Ziad Solh

Overview

Ziad Solh is a professor who has spread anti-Semitism, defended Hamas terrorists and promoted hatred of Israel. Solh is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

In May 2021, Solh tweeted that Jewish Zionist students should be “boycotted and sanctioned” for their beliefs. In June 2021, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center submitted a complaint to the dean of the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry (Schulich) at Western University (Western), where Solh was a professor.

Schulich’s dean issued a statement saying that “at times, unsettling ideas are presented and challenged” at universities and that “individual faculty members have the freedom to express their opinions and beliefs...”

As of March 2024, Solh’s LinkedIn profile said he was an Associate Professor and Transfusion Medicine Specialist Hematologist at Schulich since June 2023. He was listed as an Assistant Professor in the same capacity at Schulich since 2017.

Also as of March 2024, Solh was listed on LinkedIn as a Transfusion Medicine Physician in the Perioperative Patient Blood Management Program (PPBMP) at the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) since 2017.

As of the same date, Solh’s LinkedIn said he graduated from McMaster University’s Royal College Diploma Program in blood banking/transfusion medicine in 2017. He also graduated from McMaster with a Master of Science (MSc) in health research methodology in its Clinician Investigator Program in 2015.

As of March 2024, Solh’s LinkedIn said he lived in London, Ontario, Canada.

Anti-Semitism

On May 30, 2021, Solh tweeted to a Jewish medical professor about Palestinian students: “Their families were displaced and killed by Israel in cold blood just like the Nazis displaced the Jews and killed them in cold blood.”

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.

In the same May 30, 2021 thread, Solh tweeted to the same professor about Jewish students: “If their culture is Zionism at the expense of the Palestinian people, they should be boycotted and sanctioned.

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.

Defending Hamas Terrorists

On May 17, 2021, during an Israeli operation against Hamas and other terror groups in Gaza, Solh tweeted: “...if you are not pro-Hamas, then similarly you must not be pro-the Israel Defense and Destroy Everything Force which is funded by the USA.”

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 “Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW),” carrying out targeted military strikes in Gaza.

On May 19, 2021, Solh tweeted: “...it is ok to denounce Hamas if you equally denounce IDF and their savage actions which lead to 1000x more deaths than Hamas's actions.” His tweet included a screenshot of another tweet that said: “Saying ‘but Hamas’ or ‘but what the Palestinians did’ in this situation is...equating state violence with the retaliation of the powerless.”

Solh “liked” an October 7, 2023 tweet that said: “Lessons of history: remember that a colonizing ethnoreligious nationalist state armed to the teeth by the West was dreamed up not in the pluralist Middle East but in racist & antisemitic 19th c. Europe. And anti colonial native resistance has *always* been demonized by the West.”

Among Palestinians and anti-Israel activists, the term “resistance” can be a euphemism for nationalistic terror. It is often used to excuse or even glorify anti-Israel and anti- Semitic violence.

On Saturday, October 7, 2023, approximately 2,900 heavily armed Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza. They executed numerous war crimes on civilians, including mass murder, beheadings of children, rape of men and women, torture, kidnappings and mutilation. 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, over 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.

A terrorist detained by Israel admitted he raped an Israeli woman when he broke into a kibbutz house during the October 7, 2023 attack. In March 2024, a former hostage of Hamas publicly stated she was sexually abused and tortured while in captivity.

For more information on the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.

On October 23, 2023, Solh tweeted: “...This is not a war against Hamas. They're erasing communities and displacing civilians. Support peace!” His tweet was in response to a tweet by Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau about world leaders “affirming our support for Israel and its right to defend itself.”

Solh retweeted a November 19, 2023 tweet that claimed there was “No proof” of multiple atrocities Hamas had committed on October 7, 2023. The tweet said: “‘Beheaded babies’? No proof / ‘Babies in ovens’? No proof / ‘Raping women’? No proof / ‘Hamas bunker under al-Shifa hospital’? No proof.”

Denial of the Hamas war crimes of October 7, 2023, among anti-Israel activists has been likened to Holocaust denial among neo-Nazis.

Hamas terrorists murdered at least 40 Israeli Jewish babies during its October 7, 2023, terror attacks. Some of the babies were beheaded and some were murdered in front of their parents.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas raped women next to the bodies of dead friends. Some were raped and then shot in the head. Others, including young girls, were raped and murdered or mutilated in other ways.

Israeli officials opened an unprecedented investigation into the widespread sexual assault. Forensic analysis of corpses showed evidence of torture and rape. Hamas terrorists said they were given explicit orders to carry out the atrocities, including chopping off legs and raping the corpses of murdered victims. Men were also raped.

Hamas is known for “firing rockets deep from the heart of civilian zones” and that it was “an open secret that Hamas uses Al-Shifa hospital as its command center.”

Hamas fired rockets from Gaza’s Shifa Hospital (Shifa) at Israeli population centers during Israel’s 2014 Operation Protective Edge. Hamas misfires also struck Shifa and the nearby al-Shati refugee camp. Hamas cleanup crews then concealed the evidence of the misfires, as was confirmed by Amnesty International and an independent Italian journalist.

Hamas has used hospitals and other civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip to hide and disguise their military command centers, weapons storage and launch sites for missile and rocket attacks against Israel. According to international law, under such circumstances those sites are no longer deemed “civilian objects,” losing their right of protection against attack.

Solh “liked” a December 10, 2023 tweet that said: “Hamas are resistance fighters. I don't give two craps what the US, Israel and UK claim. The right to armed struggle is a guaranteed right under international law, for every single Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese person living under illegal Israeli occupation.”

Hatred of Israel

On May 17, 2021, during OGW, Solh tweeted: “Americans are blindly pro-Israel. The question is are you also pro-Palestine? You have to be if you support true peace. If you have not had your home bombed like I have back in the 80s by pro-Israeli forces, you do not truly understand their savagery. Just be pro-peace like me.”

On May 30, 2021, Solh tweeted: “Israel and its army are a brutal savage terrorist force…”

Solh retweeted a February 19, 2023 tweet that said: “Israel's government is undeniably racist and Bernie Sanders is entirely correct to suggest that this should affect how the US (and Canada) relate to it. No more business as usual with occupation and apartheid.”

Solh retweeted an October 10, 2023 tweet that said: “Israel is planning full-scale ethnic cleansing and genocide. That is what your ‘I stand with Israel’ messages are supporting. That is what the US government is supporting ‘unconditionally.’”

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.