RADICAL ISLAMISTS TO PARTICIPATE IN PUBLICLY FUNDED SCREENING OF ANTI-SEMITIC FILM~RADICAL ANTI-ISRAEL GROUP TO HOST CAPITOL HILL BRIEFING

Excerpt of interview with Rogers Waters & Sut Jhally, makers of the documentary, 'The Occupation of the American Mind.'

20 MINUTES OF THE 88 MINUTE ANTISEMITIC FILM
https://www.occupationmovie.org/

RADICAL ISLAMISTS TO PARTICIPATE IN PUBLICLY FUNDED SCREENING OF ANTI-SEMITIC FILM 

SEE: https://www.investigativeproject.org/8001/radical-islamists-to-participate-in-publicly; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:

An anti-Semitic film, "The Occupation of the American Mind" will be shown Tuesday in Takoma Park, Md. at a taxpayer-funded screening despite public pressure to reverse course. The movie peddles in anti-Semitic tropes that claim Jewish and pro-Israel groups have disproportionate power over U.S. foreign policy and in effect brainwash Americans to support Israel.

"A municipality is using taxpayer money to show a widely rejected 'documentary' narrated by a notorious anti-Semite [Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters] that peddles anti-Semitic canards," Ronald Halber, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, told the Jewish Telegraph Agency earlier this month. "They should be bringing people together, not dividing them."

After the movie, Islamist and anti-Israel figures from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), and Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) will discuss the film. Each group actively promotes the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement devoted to coercing the Jewish state.

BDS – which seeks to isolate Israel economically and culturally – is considered anti-Semitic because it singles out the world's only Jewish state and ignores countries with far worse human rights records.

CAIR's efforts to derail this bill or promote an anti-Semitic film are not surprising given the organization's record for spreading anti-Israel views that often transcend into the realm of bigotry.

CAIR is actively working to stifle an "Anti-Semitism Awareness" bill that directs the U.S. Department of Education to adopt a widely accepted working definition of anti-Semitism.

Elements of this working definition encompass modern anti-Israel sentiment that "crosses the line into anti-Semitism." That includes denying the Jewish people's right to self-determination, claims that Israel was founded as a racist entity, and applying double standards against Israel not expected of other democracies.

To add insult to injury, Takoma Park officials confirmed the participation of another radical Islamist: Taher Herzallah, associate director of Outreach & Grassroots Organizing for American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), according to a JCRC press release on issued Monday.

Herzallah is one of the "Irvine 11" prosecuted in 2010 following a hostile plan to silence a University of California, Irvine speech by former Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren. Three years later, as AMP's national campus coordinator, Herzallah proudly justified Hamas rocket fire into Israel while calling images of wounded Israeli soldiers "the most beautiful sight."

In November, Herzallah rationalized the slogan, "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," a call that leads to Israel's destruction.

"If giving Palestinians their right to live freely means the destruction of Israel, then so be it," Herzallah wrote on Facebook.

It's no surprise that he also called for violence against Israelis.

"Israelis have to be bombed, they are a threat to the legitimacy of Palestine, and it is wrong to maintain the State of Israel. It is an illegitimate creation born from colonialism and racism," Herzallah said during a 2014 AMP conference.

Despite the controversy, Takoma Park Mayor Kate Stewart defended the film screening.

"Our goal is to create a space for people to listen, critique, discuss, and learn from each other," Stewart said in a July 12 statement.

Inviting Islamist figures who espouse extremist positions to participate in publicly-financed events, however, is the opposite of creating "a space for people to listen." In numerous speaking engagements Herzallah, like other U.S.-based Islamists, has used his platforms to preach hate and spread extremism in an effort to intimidate supporters of Israel. The film screening likely will be no exception.

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RADICAL ANTI-ISRAEL GROUP TO HOST 

CAPITOL HILL BRIEFING 

by Abha Shankar

SEE: https://www.investigativeproject.org/8000/former-hamas-support-network-successor-group-to; 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:

A virulently anti-Israel advocacy group is hosting a Capitol Hill briefing tomorrow where it will allege Israeli mistreatment of American citizens.

American Muslims for Palestine (AMP)was able to secure a room in the Longworth House Office Building, which serves U.S. House of Representatives members and their staffs. AMP plans to allege that U.S. citizens visiting Israel and the West Bank "have reported being physically abused, detained for hours of humiliating questions, strip searched, denied entry and forced to buy plane tickets back to the US. Worse (sic) of all, Israeli forces have killed or gravely injured US citizens."

AMP is not a reliable actor. It routinely hosts conferences that serve as a platform for Israel bashers and openly approves of "resistance" against the "Zionist state."

It is one of the principal advocates of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. BDS campaigns are considered inherently anti-Semitic because they include groups and people dedicated to Israel's elimination and single out Israel for criticism while ignoring far more severe human rights abuses by other nations.

