Hezbollah on Your iPhone: There’s An App for That

Update: The Almanartv application was removed from Apple’s iTunes over the weekend. However, it is still available for other platforms, such as Android.

In the latest example of terrorist organizations exploiting current technology to spread their violent messages, an application was made available on Wednesday through Apple’s iTunes service providing mobile access to content from Hezbollah’s satellite television station, al-Manar.

Al-Manar's iTunes App

The new free application, advertised on air by al Manar, directs users to various station content, including speeches by Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Al-Manar broadcasts the terrorist group’s messages of hate and violence, disseminates anti-Semitic and anti-American propaganda and glorifies suicide bombings to millions of viewers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Hezbollah is a U.S. designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, and al-Manar was included on the State Department’s Terrorism Exclusion List in December 2004.

Al-Manar has a presence on other internet platforms as well, including a Twitter account with over 17,000 followers and 51,000 messages.  Other terrorist organizations use the microblogging service, including Al Shabaab, a terrorist organization in Somalia which formally merged with Al Qaeda earlier this year. There are also numerous terrorist support pages on Facebook and other social media platforms.

Alabama Jihadist Omar Hammami Resurfaces Online

Update: An audio lecture by Hammami posted online on May 25 may provide insights into his apparent rift with Al Shabaab.  In the 45-minute lecture, originally posted online in January but quickly removed, he criticizes jihadist organizations with a local focus, likening them to a “cancerous tumor.” He also calls for all Muslims to unite in a “jihad of the entire Ummah [Muslim nation]” under the banner of restored Caliphate. 

Amid rumors of his death and his own declaration that his “life may be endangered by” the terrorist organization he joined in Somalia, Omar Hammami, an Alabama native who became the public face and voice of Al Shabaab, announced that he is still alive in part 1 of his autobiography.

In the autobiography, disseminated online on May 16, Hammami describes his journey from Alabama to his involvement in the creation of Al Shabaab, the Al Qaeda-linked Somali terrorist group.

He calls joining jihad “the dream of any Muslim who has the love of the religion burning in his heart” and maintains that it is “truly an individual obligation upon all of us.” Hammami portrays himself as “a man with no regrets” despite his apparent falling out with Al Shabaab’s leadership.

In describing his role as a terrorist propagandist, Hammami advises that “being casual, when possible, is a better approach when reaching out to those like myself in the West… my peers can smell a poser from a mile away.” He also stresses the importance of media to the jihadist movement. “The war of narratives has become even more important than the war of navies, napalms, and knives.

Hammami also discusses his relationship with Daniel Maldonado, an American currently serving 10 years in prison for receiving militant training in Somalia with him after they traveled together to the Middle East.

Hammami concludes part 1 by urging others to emulate him. “Not that I’m extremely special, but then again I haven’t seen too many middle class ‘white’ guys from Alabama in Jihaad these days. Hopefully others will say to themselves: ‘I can do that too!’”

On May 22, a photo of Hammami posing with a computer displaying the autobiography was released online, ostensibly to confirm that he is indeed still alive and that the autobiography is authentic.

AQAP Releases Advice for Western Recruits

A recently released English-language booklet that both describes life in Yemen as an Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) fighter and encourages westerners to carry out attacks inside their home countries is the latest in a series of AQAP publications demonstrating its commitment to reaching western audiences with its violent message.

The publication, “Expectations Full,” was purportedly written by Samir Khan, the American terror propagandist who was killed in a September 2011 drone strike in Yemen. The booklet encourages “brothers in the West to wage jihad inside their countries” because the effect is “much greater, it always embarrasses the enemy, and these type [sic] of individual decision-making attacks are nearly impossible for them to contain.”

The phrase “individual decision-making attacks” is an apparent reference to the “Lone Wolf” phenomenon, where individuals self-radicalize, often online, without any face-to-face interactions with established terrorist groups.

Despite advocating for individuals to carry out attacks in the West, the booklet is mostly devoted to giving “fellow Muslims a sense of the live [sic] of a mujahid,” including issues such as cleanliness, living on base, secrecy, injuries, training and family life.

“Now that you know what to expect [abroad],” the booklet concludes, “you can compare that with doing jihad in the west, weigh the pros and cons, and make your decision.”

