Habiba Ahmed

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. 

In May 2021, during Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW), Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades website publicized some of its long-range missile capabilities, known to include a variety of deadly rockets. The rockets have killed and injured civilians, and damaged homes.

Hatred of Israel

On May 16, 2021, during OGW, Ahmed posted on Facebook: “There is absolutely NO excuse for the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Israeli government and IDF. It’s absolutely sickening and heartbreaking, and I’m ashamed that American taxpayer dollars go towards funding state-sanctioned genocide, ethnic cleansing, and land theft…”

On May 17, 2021, Ahmed tweeted: “I am a medical student and I call for a #FreePalaestine [sic] and an end to the Israeli state’s apartheid. This is integral to both my moral world view and my scholarship.#MedTwitter / #GazaUnderAttack.”

On May 18, 2021, Ahmed shared on Twitter a series of maps popular among anti-Israel activists.

The maps claim that lands once controlled by Britain, Egypt and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian land” were purportedly stolen by Israel. In February 2016, publisher McGraw-Hill Education recalled copies of a college textbook containing the fraudulent maps. In October 2015, American cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.

Spreading Incitement and Engaging in Anti-Israel Activism

On May 18, 2021, Ahmed tweeted: “...let’s ask where this current burst of violence came from. Forced displacement of folks who lived in Sheikh Jarrah for decades and the attack of Al Aqsa during Ramadan.”

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. 

The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been a pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before the existence of the modern Jewish state. Such propaganda has led to multiple periods of violence against Israeli civilians.

Ramadan is an Islamic holy month during which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and are meant to engage in self-reflection, repentance and the giving of charity. Ramadan is frequently marked by increased anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric throughout the Arab world, Palestinian violence in Israel and heightened tensions centered in the Old City of Jerusalem.

On May 21, 2021, Ahmed tweeted: “Today UNC School of Medicine students protested for Palestinian human rights. We handed out leaflets educating ppl abt the events of this week and each poster we made included QR codes for various relief funds that we directed ppl to donate towards. We stand with Palestine!!”

Ahmed’s tweet included a photo of the “leaflet” which had text that read: “Palestinians who had been living in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood for decades were threatened with eviction, with their land and homes claimed by Jewish settler groups.”

The leaflet also said: “During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Israeli police attacked innocent worshippers at Al-Aqsa mosque…”

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/hahmed8

Twitter:https://twitter.com/mhabibaaa

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/habibsta/ [Private]

Threads:https://www.threads.net/@habibsta