Omar Said

Overview

Omar Said [Omar Falasteen] has expressed support for the terrorist organization Hamas and equated Israel to Nazi Germany. Said was the 2016 vice president of events coordination for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU).

For more information, see the SJP TMU Chapter Profile. TMU was known as Ryerson University until April 2022.

In 2016, Said was a member of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) chapter at TMU (Toronto Met MSA). As of August 2023, Said was listed as a past delegate of the Civitan Youth Leadership and Diversity Conference (YLDC) website.

As of the same date, Said’s LinkedIn profile said he graduated from TMU with a bachelor’s degree in engineering in 2020. His LinkedIn also said he has been working as a software engineer for Amazon since May 2022 and was located in San Francisco, California. He also wrote that he has been volunteering at the Muslim Association Canada (MAC) as an education coordinator since “Jan 2019.”

As of August 2023, Said used the handle “@omarmk123” and went by the username “Omar MK” on Facebook. On Twitter, he used the handle “@omarfalasteen” and went by the username “Alex Fed.” He used the handle “@omarmustafa97” on LinkedIn.

Support for Hamas Terrorists

On July 26, 2014, during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Said tweeted: “Blaming #hamas for firing rockets is like blaming a women for punishing her rapist. #GazaUnderAttack.”

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.

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

On August 28, 2014, Said tweeted a photo of a Hamas militant embracing a Gazan Palestinian and wrote: “Gazan settlers showing love to the resistance fighters.”

On August 29, 2014, Said tweeted several photos supporting Hamas. One photo featured Hamas spokesmen, Sami Abu Zuhri and Fawzi Barhoum, being lifted up by the crowd. Said commented: “our faith will never fall, if we have legs we will stand if our hearts beat we will fight #Gaza #Palestine.”

Another photo featured a man draped in a Hamas flag and bandanna.

Equating Israel to Nazi Germany

On July 26, 2014, during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Said tweeted a graphic that equated Israel with Nazi Germany by juxtaposing the Israeli and Nazi flags and images of Holocaust survivors and Palestinians. He wrote: “Really don't see a difference #ICC4Israel [International Criminal Court].”

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as one possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Over 40 countries have adopted the definition as well.

On the same day, Said tweeted an image of a fabricated quote attributed to Albert Einstein that read: “It would be my greatest sadness to see Zionists (Jews) do to Palestinian Arabs much of what Nazis did to Jews.”

On November 29, 2016, members of SJP TMU and Torontomet MSA reportedly participated in a walkout that prevented TMU’s Student Union (TMSU) from voting on a motion requesting that TMU commemorate Holocaust Education Week (HEW).

On December 3, 2016, Students Supporting Israel (SSI) at TMU posted a recording of Said, where he said the HEW should include [00:01:42] the “Palestinian Holocaust, and shouldn’t just be toward the Jewish Holocaust.”

On December 19, 2016, TMSU’s board unanimously passed the motion to commemorate HEW.

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.