Over the last several years, English-language terrorist propaganda has given conflicting messages about where it is most preferable to carry out attacks. AQAP’s English-language terrorist magazine, Inspire, believed to be produced by Khan until his death, repeatedly encouraged its readers to carry out attacks wherever they reside. Al Qaeda spokesperson Adam Gadahn similarly encouraged Americans to attack within the U.S. in a June 2011 message. At the same time, Omar Hammami, an American spokesperson for Al Shabaab, has called on his listeners to come “to the lands of jihad as soon as possible.”

Although AQAP claims that Khan is the author of “Expectations Full,” the document itself bears no indications or hallmarks of his writing. In fact, in one of the sections the author discusses living on bases without access to any electronics, which would be ironic for someone who is best known for creating online propaganda. AQAP may be trying to leverage Khan’s reputation as an American who made “it to the front lines of jihad” in an effort to reach out to Western audiences and spread its call to fight, preferably while staying at home.

The release of the publication closely follows the release of two new issues of the terrorist magazine Inspire and a tribute to Osama bin Laden, also in English, earlier this month. The rapid succession of English-language propaganda comes after a lull of several months and is an indication of renewed attempts by AQAP to reach and recruit a Western audience.

AQAP Bin Laden Tribute Focuses on Israel

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s media arm released an English-language booklet in tribute to Osama Bin Laden today titled “In Remembrance of Usama.” The material, which consists of a collection of quotes from the former Al Qaeda leader, largely focuses on Jews and Israel and how they, along with America, are at war with Islam.

“The Crusaders and the Jews joined together and invaded the home of Islam,” reads one of the Bin Laden quotes. “’Greater Israel’ which includes inside its borders large parts of Iraq, Egypt, a pass through Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the entire Palestine and large parts of the haramain [Saudi Arabia].”

Some of the quotes are taken from poetry Bin Laden wrote about the Palestinians in which he promised the liberation of Jerusalem and praised the “purest of blood” of Palestinian “martyrs.” He exhorts Muslims that “your brothers in Palestine are eagerly awaiting. They are awaiting that you annihilate America and Israel.”

Bin Laden is also quoted calling on young Muslims to join jihad and target Americans and Jews by saying that “killing them throughout the globe is one of the greatest duties and leading righteous acts to Allah.” A quote in which he describes Jews as “those who fabricated lies against the Creator” is cited elsewhere in the booklet.

The publication was prepared ahead of the one year anniversary of the raid on Bin laden’s compound by American forces in Abbottabad. The editors, apparently the same team currently producing the English-language terrorist magazine Inspire, translated several messages from Bin Laden as “an eye-opener for those who aren’t yet familiar with the mujahideen’s cause.” They also praised him as a martyr, writing that it was “what he wish for… for the last three decade [sic].”

AQAP’s focus on Palestinians and Israel is also prevalent in the two most recent issues of Inspire magazine, released earlier in the month. The magazine compares events in Syria to “the Jewish treatment of the Palestinians.” One of the ads attacks Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, comparing him to Satan, and claiming that “they (the Jews) have the audacity to distort the word of Allah [parenthesis in the original].” Other messages in Inspire say, “Israel Can’t Hide” and call for attacks against Israeli targets as well as “Zionist and Zionist-friendly crusader media,” and “places where Jews are gathered, their leading personalities and institutions in Europe.”

Al Qaeda Releases Video of Abducted American

A video of Warren Weinstein, an American Jew who was abducted in Pakistan last August, was released by Al Qaeda yesterday. In the video, Weinstein begs President Obama to “please accept and respond to the demands of the mujahideen,” calling them “easy.” 

“My life is in your hands, Mr. President.  If you accept the demands I live; if you don’t accept the demands then I die… Don’t delay… it will just make things more difficult for me.” 

Weinstein, who appears thin in the video, also criticizes the U.S. government, saying that despite his years of public service (Weinstein had a long career working for various government agencies), not enough has been done to secure his release.

In videos released since Weinstein’s capture, Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri claimed responsibility and specifically highlighted Weinstein’s Jewish identity when discussing the demands for his release: “The American Jew… will not return to his family, by the will of Allah, until our demands are met, which include the release of Aafia Siddique, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the family of Sheikh Osama bin Laden, and every single person arrested on allegations of links with Al Qaeda and the Taliban.”

Other demands include the lifting of the Gaza blockade; a halt to American and allied attacks in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and Gaza; and the closure of Guantanamo.

A Hater Until The End: The Last Messages of J.T. Ready

White supremacist and anti-immigration extremist J. T. Ready took his life in horrific and tragic fashion on Wednesday, killing four others, including an infant, before shooting himself in the Phoenix, Arizona, suburb of Gilbert. Though the investigation is ongoing, police believe that Ready initiated the murderous spree of domestic violence. 

