Omar Ali

Overview

Omar Ali has spread hatred of Israel and was an activist with Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at McMaster University (McMaster SPHR) in 2015. He was also affiliated with the organization from 2016 to 2017. SPHR is an alternative name for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). For more information, see the McMaster SPHR Chapter Profile.

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

As of March 6, 2024, Ali’s LinkedIn profile said he had been a manager at PwC Canada since June 2023, and had been employed there since January 2022.

Also as of March 6, 2024, Ali’s LinkedIn said he graduated from McMaster University (McMaster) with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and management co-op in 2018.

As of the same date, Ali’s LinkedIn said he lived in Oakville, Ontario, Canada.

As of March 6, 2024, Ali went by the username “Hani Ali” and used the handle “@haniamali” on Twitter. He went by the username “Omar Hani” on Facebook from 2014 to 2017, but as of February 2024 his Facebook account had been deleted.

Hatred of Israel

Ali retweeted a December 24, 2023 tweet featuring a video in which a Palestinian Christian pastor accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.

Both the original tweet and the retweet were posted in the wake of Hamas terror atrocities and war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, which were executed on October 7, 2023

The Hamas terror attacks left over 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”

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. 

On June 16, 2014, Ali wrote on Facebook: “#Disgusting” in response to an anti-Israel video he included in his post. The video claimed to expose “Israeli torturing of non-Jewish children.” The film falsely accused Israel of torturing Palestinian children by keeping them in outdoor cages overnight.

Anti-Israel Activism

Ali indicated on Facebook that he “went” to a March 16, 2017, McMaster SPHR event for Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), titled: “From Intifada to Liberation: Defeating Colonialism and Imperialism.”

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.

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is presented internationally as a “series of events that seeks to raise awareness of…Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people.” One of its goals is to build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. IAW has been renamed Palestine Awareness Week.

Ali indicated on Facebook that he “went” to a March 8, 2017, McMaster SPHR film screening event titled: “Israeli Apartheid Week: The Lab.” 

The Facebook event description said: “‘Since 9/11, the Israeli arms industries are doing bigger business than ever before. Large Israeli companies develop and test the vessels of future warfare, which is then sold worldwide by private Israeli agents, who manipulate a network of Israeli politicians and army commanders, while Israeli theoreticians explain to various foreign countries how to defeat civil and para-military resistance…’”

Ali indicated on Facebook that he “went” to a March 9, 2016, IAW event titled:Apartheid: Live!” hosted by McMaster SPHR. 

The event featured a “mock apartheid wall” labeled “Barrier to Peace,” and infographics that called Gaza “An Open Air Prison.”

The “mock apartheid wall” is a series of panels meant to represent Israel's security barrier, which was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks and in response to Palestinian sniper attacks. Panels feature misleading statistics and “facts” that present a skewed image of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Referring to Gaza as an "open-air prison" is a way to delegitimize the United Nations-approved [pp. 39–41] joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip imposed in 2011 to prevent Hamas from acquiring more sophisticated rockets.

On March 23, 2015, Ali featured in a Facebook group photo posted by McMaster anti-Israel activist Salah Abdelrahman, who wrote: “The team that made it happen. Team BDS at McMaster.”

The post was referring to a BDS motion endorsed by McMaster SPHR and other student groups that the McMaster Student Union (MSU) voted on and passed that same day. 

On March 9, 2015, Ali featured in a photo posted on Facebook by McMaster SPHR as part of a photo album of participants in the group’s annual IAW.

Ali indicated on Facebook that he “went” to a March 4, 2015, IAW event featuring anti-Israel activist David Sheen, who would “give a lecture and slideshow about Israeli incitement to racist violence.”

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.

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.


Social Media and Web Links

Twitter:https://twitter.com/haniamali

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/omar-ali-8705b6a5/