Abdul Jabbar

Overview

Abdul Jabbar has compared Israel to Nazis, supported the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and demonized Israel.

He is a professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at the City College of San Francisco (CCSF). 

Comparing Israel to Nazis

On August 6, 2014, Jabbar posted a photo on Facebook of himself holding a sign that read: “HITLER RETURNS AS NETANYAHU OF ISRAEL.”

Alongside the photo, Jabbar wrote a caption that said: “‘HITLER RETURNS AS NETANYAHU OF ISRAEL.’ I designed this poster that I am holding in this picture of our protest in front of the Israeli Consulate General in San Francisco on August 4, 2014.”

Jabbar also posted a photo of himself carrying the same sign on August 11, 2014. Along with the post, Jabbar wrote: “The ongoing genocide of Palestinians by Israeli Zionists is like a nightmare that keeps going on and on. The international leaders' powerlessness to stop this genocide is more horrifying than Hitler's killing of Jews because Hitler's evil act was carried out when the news did not travel that far so quickly as today.”

On July 18, 2014, Jabbar posted on Facebook: “What Israel has been doing to Palestinians since 1948 is the Holocaust in slow motion. The difference is that this time it is not the Nazis but Israelis who are carrying it out. The international community has to put an end to this tragedy.”

Supporting BDS

On February 18, 2017, Jabbar wrote a Facebook post applauding NFL player Michael Bennet for rejecting an invitation to Israel. In his post, Jabbar wrote that Bennet “joins the courageous resisters of injustice among celebrated athletes, authors, actors, and activists.”

On June 12, 2016, Jabbar posted on Facebook: “The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement is a peaceful way to force Israel to end its genocide of Palestinians and end its illegal occupation.”

Jabbar’s post included an anti-Israel AJ+ video about Gaza.

On June 8, 2016, Jabbar shared another video, published by AJ+, condemning New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for passing anti-BDS legislation.

Jabbar commented: “I didn't think the governor was such an idiot! Sad that he didn't learn a thing from Sen. Bernie Sanders, who spoke in the idiot's own city (New York).”

Jabbar continued: “The BDS movement is an internationally known non-violent process to resist injustice and aggression. The governor must have been paid handsomely by the Israeli lobby (AIPAC) for pandering to opposing such a peaceful means to fight brutal Israeli occupation of Palestine.”

On February 25, 2015, Jabbar shared a petition on Facebook, calling upon members of the United States Congress to boycott an upcoming speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The petition, authored by the anti-Israel Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) organization, stated that “We are outraged that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was invited to speak before Congress… We call on all members of Congress to refuse to attend Netanyahu’s speech."

Demonizing Israel

In a Facebook post published January 27, 2018, Jabbar shared an article condemning comedian Jerry Seinfeld and other “progressive Jews” for supporting Israel.

The article claimed: “In its interaction with the indigenous Arabs, Israel is a settler colonial state that regards the original inhabitants as inferior creatures only fit to be ethnically cleansed or, at best, to do menial work for their Jewish masters.”

Jabbar later commented on his own post, writing that “everyone should read this article, not just the liberal Jews... I, however, separate racist and excluvists Zionists from progressive Jews like Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, etc., who have supported Palestinians passionately and at grave risk to themselves.”

On November 9, 2017, Jabbar wrote a Facebook post calling the Balfour Declaration, incorporated into Article 80 of the United Nation’s Charter, “illegal” and stating that the “U.S. government should stop using its veto power at the United Nations to shield Israel's illegal and brutal actions.”

In another post, written on July 24, 2014, Jabbar argued: “The Obama administration has been repeating the inane catechism that Israel has a right to defend itself. What Israel is defending is not itself but its illegal occupation. There is a huge difference between the two. If Israel has the “right” to defend its illegal occupation of Palestine, doesn’t Hamas, with whatever means it can muster, have the right to defend its citizens, who have been under constant attack for the past seven years?”

In January 2009, Jabbar published an article titled “Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.”

In the article, Jabbar wrote that “It is our moral obligation to bring an immediate end to the death and destruction that Israeli government has been inflicting on the Palestinians in Gaza.”

Jabbar went on to defend Hamas, stating that “Israel and the US government base their boycott of Hamas on the highly questionable accusation that Hamas is a terrorist organization.”

In addressing “the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel” Jabbar reasoned that “During a blockade of the kind that Gaza has been subjected to for so long… one wonders what the Israelis and the US government expect the Gazans to do.”

Jabbar then wrote that “Israel finds one excuse or another to go on occupying Palestine” and that “There can be no justification for our continued funding of Israeli aggression to the tune of billions of dollars worth of US money.”