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Profile
- Ali Abunimah is the co-founder and executive director of Electronic Intifada (EI), a major online media outlet active in promoting the Palestinian agenda with news articles and commentary. EI frequently features antisemitic content, including articles written by Abunimah.
- Abunimah is also founding steering committee member of Al Awda, the Palestinian Right of Return Coalition and president of the Middle East Cultural and Charitable Society (MECCS).
- In 2013, MECCS had a total revenue of $273,308, of which, $236,817 was provided to EI. Abunimah was also paid $39,000 in salary by MECCS.
- Abunimah is a leading Palestinian propagandist and a frequent speaker at BDS (boycotts, divestment and sanctions) and “Israel Apartheid Week” events.
Political Advocacy
- He authored a number of books, including Against Apartheid: The Case for Boycotting Israeli Universities, The Battle for Justice in Palestine, and One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israel-Palestinian Impasse.
- Abunimah is an advocate of a one-state framework. To actualize this, he says “coercion is necessary,” and dismisses Jewish concerns of living under an Arab majority as “irrational, racist fears.” He further acknowledges that in a one-state solution “we couldn’t rule out some disastrous situation” for Jews.
- He has called Zionism “one of the worst forms of anti-Semitism in existence today,” claiming that it “dehumanizes its victims, denies their history, and has a cult-like worship of ethnoracial purity.” He further wrote: “That is something Zionism shares with anti-Semitism, a disdain for actual Jewish culture and life as it existed.”
- Holocaust references appear frequently in his Abunimah’s comments. He calls Gaza a “ghetto for surplus non-Jews,” compares the Israeli press to “Der Sturmer,” and claims “Supporting Zionism is not atonement for the Holocaust, but its continuation in spirit.” He calls Gaza a “concentration camp” and repeated a claim that IDF statements are the words “of a Nazi.”
- Accuses Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and of being “white supremacist,” calls Israeli settlements “Jim Crow colonies,” and refers to the Shin Bet (Israel’s General Security Service) as a “death squad.”
- Wrote, “It’s racist to think Jews need a special state and can’t live with other people. Aren’t they human like the rest of us.”
- In May 2015 tweeted: “Even after Zionism ends (and it will), there’s nothing that can compensate for all that Zionism has wasted and destroyed.”
- During the 2014 Gaza War, Abunimah tweeted: “I again call on the EU to send guidance and targeting systems to defense forces in Gaza so resistance can hit ‘IDF’ terror bases accurately.”
- In response to a 2014 initiative to recognize Yom Kippur as an official United Nations holiday, Abunimah wrote, “Making Yom Kippur a UN holiday to honor the genocidal ‘state’ of Israel would be sure way to increase global anti-Jewish sentiment.”
- Labels PA President Mahmud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as “collaborators,” and PA participation in peace talks as “collaboration.” Collaboration is punishable by death in the PA and Gaza.
- He also tweeted: “While I oppose death penalty on principle, I’ve no time for those who feign outrage about Hamas killings while supporting Israeli massacre.”
- Publicized a pirated list of Israeli soldiers allegedly involved in the 2009 Gaza War, containing personal details such as home address and ID numbers. The list encourages “people to seek out other such similar information, it is readily available… inside public officials’ locked cabinets.”