Naveed Bahadur

Hamas broadcast videos of their butchery on social media, often to victims’ accounts for families to see. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.” As of November 10, 2023, approximately 1,200 Israelis, the vast majority of them civilians, were murdered during the attacks. Hamas kidnapped 242 Israelis, including at least 30 children. At least 3,500 people were wounded, many severely.

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 7] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. 

Bahadur captioned a February 6, 2024, Facebook Reel: “...the Palestinian armed resistance is legal…Furthermore, there are no such thing as isra*li citizens in occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. They are all illegal settlers and thus not innocent…”

Anti-Israel activists use the term “resistance” to refer to violence and terror perpetrated against Israeli civilians and their allies. It is used to glorify and encourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence. Anti-Israel activists chant slogans such as: “Resistance by any means necessary!” and “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!” in response to terror attacks.

On October 11, 2023, Bahadur posted on Facebook: “…For those that support the [Israeli] occupation and illegal settlements, you have no right to ask anyone to denounce any of the actions on Saturday;in fact it is your support of the occupation and settlements that is the reason Saturday occured [sic]…”

On October 8, 2023, Bahadur featured [slide 8] in an Instagram video taken on October 7th. The video description said, “Last minute action yesterday to support Palestinian resistance, organized by @toronto4palestine…”

3/31/2024 - Spreading Anti-Semitism at an Anti-Israel Rally

On March 31, 2024, Bahadur led an anti-Israel protest and march in Toronto, Ontario. 

Bahadur said [00:01:00] into a microphone: “What do Zionists like? Genocide. What do Zionists like? Ethnic cleansing. What do Zionists like? They like to be guilty of the Palestinian holocaust.”

3/7/2024 - Spreading Anti-Semitism outside a Synagogue

On March 7, 2024, Bahadur organized an anti-Israel protest titled: “No Stolen Land Sales.” Palesign and other anti-Israel groups sponsored the protest, which took place outside a central synagogue in Thornhill, Ontario, that was holding an Israeli real estate expo.
 
In a March 7, 2024 video posted on Instagram promoting the event, Bahadur said: “We’re going to expose again a synagogue selling blood land illegally.”

Bahadur featured as a speaker at the protest. He said [00:00:50]: “What is happening in this ‘SIN’-agogue?...this synagogue has become a ‘SIN’-agogue! Shame!” He later led [00:03:06] anti-Israel protesters in chanting: “Zionism is terrorism!”

Anti-Israel activists also chanted [00:00:01]: “Resistance is justified, when people are occupied!” as well as [00:00:06]: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” and [00:00:57]: “Viva, viva intifada!…Long live the intifada!”

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is a chant used [00:02:47] to call for the elimination of 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. In April 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the chant as antisemitic.

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.

Protesters also chanted [00:03:00]: “Settlers, settlers, go back home, Palestine is our home!” as well as [00:05:01] “Palestine is not for sale, Zionists go to hell!”

On March 12, 2024, Bahadur described the demonstration in a comment on Instagram as “A rave outside the SINagogue.”

May 2024 - Promoting Violence at Anti-Israel Protests in Toronto

In May 2024, Bahadur participated in multiple anti-Israel rallies in Toronto, where he promoted violence and harassed Israel supporters.

On May 2, 2024, activists from the UofT Occupy for Palestine (Occupy UofT) group “stormed down” [00:00:24] fencing around UofT’s Kings College Circle and set up a protest encampment. Protesters “occupied” [00:00:17] the area in May and June 2024, despite UofT’s warning they were trespassing. The group said they would not leave until UofT divested from companies that “sustain Israeli apartheid, occupation and illegal settlement of Palestine” and terminated partnerships with Israeli universities. 

On May 4, 2024, Bahadur said in a speech at a protest in Toronto [00:00:07]: “...We must never be shy or afraid or embarrassed to say we support lawful and legal armed resistance to occupation…legal and armed resistance is encouraged and we will never shy away from that! Long live legal armed resistance to occupation…” The protesters then chanted [00:00:50]: “Long live the resistance!”

On May 4, 2024, PYM Toronto, Toronto4Palestine and Labour For Palestine Toronto organized a “Workers United for Palestine” contingent to join an International Workers Day march. The march began at Toronto City Hall Square and ended at the U of T encampment.

Protesters displayed a banner that read: “LONG LIVE LEGAL ARMED RESISTANCE TO OCCUPATION” with inverted red triangles on each side, indicating support for Hamas. 

