Meshal Alshahrani

Overview

Meshal Alshahrani [Mishal Saeed al-Shahrani] has spread hatred of Zionists, promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, demonized Israel and endorsed anti-Israel agitators.

Alshahrani is also a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

In 2015, Alshahrani was affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at San Jose State University (SJSU).

As of Janaury 2022, Alshahrani’s LinkedIn page said he was a Program Manager at Prototek since August 2021, and that he was located in San Jose, California.

Alshahrani’s LinkedIn also said he completed a “Certificate Program” in “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” from Stanford University Graduate School of Business (Stanford GSB) in 2021 and that he graduated from SJSU with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2017.

As of Janaury 2022, Alshahrani went by the name “Meshal Saeed” on Facebook as well as LinkedIn.

As of the same date, Alshahrani used the handle “meshalastic” on TikTok, Pinterest and Twitter. He went by the screen name “The Professor” on Twitter.

Hatred of Zionists

On July 13, 2014, Alshahrani posted to Facebook: “I love Jews.. not Zionists.”

Alshahrani’s post linked to a video of anti-Zionist Neturei Karta leader, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, who was excommunicated from many Ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups for participating in a 2006 Holocaust denial conference.

Neturei Karta is a fringe anti-Israel Jewish group. The group opposes Zionism on religious grounds and supports the dismantlement of Israel.

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.

Promoting Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories

On July 12, 2015, Alshahrani posted to Facebook a video titled: “Israel is a threat to America, not Iran. United States will go to war with Israel soon,” starring David Duke. Alshahrani commented on his post: “Must watch.”

David Duke is aformer Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. He is also a Holocaust denier, an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist and a convicted felon.

In the video, Duke claimed [00:11:34]: “Israel is the real terrorist state and Israel gets away with all this evil. Why? Because the same supremacist tribe that runs Israel dominates the American and globalist media like the New York Times and Washington Post. Because they control the Federal Reserve, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund…”

The assertion that Jews control the media has been traced to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an anti-Semitic fabricated text that depicts wealthy Jews conspiring to take over the world.

Demonizing Israel

On August 5, 2014, during Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge” (OPE)” against Hamas in Gaza, Alshahrani shared to Facebook a video of Irish Senator David Norris who labeled [00:07:48] Gaza “a punishment camp.”

Norris also called [00:06:07] for the removal of Israel’s embargo on Gaza and the boycott [00:06:30] of Israeli goods.

Alsharani introduced the video with a comment claiming Norris’s anti-Israel presentation was a “Powerful speech from a pro-Israel Irish man.”

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

Endorsing Anti-Israel Agitators

On November 12, 2015, Alshahrani posted to Facebook a photo of himself posing next to Mads Gilbert and referred to him as “the hero.”

Gilbert has been banned indefinitely from entering Gaza through Israel because of his connections to the Hamas leadership.

In 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2014 Gilbert was stationed at a hospital that served as a Hamas command center and rocket launching site. During that time he acted as a propagandist for the Hamas government in Gaza.

In 2001, following al Qaeda's September 11 terrorist attacks, Gilbert expressed support for the terror acts as a “legitimate response.” In December of 2009, Gilbert was accused of faking resuscitation on a dead child in Gaza for dramatic effect for a CNN video.

Alshahrani was listed as an attendee for a November 12, 2014, SJP at SJSU event titled: “Dr. Steven Salaita: Academic Freedom and Palestine.”

In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Steven Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: “You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.”

The event page description read: “Infuriated by Israel's 50 day assault on Gaza [OPE] this past summer... professor Steven Salaita decided to speak out via Twitter. Unfortunately, Dr. Salaita's right to free speech was violated.”

Supporting BDS

On July 18, 2014, Alshahrani shared to Facebook a pro-BDS video titled, “Why Would a Texan Boycott Israel?” and commented: “Word of truth.”

The video called on [00:02:48] viewers to join the BDS movement and urged [00:03:18] that viewers contact the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (ETO), now called the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), is a coalition of American-based anti-Israel organizations. ETO’s activities include lobbying Congress to end aid to Israel, promoting BDS, organizing Israeli Apartheid Week on college campuses and initiating publicity-generating campaigns to demonize Israel.

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.