Mahmoud Hassane
Overview
Mahmoud Hassane [Mahmoud Hussein Hassane] has repeatedly declared his support for the terrorist group Hamas. He also called for “intifada” while leading the disruption of an Israeli diplomat at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis).Hassane supports the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and participated in the UC Davis 2015 Divestment vote.
Hassane was a board member of the UC Davis Muslim Students Association (MSA) in 2015-2016, where he served as Outreach Director.
As of April 2018, he is a member of the closed Facebook group UC Davis Muslim Students Association (MSA), an administrator of the MSA “Brotherhood of Davis” closed Facebook group and an administrator of UC Davis MSA Islamic Studies Group 2016-2017.
Hassane was also a member of MSA at Diabolo Valley College (DVC), where he organized and promoted events on Facebook. He has been a member of DVC MSA’s Facebook group since August 14, 2011.
Hassane was a student at DVC in 2012 and 2013. An April 26, 2013 Facebook post indicated that he planned to transfer from DVC and a June 26, 2014 post indicated that he started studying at UC Davis in 2014.
As of April 2018, the UC Davis student directory listed Hassane as a senior, majoring in Managerial Economics. As of June 15, 2018, Hassane indicated on Facebook that he graduated UC Davis.
Hassane has indicated on Facebook that he has been in court several times and was compelled to perform community service for multiple speeding violations.
Supporting Hamas
On March 17, 2015, after quoting the Hamas Charter, Hassane wrote in a Facebook post: “So I ask, who am I to decide on the giving up of a single inch of land of Palestine or any other land that collectively belongs to the people of this Ummah? Stick with your politics & and your running of circles around yourselves, we will stick with Hamas & Al-Qassam.”
On August 30, 2014, Hassane posted a series of photos of Hamas leaders and founders. The photos included a photo of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin with late Hamas leader and co-founder Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi.
Rantisi supported suicide bombings against Israeli civilians and said in 2003: “By God, we will not leave one Jew in Palestine. We will fight them with all the strength we have. This is our land, not the Jews.”
On July 21, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Hassane posted a picture of himself on Facebook with a poster attached to his backpack featuring the Hamas logo and “#Hamas”. Hassane commented “Lol it's Hamas forever and after
.” Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
Disruption of George Deek
On March 8, 2016, Hassane posted a video on Facebook titled UC Davis Students Stand Up for Palestine @ Israeli Diplomat speech. On March 7, 2016, a group of around 30 protesters from a group calling itself "Pro-Palestine Supporters and Community” disrupted an event titled “The Art of Middle East Diplomacy,”organized by a pro-Israel group at UC Davis.The event featured Israeli diplomat George Deek, an Arab Christian born in Jaffa. The disruption was videotaped.
The protesters obscured [00:00:33] Deek from the audience’s view, with an enormous banner across the front of the room that read “1948=1492” and disrupted Deek’s talk, repeatedly chanting [00:00:05, 00:00:31 and 00:02:17] “Long live the Intifada” and [00:00:10, 00:00:38 and 00:01:17] “Intifada, Intifada!”
The protestors also demonized [00:00:13] Israel, calling it “an Apartheid state” and claiming [00:01:21] “Israel is anti-Black.”
As the protesters shouted, Deek wrote [00:01:39] on a chalkboard behind them that he had come to have a conversation. However, the activists then exited the room, yelling [00:02:32] “Allahu Akbar!”
A post-walkout statement from the protesters claimed that they organized based on “shared principles of anti-colonialism in general and anti-zionism in particular,” to reject Deek’s “settler-colonial agenda that is xenophobic, Islamophobic and anti-Black.
The statement condemned Deek, “a self-identified Israeli born to a Palestinian family,” as a“colonial collaborator,” announcing its authors would “not tolerate or allow for such people to have a platform to speak on [their] campus.
Anti-Israel Activism
On January 31, 2015, Hassane posted on Facebook saying: “...every inch of Palestine will once again return to it's [sic] rightful owners and that the people of fasad [corruption] will run and disappear like they did many times before.”On April 13, 2013 he posted on Facebook: “...60+ Years & it's still Filistine.”On November 16, 2012, Hassane attended an anti-Israel rally targeting the Israeli consulate in San Francisco, during Operation Pillar of Defense (OPD). He claimed on Facebook to represent DVC MSA.
Israel launched OPD to stop Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians from Gaza. Over the course of eight days in November 2012, Palestinian terrorist groups fired more than 1,500 rockets at Israel. The majority struck Israel, damaging homes, schools and other civilian areas. Human Rights Watch noted: “Palestinian armed groups made clear in their statements that harming civilians was their aim.”
Between November 17 and November 24, 2012, Hassane posted to Facebooka series of photos of the rally, including a photo of himself posing with keffiyeh-masked activists displaying Palestinian flags.
One of the Palestinian flags bore the Shehada declaration, signifying identification with Hamas.
Supporting BDS
On January 31, 2015, Hassane wrote a Facebook post titled “what I Learned from Divestment!” His post went on to claim that the “biggest victory” of divestment was how anti-divestment advocates participated in a walk-out “not being able to face defeat with any sense of dignity or honor.”On January 30, 2015, Hassane attended UC Davis’ Divestment vote. He posted a photo of divestment supporters in the corridor, calling it a “‘Hamas Tunnel’ style to Divestment.”
On February 3, 2015, Hassane defended the co-author of UC Davis’ divestment resolution, Azka Fayyaz, in a Facebook post. Fayyaz became the focal point of national controversy over statements she made during and following a 2015 UC Davis senate hearing regarding divestment.
Following the resolution vote, which passed 8-2-2, Fayyaz reportedly wrote on her Facebook page, "Hamas & Shariah law have taken over UC Davis. Brb crying over the resilience."
Following backlash against her post, Fayyaz wrote again on her Facebook page the same night, "Israel will fall insha’Allah [God willing] #UCDDivest."
Later, in an open letter to the student community, Fayyaz insisted her "Hamas & Shariah law” comment was “satirical.She then attacked “the leadership of AEPi, the Jewish fraternity at UC Davis, and Aggies for Israel,” claiming they reported the contents of her profile to “the Zionist lobby groups which they have been paid to represent.”
MSA
The MSA was established by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in January 1963 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with the goal of "spreading Islam as students in North America." A 2004 FBI investigation uncovered an internal Muslim Brotherhood document in which a brotherhood leader identified the MSA as "one of our organizations."
The MSA reportedly has “nearly 600 chapters” located in the United States and Canada, and is “the most visible and influential Islamic student organization in North America,” boasting conferences, special events, publications, websites and other activities.
The organization includes a number of previous chapter presidents with explicit links to terrorist groups. Included are al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki (Colorado State University), Somali al-Shabaab militant leader Omar Shafik Hammami (University of South Alabama) and Pakistani Taliban recruiter Ramy Zamzam of the MSA's Washington, D.C. council.
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/100000591060198
Videos
Photos & Screenshots