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organizationby 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. 
On the same day, Bahadur posted a video on Instagram where he filmed a Jewish man at U of T wearing an Israeli flag and saying: “That’s the largest amount of toilet paper I’ve ever seen in my life…” 

Anti-Israel protesters at the encampment assaulted the man, punching him in the stomach as they forcibly took his Israeli flag. The attackers told the man [00:01:03]: “God bless the armed resistance,” and [00:00:28]: “Go back to Europe!” They also reportedly called him “a “dirty Jew” in Arabic and English. 

A video from the encampment posted on Instagram on May 5 showed [00:04:13] Bahadur wearing a baseball cap with “Resistance Until Liberation” written on its side and a Toronto4Palestine sweatshirt with a red inverted triangle logo on the sleeve, indicating support for Hamas.

On May 11, Bahadur participated in a Nakba Day protest march to the U of T encampment.

On May 11, 2024, PYM and Toronto4Palestine held a march in Toronto, titled: “76 YEARS OF NAKBA / RESISTANCE UNTIL RETURN.” The protesters marched to the U of T encampment.

Protesters chanted: “From the river to the sea, from the sea to the river, Palestine will live forever” and: “Long live the intifada!”, as well as [00:06:20]: “There is only one solution! Intifada revolution!”

A speaker at the protest said [00:11:54]: “...The past 76 years have proven without a doubt that the only path towards ending the dispossession, the destruction and the death that Zionism represents is the path of armed resistance...” and continued [00:13:21]: “...the collapse of the Zionist entity will not come from one decisive blow but it will come through a million small cuts that are inflicted over the course of decades and from every direction…”

One protester with a pro-Hamas logo on his sleeve led others in chanting: “There is only one solution, it’s the student revolution, it’s the student intifada. We are the intifada, globalize the intifada….we are the resistance!”

6/15/2023 - Hatred of Zionists in Toronto

On June 15, 2023, Bahadur led an anti-Israel rally protesting an event featuring former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett. PYM organized the rally, which took place in Toronto, Ontario.

Yara Shoufani, a local anti-Israel activist, said protesters reportedly blocked the road and “swarmed the cars of attendees who were trying to enter through the driveway.”

Bahadur posted a Facebook Reel of himself heckling attendees through a megaphone. He captioned the reel: “We expose this scum so the resistance continues.” 

Bahadur began [00:00:01]: “Who’s a Zionist here?...How was the walk of shame?”

Bahadur continued [00:00:27]: “Palestinians that are doing resistance expect us to be here...When they see people in Toronto confronting Zionists, this is why they keep going on in Palestine and keep resisting…because people around the world will show up when Zionist filth like yourself come and try to celebrate something. That’s why we’re here, so the resistance continues…”

Hatred of Israel

On May 29, 2021, during Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW) against terrorists in Gaza, Bahadur posted on Facebook: “…The Israeli Governement [sic] is corrupt and scum and terrorizes and commits genocide but who is actually living on Palestinian occupied lands? The people stealing land are Jewish Extremist settlers…so if they are using their Jewish religion to justify the theft of land…just like we say ISIS are terrorist scum and muslim extremist cowards, we can also say that these Jewish Extremist settlers are also scum…”

In May 2021, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists fired over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at major population centers in Israel. Israel responded by launching OGW, carrying out targeted military strikes in Gaza.

Bahadur captioned an October 25, 2023, Facebook Reel: “Isr*el and its jewish occupation is the most racist in the world…why doesn’t mainstream media cover this and why do you get cancelled and labelled anti-semitic when you expose it. This is proof that the people who run the media and who help get you cancelled are the same people protecting these racist jewish settlers. There can be no other explanation.”

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. 

Bahadur captioned a November 1, 2023, Facebook Reel: “...We are watching #palestinianholocaust…the world is waking up to what the je*ish occupation and je*ish settlers really are about…May Allah…wipe from this world all oppressors…”

On March 24, 2024, Bahadur commented: “...Hitler would be proud of the genocidal jewish settler na*i [Nazi] occupation.” He was responding to an Instagram post by Palesign that said: “hit*er would be proud of what the jewish state of isr*el has become. Both guilty of Holocausts. He was a deranged and evil killer, just like his student.” 

Incitement

Bahadur captioned a December 10, 2023, Facebook Reel: “The flag & the resistence [sic] & the suffering…it is all for Musjid [mosque] al Aqsa…May Allah give shame to the oppressors & occupiers and rid them from this world…”

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.

On June 3, 2021, Bahadur wrote on Facebook: “#eyeseepalestine / With my blood and my soul I will avenge you, Al Aqsa.”

During OGW in May 2021, Hamas reportedly used civilians as human shields to defend against Israeli counterstrikes. Hamas also launched rockets from densely populated civilian areas, stockpiled weapons in private homes and situated key operations facilities in civilian apartment buildings, near mosques, hospitals and schools.

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/awan.naveeed