Nader Hashemi

Overview

Nader Hashemi [Nader Ali Hashemi] has defended Hamas terrorists, celebrated intifada violence and spread hatred of Israel.

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

As of July 2023, Hashemi’s Twitter bio said he was teaching at Georgetown University (Georgetown) where he was the director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service (Georgetown SFS). In a June 30, 2023 tweet, he wrote that he accepted the position.

As of June 2023, Hashemi had been an associate professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies (Korbel) at the University of Denver (UD) since 2013.

As of the same date, Korbel’s website said Hashemi had been the director of the school’s Center for Middle East Studies (CMES) since 2015. He was also listed on Korbel’s website as the co-director of the “Religion and International Affairs certificate program” and of the “Political Theory Initiative.”

Hashemi received his PhD in political science from the University of Toronto (U of T) in 2005. Hashemi also graduated from The Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA) at Carleton University (Carlton) with a master’s degree in International Affairs in 1995.

As of July 2023, Hashemi used the handle “@naderalihashemi” on Twitter and his bio said he was located in Washington, D.C.

Defending Hamas

On April 8, 2018, Hashemi tweeted: “...please no more lectures about Hamas when Israeli fascists are in power…”

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 April 15, 2018, Hashemi tweeted: “Hamas changes its strategy and looks to Mandela/Gandhi and MLK [Martin Luther King] for inspiration…”

On May 17, 2018, Hashemi tweeted: “I refuse to hear any critique of Hamas from supporters of fascism/neo-fascism in Israel…”

On May 24, 2021, Hashemi tweeted: “...we ban Hamas while we arm/support their Israeli counterparts.”

Hashemi wrote his tweet three days after the end of Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW) against terrorists in Gaza.

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.

Celebrating Intifada Violence

On October 5, 2015, Hashemi tweeted: “Is a third Palestinian intifada on the way – or has it already begun?...”

In October 2015, there was an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” was characterized by young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab Israeli civilians.

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.

On October 22, 2015, Hashemi tweeted: “EXCELLENT: The current uprising in Palestine could win — but only with international solidarity...”

On May 26, 2018, Hashemi tweeted: “‘Non-violent popular resistance is not new to the Palestinian people. It was practised in the famous six-month civil disobedience strike of 1936 and reached an impressive level during the First Intifada…’”

In the 1920s and 1930s, Arabs living within British Mandatory Palestine orchestrated riots and massacres, mainly in opposition to Jewish immigration. Among the Arab uprisings were the May 1921 riots where 67 Jews were killed; a week of rioting in 1924 that left 133 Jews dead; and the Hebron Massacre of 1929, where 69 Jews were murdered. Over 400 Jews were murdered during The Arab Revolt of 1936–1939, also referred to as the “peasant revolution.”

On February 3, 2020, Hashemi tweeted: “I think the best response to [Jared] Kushner is for the Palestinians to go back to the ideals of the first Intifada & launch a popular mobilization, rooted in nonviolent resistance…”

The first intifada lasted from 1987 to 1991 and resulted in over 120 Israeli civilian casualties. Palestinian gunmen hijacked multiple buses and carried out shooting, stabbing and bombing attacks against Israelis, including the bombing of the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem.

Hatred of Israel

On October 3, 2022, Hashemi tweeted: “On the Autocracy-Apartheid Nexus in the Middle East (also known as the Abraham Accords)...”

On August 13, 2020, the United States, Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) agreed to a joint statement referred to as the “Abraham Accords” in which the UAE consented to formally normalize its relationship with Israel.

Hashemi retweeted an August 22, 2022 tweet that said: “New joint letter of 150+ global orgs condemns Israel’s assault on Palestinian NGOs as ‘acts of apartheid’ & calls on states to #StandWithThe6…”

In October 2021, Israel’s Ministry of Defense declared six Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to be “terror organizations” operating “as an arm” of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group. The six NGOs were accused of funneling donor aid to militants and employing senior PFLP members, “including activists involved in terror activity.”

On May 16, 2022, Hashemi tweeted: “...When i was growing up it was much worse. The equation Palestinian=terrorist was widely accepted. Things are changing largely because of 2 factors: the ‘sumud’ (steadfastness) of Palestinians & growing public information about Israeli apartheid.”

Among Palestinians and anti-Israel activists, the term “steadfastness” (sumud) is the will to resist or persevere in the face of opposition, while "resistance" is often a euphemism for nationalistic terror. Both terms are often used to excuse or even glorify anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence.

Hashemi retweeted a September 30, 2022 tweet that said: “Big bosses at ⁦@thehill⁩ intervene to censor news analysis of Israel’s status as an apartheid state…”

On September 22, 2022, Hashemi tweeted: “Good job in drawing attention to Israeli apartheid, which has now been widely documented…” The tweet was in response to a tweet that read: “In light of the smears targeting@RashidaTlaibfor uttering the undeniable truth that Israel practices apartheid.”

Representative Rashida Tlaib is connected to six Hamas-linked activists, all of whom served as fundraiser co-hosts for her successful 2018 congressional campaign. She has advocated for a one-state solution, endorsed the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and called for reduced foreign aid to Israel. In July 2019, Tlaib co-sponsored a pro-BDS bill in the U.S. Congress introduced by Representative Ilhan Omar.

Hashemi retweeted an August 6, 2022 tweet that said: “When Israel ‘pauses’ its latest assault on besieged Palestinians, there will still be the cruel reality of apartheid, occupation, colonialism, and total impunity - all enabled by the US & UK…”

In August 2022, the terror organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) threatened attacks on Israeli civilians. Israel preemptively launched OBD. Both PIJ’s northern and southern senior commanders in Gaza, Tayseer al-Jabari and Khaled Mansour, were killed in targeted Israeli airstrikes. PIJ responded by launching more than 1,000 rockets toward Israeli cities.

On June 21, 2021, Hashemi tweeted: “‘This month marks the 15th anniversary of the almost impenetrable land, sea & air blockade imposed on Gaza by Israel and Egypt, which has turned the narrow, seething strip of land... into an ‘open-air prison.’’”

The United Nations approved [pp. 39–41] the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza in 2011 as a security measure to stop Hamas from acquiring sophisticated rockets. Multiple flotillas have attempted to breach the blockade, with at least one flotilla initiating a violent confrontation with Israeli forces.

On June 15, 2021, Hashemi tweeted: “...This Israeli flag march in Jerusalem is the moral equivalent of the KKK marching in black neighborhoods in the USA.”

On August 7, 2014, Hashemi tweeted: “Is Zionism/ Jewish Nationalism a Political Cult? The Salaita Firing.”

Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture.

Hashemi’s tweet linked to a blog post by anti-Israel professor Juan Cole in which Cole claimed that “Zionist organizations” were responsible for professor Steven Salaita being fired from his job.

In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.

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.