Moath Othman

Overview

Moath Othman has spread incitement, disrupted a campus event, promoted hatred of Israel and was a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) activist at San Jose State University (SJP at SJSU) in 2014 and 2015.

In 2015, Othman was listed as an organizer for the Muslim American Society (MAS), San Francisco Bay Area chapter, MAS Bay Area. Othman was also affiliated with the organization in 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2020.

In 2012 and 2013, Othman was the Vice President [00:01:21] and an organizer of SJSU’s Muslim Student Association (MSA).

As of August 2021, Othman’s LinkedIn page said he was a “Manager, Technical Program Management for Augmented reality and Virtual Reality” at Facebook Reality Labs since June 2021. His LinkedIn page said he lived in the San Francisco Bay Area.

As of the same date, Othman’s LinkedIn page said he received a bachelor’s degree from SJSU in Engineering. Othman graduated from SJSU in 2015.

Spreading Incitement

On November 21, 2014, Othman led an SJP at SJSU march titled, “Hands off Al Aqsa and Palestine,” with fellow activists.

In the fall of 2014, Palestinian leaders and media incited a wave of violence against Israelis with the lie that Israel intended to desecrate the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. This resulted in the November 18, 2014 Har Nof massacre, in which terrorists murdered six people in a Jerusalem synagogue during morning prayers.

Also on November 21, 2014, Othman featured in SJP at SJSU Twitter photos from the march. One of the tweets used the hashtag “#HandsoffAlAqsa” and featured a photo of Othman appearing to speak through a megaphone.

The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been a traditional pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before the existence of the modern Jewish state.

According to a November 23, 2014 article, Abid El-Miaari, the co-founder of SJP at SJSU, led the group to San Jose City Hall and presented the Mayor’s office with a “list of demands.” One of the demands was for the U.S. government to “stop its complicity with the violations of international law by ending U.S. military aid to Israel."

At the march, activists reportedly chanted: “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.

Disrupting a Campus Event

On April 2, 2014, Othman and fellow SJP at SJSU activists disrupted [00:00:47] a talk organized by StandWithUs, an Israeli advocacy group. The talk was given by former Israeli officers, including Lital Shemesh. The students walked out of the lecture as soon as Shemesh mentioned [00:00:08]“serving in the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces].”

After the walk-out, a YouTube video of the incident showed attendees recapping the event. During the footage, Othman mocked the presentation of the former soldiers, claiming [00:01:44]: “All of a sudden they’ll switch the scene; they’ll go ‘but, you know Israel is a really bad place to live. We live in the Ghetto; it’s like Compton [California].’” Othman continued [00:01:51]: “They blame it on Palestinians and Hamas...and they give you a scene of their life ...trying to get to your head.”

Palestinian political violence from Hamas and other terror groups has targeted Israeli citizens with multiple forms of attacks like suicide bombings, kidnappings and firing rockets.

Hamas's founding charter calls for the murder of Jews, while the terror group’s “summer camps” have taught children how to wage war.

Promoting Hatred of Israel

On April 29, 2015, in an article published by the Spartan Daily, SJSU’s student newspaper, Othman was quoted discussing Israel's Operation Protective Edge (OPE): “Don’t tell me you’re fighting terrorists… You’re fighting people and you’re killing people.”

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

Hamas's deployment of human shields was extensively documented and publicized. Hamas encouraged Gazans to act as human shields to frustrate Israeli efforts to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza.

In the same article, Othman also referred to Israel as “apartheid Israel.”

On September 27, 2014, Othman shared a quote to SJP at SJSU’s Facebook group that he attributed to anti-Israel activist Taher Herzallah.

The quote said: “ISIS and Israel have a lot more in common than anyone else.” The quote concluded with a reference to then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi: “If I were Netanyahu, I’d look at myself in the mirror and ask myself the question, why do I look a lot like Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi?”

Taher Herzallah has expressed support for violence against Israeli Jews, was arrested twice for anti-Israel disruptions and spread an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. He has called [01:12:46] for the destruction of Zionism, promoted [00:04:04] religious hatred of Israel, excused religious anti-Semitism and spread incitement. As of February 2021, Herzallah was AMP’s Associate Director of Outreach & Grassroots Organizing.

SJP Activism

On November 22, 2014, Othman was featured in a group photo on Facebook that was captioned: “San Jose State SJP Students for Justice in Palestine at SJSU #FreePalestine.” Othman held a Palestinian flag showing the Al Aqsa mosque, while other protesters held signs accusing Israel of “stealing land,” “apartheid” and “racism.”

Othman was listed as an attendee of an October 21, 2015, SJP at SJSU event titled, “The Bullet, The Ballot, & The Boycott,” that featured David Sheen.

David Sheen is an anti-Israel activist and filmmaker who works to portray Israel as an extremist racist state. To this end, Sheen has been accused of purposefully mistranslating Hebrew articles and other media to make Israelis appear racist.

The Facebook event page description said: “The core of the presentation concerns the dehumanizing discourse towards Palestinians… by top Israeli political and religious leaders, and the vigilante attacks they inspire, which spiked during last summer's assault on the Gaza Strip.”

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.

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.