A recent investigative report by Canary Mission, an organization that investigates hate groups, cited AMP leaders making strong anti-Semitic and pro-terror statements.

"I believe in [the] holocaust. One of my fav parts of history," AMP-Chicago's Leena Yousef was quoted saying.

"We will resist until we get our freedom without your BS negotiations! # ... #We_Are_All_Hamas," another AMP activist Ahmad Aburas was cited saying.

Meanwhile, the Investigative Project on Terrorism in 2015 found evidence showing that AMP is the successor to a group called the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), which was part of a Muslim Brotherhood-led Hamas-support network in the United States. A federal civil suit in Chicago calls AMP and its leaders the IAP's "alter egos and/or successors."

IAP was the "Palestine Committee's" propaganda arm. The Muslim Brotherhood charged the committee with helping Hamas politically and financially in the United States.

The lawsuit seeks to claim payment of $156 million in damages awarded to Stanley and Joyce Boim, who sued the IAP and a related group over the death of their son David in a 1996 Hamas terrorist attack. Some AMP officials, including National Policy Director Osama Abuirshaid, worked with the IAP and other Palestine Committee branches.

Abuirshaid is listed as a speaker at the Capitol Hill briefing.

AMP conferences are similar to IAP's old meetings, and are sponsored by many of the same charitable organizations working for the Palestinian cause. Those include Baitulmaal, the Zakat Foundation, Islamic Relief and United Muslim Relief. "Each of these organizations has close connections with Hamas and disburses funds through Hamas operatives," the new Boim complaint alleged.

IAP raised and funneled money to Hamas through the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). In 2008, the charity and five top officials were convicted of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas.

Baitulmaal and other Islamist charities mentioned in the complaint appear to have filled that role.

The Gaza-based Unlimited Friends Association for Social Development (UFA), for example, "is closely aligned with senior Hamas leaders" and "openly states that it channels funds from Baitulmaal to the 'families of martyrs of the Palestinian people,'" the complaint said.

"Baitulmaal has openly distributed meat to Hamas functionaries and government workers on Muslim holy days claiming that "it is a matter of principle for the charity to help [Hamas] officials who can't afford to buy meat," it added.

A July 7 report published by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) listed Baitulmaal among other American and international Islamist charities that support the Generosity Without Limit Association ("Generosity Association"), a charitable organization operating in the Gaza Strip since 2007, whose board members either serve as operatives or have close affiliations with an umbrella group called the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC). Israel declared the PRC a terrorist organization in 2006. It claims the PRC is funded and trained by Hamas. Its largest attack came in 2011, killing eight Israeli civilians and wounding another 30.

The Israeli government accused Baitulmaal founder Sheikh Hasan Haj Mohammad of funding a Hamas charitable organization in Jenin in 2006, the report said.

Baitulmaal has contributed to other radical Palestinian outlets, including the AJP Educational Foundation, AMP's fiscal sponsor. According to the organization's available tax records, AMP provided $33,500 to the AJP Educational Foundation between 2011-2017.

AMP also provided material support to Hamas through its "open fundraising support" for the so-called "humanitarian convoy" Viva Palestina, the complaint said. In 2009, Viva Palestina activists headed by its founder and leader British Parliamentarian George Galloway met with Hamas leaders to provide "funds and equipment." Galloway personally "handed substantial sums of money and equipment directly to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, stating, 'But I, now here, on behalf of myself...are giving three cars and $25,000 in cash to Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Here is the money. This is not charity. This is politics.'"

Abuirshaid formerly served as editor of IAP's Arabic periodical, Al-Zaitounah, a mouthpiece for pro-Hamas propaganda.

He is listed as "Research Fellow at the United Association for Studies and Research" in a 1999 article published in the Middle East Affairs Journal, "Occupied Palestine or Independent Israel: 'The Right to Existence' After More Than Fifty Years of Occupation."

In the article's conclusion, Abuirshaid argues against past peace agreements with the "Zionists" including the 1993 Oslo Accords.

Abuirshaid's Israel bashing and affection for Hamas continues to this day.

In a 2015 tweet, for example, Abuirshaid condemned Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization and referred to Sisi's government as "Cairo Aviv" as a rebuke to existing close relations between Cairo and Tel Aviv.







"AMP/AJP ended up with largely the same core leadership as IAP/AMS; it serves the same function and purpose; it holds nearly identical conventions and events with many of the same roster of speakers; it operates a similar 'chapter' structure in similar geographic locations; it continues to espouse Hamas' ideology and political positions; and it continues to facilitate fundraising for groups that funnel money to Hamas," the Boim complaint said.

The upcoming Congressional briefing is a prime example of AMP's anti-Israel, pro-Hamas activism.