The Anti-Defamation League has uncovered Ready’s final on-line messages, revealing that, even in the final hours before he took his own life and the lives of those closest to him, he was busy spewing hatred and anti-Semitism. Early in the morning of Wednesday, May 2, the day of the massacre, Ready posted a steady stream of messages to the video hosting site YouTube as well as to the white supremacist message forum Stormfront.

These messages from Ready drip with heavy-handed racism and anti-Semitism. “Hitler was right,” Ready responded (posting under his screen name of USBorderGuard) on YouTube to a comment from a British user. “And if you are too stupid to see that then you deserve to get pushed off your island into the sea by a bunch of foreigners. Jews like Jack Straw have sold you down the river[,] mate.”

In another post, he opined, “Too bad traitors from within are selling the UK down the drain and letting Pakis in at home to destroy the British race once and for good. I hope the soldiers revolt and take back their island from the scum.”

In response to a video of journalist Mike Wallace interviewing Morgan Freeman about Black History Month, Ready asserted that “Jews are not White. They hate White people. [T]hey genocide Whites from the planet.” He also repeated this opinion in another post in response to a different video: “The Jew parasites want to genocide Whites from the planet in order to enslave the rest of the races. All races should unite against this evil.”

Ready also posted to the hate site Stormfront at this time, though after the shooting spree that site’s moderators deleted his account. However, through Google caches or in responses from other posters who subsequently quoted Ready’s messages, his final comments on Stormfront could still be unearthed.

Not surprisingly, these posts also revealed his obsession with anti-Semitism. In them, Ready responded to news that five anarchists had been arrested in Cleveland for allegedly attempting to destroy a bridge. Ready seemed convinced that Jews were involved, either as perpetrators or as plotters in the government creating a set-up. “Have [the anarchists] not yet figured out,” he asked, “that they are both just tools in the same globalist tyranny toolbox?”

To another poster, who expressed doubt as to whether or not the anarchist suspects were Jewish, he responded: “Learn what a Jew looks like[,] then you won’t be so Jewblind. Calling a Jew a ‘hipster,’ [C]hristian, atheist, Buddhist, communist, capitalist, liberal, conservative, traitor, patriot, criminal, saint, democrat, republican, or anything else…still does not change the racial fact that a JEW is a JEW!”

Al Qaeda’s Inspire Magazine Resurrected!

Two new issues of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s English-language Inspire magazine were released today. The release of the magazines demonstrates AQAP’s recognition of the propaganda value of the Inspire franchise and serves as a reminder of the group’s continued effort to target western audiences. 

They are the first issues to be released since Samir Khan, believed to be the principal author of the magazine, was killed in a September 2011 drone strike along with popular jihadist ideologue and magazine contributor Anwar al-Awlaki. At the time, their deaths led to speculation of the media franchise’s demise.

Inspire 8, dated fall 2011, focuses on the legitimacy of “targeting populations of the countries that are at war with the Muslims.” The feature article, written by al-Awlaki, appears to be a piece promised in a previous issue of Inspire. “The populations of the nations that are at war with the Muslims and especially those who are at the lead such as the U.S., Britain and France,” al-Awlaki wrote, “should be targeted by the mujahidin in operations that employ explosives, poisons, firearms and all other methods that lead to inflicting the greatest harm on them…”

Inspire 9, dated “winter,” focuses on AQAP’s success in building a stronghold in Yemen. The issue also features pieces eulogizing al-Awlaki and Khan. Both issues were edited by “Yahya Ibrahim,” which some observers previously suggested was a possible pseudonym taken by Khan.

Both new issues of Inspire solicit reader involvement, welcoming “correspondence, contributions, photographs and illustrations” and provide contact information for readers to submit materials. Issue 9 also calls for disseminating the magazines as broadly as possible and speculates that the FBI “might be trying to bring down sites that host the magazine.”

Jihadists Solicit Help Online to Craft Their Message

The Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF), an umbrella organization that distributes videos, literature and other messages for Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, has apparently posted a submission form on Google’s blog service soliciting “participation, comments or suggestions” for its propaganda.

The form includes instructions in both English and Arabic for contacting the group, with reminders not to “mention your real name, address..etc. [sic]” and to include an email address “so we can reply to you.” The page also includes instructions for sending encrypted messages.

