Tipsheet

Democrat Running for Higher Office Met With Radical Group Behind Pro-Hamas Statements, Activities

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  November 06, 2023 7:15 PM

Following the October 7 terrorist attack that Hamas perpetrated against Israel, there's been a rise in attention towards Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), as such a group expressed pro-Hamas sentiments and actually condemned Israel that same day. The founder of SJP, Hatem Bazian, also founded American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), which SJP falls under. Townhall has covered the SJP statements sent out, including and especially at Harvard. At such a supposedly elite institution, the administration is working to protect the students identified for espousing pro-Hamas views. 

The national organization of SJP had announced a “Day of Resistance” for October 12, as the Washington Free Beacon covered, citing internal documents they obtained. A toolkit was also published online. 

The scrutiny doesn’t merely apply to Squad members, such as Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Akexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), though, who met with AMP in 2019 for a Capitol Hill advocacy day. It also applies for Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX), a supposed moderate who is running for higher office to challenge Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) next November in a key Senate race. He himself has met with the Texas AMP chapter, also known as the Dallas chapter.

An August 31, 2019 Facebook post from the Texas chapter of AMP read in part that “Last month we met with Representative Rep. Colin Allred to explain BDS, a peaceful form of protesting the tyranny of Israel,” referring to a movement calling for boycotts, divestments, and sanctions against our ally in the Middle East. The group likened such a movement to the Civil Rights era this country experienced in the 1950s. “It demands the humanization of Palestinians and to secure their rights, comparable to the Montgomery Bus Boycott of the civil rights movement.”

A May report from the Washington Free Beacon has more on Allred’s record when it comes to BDS:

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Allred's campaign also boasts that the candidate's "bipartisan and consistent record" on Israel "includes voting to condemn the BDS movement." But while Allred has pushed to defund universities that back the BDS movement, he has twice voted against congressional measures urging the United States government to condemn Israel boycotts.

In 2019, Allred voted against a Republican-led measure that stated it is "in the national security interest of the United States to condemn and oppose" the BDS movement. That same year, he voted against an amendment that would have required pension plans to abstain from Israel boycotts if they are to be eligible for federal funding.

Cruz, meanwhile, has called out the BDS movement, as well as the Biden administration’s support for it. As he mentioned during an episode of “The Verdict” from last month which Townhall covered at the time: 

The senator also pointed to the administration being the first government in US history to implement a policy of BDS: a boycott, divestiture and sanctioning, specifically to do with cutting off funding for scientific cancer research in Judea and Samaria, which are referred to as “occupied territories” in Israel. This, Cruz said, makes the administration's view “the same as these squad members,” who Cruz had also called out earlier in the podcast for putting their anti-Israel views on display. 

“They view Israel as illegitimately occupied territory,” Cruz continued. “And so the harm that is coming from the Biden administration is horrific…” 

Who makes up this group that Allred met with? This AMP chapter is led by Fadya Risheq, who has been the president since at least August 2020. Both the group and Risheq have called for Aafia Siddiqui, also known as “Lady al Qaeda,” to be freed. Siddiqui was sentenced to 86 years in 2010 for trying to gun down FBI and military officials. 

Then there’s the ties to Hamas. An August 10, 2019 video shows a group representative wearing a “Free The HLF5” shirt, in reference to the movement looking to free those known as the “Holy Land 5” who were convicted of sending aid to Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

Bazian also conducted a Facebook live event with the chapter, in June 2019. Bazian in 2004, as covered by the Washington Free Beacon “spoke at a fundraiser for an organization the U.S. Treasury determined was fundraising for Hamas.” 

Risheq has also posted in support of Hamas, including so soon after the October 7 terrorist attack.

It’s not just Risheq who has had such a visibly pro-Hamas social media presence, though. The Texas chapter of AMP was one of those shamefully blaming Israel for Hamas’ attack, which they did via a statement and a Facebook post on October 7, the very day it occurred. The group also took the opportunity to, just hours after the news of the attack broke, announce and plan pro-Hamas events for the following day around the country, as well as their “advocacy day” on Capitol Hill for October 23 and 24. 

On October 12, the Texas chapter of AMP also announced over Facebook that it was co-hosting an event on October 15. The pro-Hamas event was heralded as “All Out for Palestine.”

Then, on October 18, AMP was all too happy to promote over Facebook how one of their staffers, Mohamad Habehh, had been arrested alongside others for causing an outburst at the he U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing. 

The parent group and its chapters have been posting pro-Hamas talking points incessantly since the October 7 attack. This includes promoting and sharing footage from the weekend's pro-Hamas demonstrations, including in Washington, D.C., where protestors stormed the White House gates and defaced Lafayette Square.

Allred and AMP have both had close ties to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. In April 2021, Allred participated in an event known as “Black Lives Matter is a Jewish Value.” Such an event is even more shameful in hindsight, given how blatantly anti-semitic and pro-Hamas the organization is, especially the Chicago chapter, as Townhall has covered. Closer to home to Allred, the Dallas chapters of BLM and AMP have worked together, with Risheq speaking at an event in June 2020. 

Allred has even further ties with the Squad and AMP through another group, Justice Democrats, which helped many of the original Squad members get elected. From the start of his political career, the group has supported Allred, not just with social media posts, but also through fundraising and direct contributions. 

For the 2020 convention, Justice Democrats and AMP were both among those groups that demanded the Democratic Party use its party platform to condemn Israel, taking issue with how the platform “would not include any reference to the decades-long Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian Territories.” Other signers included radically anti-Zionist groups like those that illegally stormed the Cannon House Building last month, as Townhall covered.

Other posts from Justice Democrats show Justice Democrats standing by Tlaib and fellow Squad member Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), while also calling out Biden for what support for Israel he dares to show. 

The group even stood by Tlaib's hysterical and widely-condemned speech last month that spread falsehoods about Israel, as she claimed that Israel bombed a hospital in Gaza. In reality, the hospital was hit by misfired terrorist rockets. 

It took Tlaib eight days to add a subsequent post mentioning that the intelligence points to the contrary of her original post, which still remains up. 

Also in 2019, Allred posted a picture alongside Imam Omar Suleiman and a message of support to his official X account. As Townhall has also covered, Suleiman has made particularly concerning posts about the Israel-Hamas war.

Tlaib didn't just make statements at an October 18 rally, but social media posts as well. Her post falsely claiming that Israel bombed the hospital was a repost from Suleiman.

Suleiman’s post still remains, with no such clarifications. He still continues to accuse Israel of engaging in “terrorism” and committing a “genocide” in countless posts of his, including when it comes to the weekend's pro-Hamas events. The imam on October 20 also led the sermon at a pro-Hamas event in Washington, D.C. titled “DC Friday Prayer for Gaza,” with “#StopGenocideNow” as a rallying cry.

It is not merely AMP that supports the BDS movement, but also Suleiman and Hamas. The terrorist organization publicly endorsed BDS in 2017. Suleiman is also a supporter of AMP and was a speaker at their 2018 annual conference, in other words, before Allred praised him so much, and when his anti-semitic associations had already been on full display.