballotpedia.org as the spokesperson for the Green Party of Florida (GPFL). In 2015, Ortiz served as chairperson of the Broward County Green Party and spokesperson for the GPFL. In 2015, Ortiz ran as the Green Party candidate for the Third District of the Fort Lauderdale City Commission.

In January 2023, Ortiz was described on the Facebook page of the Midwestern Marx Institute as a “political analyst and Marxist-Leninist based in South Florida.” 

As of March 2023, Ortiz was an activist with the anti-Israel organization Troika Kollective. The Troika Kollective supports BDS [slides 10, 12] and has promoted other anti-Israel organizations like Within Our Lifetime (WOL) and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM). 

Ortiz was a member of anti-Israel organization Dream Defenders (DD) in 2016 and had been an activist in the group since 2013. 

In November 2014, Ortiz was affiliated with Al-Awda, the Palestinian Right to Return Coalition, which calls for the destruction of Israel and advocates for BDS. 

Ortiz reportedly graduated from FAU with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science in 2014. Ortiz also served on the FAU House of Representatives. 

As of the March 2023, Ortiz used the handle “@diddyortiz” on Twitter. As of the same date, Ortiz went by the username “Ernesto Ilyich Gramsci” and the handle “@StudyPracticeDiscuss” on Facebook. 

As of March 2023, Ortiz’s Facebook said he lived in North Miami Beach, Florida.

Terror Support (PFLP, PIJ)

On March 9, 2014, Ortiz shared to Facebook a photo of himself speaking in favor of terrorist Rasmea Odeh.

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.

In the photo’s background was a sign that said: “SUPPORT WOMEN! SUPPORT RASMEAH! SIGN THE PETITION TO DROP THE CHARGES AGAINST RASMEA.”

On July 8, 2014, Ortiz posted a photo on Twitter. He wrote: “@iFalasteen: Palestinians burn an occupation snipers tower in AlBirah Ramallah. #Palestine #PalestineResists 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 June 15, 2015, Ortiz promoted on Twitter a rally at the Israeli Consulate in Miami in support of terrorist Khader Adnan, who was then on a hunger strike while in prison.

Khader Adnan was a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist organization. A 2007 YouTube video showed Adnan praising and encouraging suicide bombings: "Who among you will carry the next explosive belt? Who among you will fire the next bullets? Who among you will have his body parts blown all over?” In May 2023, Adnan died in prison after refusing medical treatment during a hunger strike.

Equating Israel with Nazi Germany

On December 5, 2014, Ortiz posted an image to Facebook that featured two pictures, one of Adolf Hitler, with the caption: “We are the master race” and a second picture of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with a caption that read: “We are God’s chosen people.”

Ortiz wrote: “SAME OL' SAME OL' FROM THE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN.”

Hatred of Israel

On February 13, 2023, Ortiz tweeted: “zionism is racism and a colonial ideology of profound visceral hatred, against the Palestinian first, as well as all freedom-fighting peoples the world over.”

Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as another possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.” 

On November 29, 2022, Didier tweeted in reply to several tweets in a thread: “...Jews can also be fascists; israel is a prime example.” 

On November 2, 2022, Ortiz tweeted: “I’ve been to israel; it’s an apartheid sh*t hole.”

On October 24, 2022, Ortiz tweeted: “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE.”

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” is a chant calling to dismantle 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.

On July 12, 2022, Didier tweeted: “zionism is racism, full stop.” Later in the thread, he tweeted: “...there’s nothing more anti-Semitic than zionism.”

On May 17, 2022, Ortiz tweeted: “…recognizing the Nakba is kind of a big deal in the sense that it recognizes that the zionist entity was founded on a genocidal massacre. Al-Nakba is ‘israel's’ independence day. At the same token, it's barely a recognition of israeli apartheid.”

The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.

On March 15, 2016, Ortiz said [00:01:29] in a Dream Defenders video on YouTube: “Zionism is racism, is colonialism, is fascism. Liberation cannot come until Zionism is utterly destroyed.”

On August 12, 2015, Ortiz tweeted at Rabbi Meir May, the Executive Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center: “@rabbimay the state of israel IS pretty much like ISIS. zionism is racism & your organization is, frankly, an enemy of freedom of expression.”

On August 5, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Ortiz tweeted: “If you support the State of #Israel, you have no sense of universal morality; only void dogma and tribalist anxieties.”

Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

Hatred of America

On September 12, 2019, Ortiz tweeted: “Remember that amerikkka's solution to religious extremism is literal genocide.”

The term “Amerikkka” uses the initials of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as a way to demonize America as “fascist or racist.”  

On January 3, 2020, Ortiz tweeted: “The United States government is a terrorist regime.”

Ortiz retweeted a November 27, 2022 tweet that read: “Yes the modern U.S. government would have been allies with Nazi Germany.”

Ortiz retweeted a February 13, 2023 tweet that said: “America is a Failed State. The Oligarchy [are]…planning new ways to crush you everyday…When will Americans finally get in streets & revolt?”

Anti-Israel Activism (DD, Al-Awda)

In November 2014, Ortiz was listed as a speaker for Al-Awda’s 12th Annual International Convention held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from November 14-16, 2014.

From May 10-20, 2016, Ortiz participated in a Dream Defenders trip to Israel led by DD co-founder Ahmad Abuznaid. In a January 2015 article, Abuznaid was quoted stating that DD trips are intended “to build real relationships with those on the ground leading the fight for liberation.” 


On May 11, 2016, Ortiz wrote on Instagram that he met with tour guide Mahmoud Jiddeh, a member of the PFLP, who spent 17 years in jail for planting bombs in Israel.

On May 15, 2016, Ortiz wrote on Instagram: “This is what #apartheid looks like. #zionism must [be] eradicated. #FreePalestine.”

On May 17, 2016, Ortiz posed in a photo with Haneen Zoabi.

Haneen Zoabi, a former member of Israel’s parliament (the Knesset), has been investigated for inciting violence on a number of occasions. In July 2014, Zoabi was suspended from the Knesset after she defended the Hamas kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers, who were later found executed in a field.

The same day, Ortiz posted a photo on Instagram of the DD delegation’s visit to the Dheisheh Refugee Camp, a PFLP stronghold. 

On May 18, 2016, the DD delegation met with BDS founder Omar Barghouti and were joined by former Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) spokesperson Diana Buttu. 

Former Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) spokesperson Diana Buttu served in the PLO during the second intifada when the PLO, under the auspices of Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, carried out terror attacks and suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.

Dream Defenders

Based in Florida, DD was founded in 2012 and aims to create a "new generation" of organizers working to end domestic and foreign wars, free public education, community control of economic resources, release of prisoners from American prisons and an end to the Capitalist system in the United States.

The group later adopted a harsh anti-Israel position, falsely linking Israel’s existence to the same Capitalist system they view as responsible for the issues their communities face. DD has led several delegations to Israel and where they met exclusively with anti-Israel groups and individuals, including militants from the terrorist organization PFLP.

DD is a project (page 3) of the Tides Center, linked to anti-Israel billionaire George Soros and is a leading organization within the Black Lives Matter (BLM)movement that was founded in 2013.

DD has supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as early December 2014.

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.

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.