GIMF’s call for “participation” not only demonstrates the continuing effort by Jihadist propagandists to exploit mainstream social media platforms to communicate with potential followers (Al Shabaab, for example, started using Twitter in December 2011), but also how Jihadist media entities continue to rely on the skills and efforts of individual followers to help craft their message.

For example, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s English-language magazine Inspire regularly encourages readers to contribute articles, quotes and images. It has also provided contact information for readers “interested in contributing to this magazine with any skills – be it writing, research, editing or advice” and suggested that individuals use the same encryption program referenced by GIMF “in order to avoid detection from the intelligence services [sic].”

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, accused of attempting to detonate a vehicle he believed was laden with explosives at an Oregon Christmas tree lighting ceremony in 2010, is an example of someone who responded to such solicitations. Not only did he allegedly write and send an article to Inspire (which was not published), he also submitted pieces that were published in Jihad Recollections, the self-described “first English Jihad magazine” released by a collaboration of online terrorist sympathizers, including Samir Khan. Khan produced Inspire up until he was killed by a U.S. drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen.

Others have taken it upon themselves to create jihadist propaganda without necessarily utilizing established terrorist media outlets, relying on internet forums and other social media for distribution of their materials. For example, an April 2012 image of the New York skyline with the message “Al Qaeda Coming Soon Again in New York” attracted widespread media attention and prompted enhanced law enforcement vigilance. The image, apparently created by an individual member of a jihadist forum, demonstrated the propaganda value that can be created by individuals using commercially available software.

While these messages may lack the cachet of a “brand name” propaganda distributed by GIMF and similar terrorist media producers, the materials still attract attention, create fear and encourage others to play an active role in the creation of propaganda in support of terror.

Incidents of Anti-Semitism Continue to Mark Occupy Movement

With the arrival of warmer weather, Occupy Wall Street protests around the country have begun to pick up in recent weeks. While reports of rampant anti-Semitism at last summer’s protests were overblown, two isolated incidents this week indicate that anti-Semites continue to take advantage of the Occupy movement and use it as a convenient platform to air their views.

On Monday, an African-American individual attending an Occupy protest in Washington, D.C. made several anti-Semitic comments, including loudly remarking that Jewish people “try to get ahead of Black people, like they’re better than us.”

The individual claimed to be part of a group called the United Occupy Movement. A description of the group on its Web site reads, “We are the young, old, male & female, no-D and Ph.D., Christian, Muslim, Aethiest [sic] and ethnically diverse who should have a greater voice according to our Constitution.”

And just yesterday, a harshly anti-Semitic cartoon was posted to a Facebook page that claims to be the “Community Page” for Occupy Tampa. The cartoon featured a picture of a stereotypical-looking observant Jew driving a car while holding President Obama’s head in one hand and a steering wheel in the other fashioned out of the United Nations’ logo. The image evokes classic anti-Semitic myths of Jewish control, in this case of the U.S. government and the UN. Administrators of the page have since apologized for the posting, saying they’ve had “some intrusion issues” but that the administrator who posted the image has now been banned from the page.

The very same cartoon appeared in Al Watan, a Qatar-based newspaper, on September 30, 2011 at the height of Palestinian efforts to unilaterally declare statehood at the UN. The cartoon is the work of an artist named Eliot whose anti-Semitic and anti-Israel cartoons are regularly published in Al Watan.

ADL reported on a variety of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel incidents that took place at Occupy protests last summer and fall. These incidents consistently appear to be the acts of individuals seeking to exploit the popular social protest movement and inject it with their own hateful views.

Jihadists Pay Tribute to French Shooter Mohammed Merah

Members of several online jihadist forums have praised Mohammed Merah for his attacks on French Jews and soldiers. Comments on these forums include calls for similar lone-wolf attacks and describe Merah’s shootings as Allah’s revenge on France for its foreign policy and attitude toward Muslims.

Over the weekend, a video tribute to Merah entitled “The Lone Lion” also began circulating on the forums. The video begins with text commending Merah for killing “three French soldiers returning from Afghanistan” and “a Jewish rabbi and his children.” It also applauds him for fighting “the French special forces with courage until he was killed as a martyr.”

Funeral footage of Merah’s victims in France and Israel is juxtaposed with images of bleeding Palestinians and videos of Israeli airstrikes carried out by “the enemies of Allah, the Jews.” This section suggests the type of moral equivalence that Merah claimed prompted him to undertake his attacks. 

The video also includes recordings of Osama bin Laden speaking about a promised war “between us and the Jews” and of current Al Qaeda leader, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, describing England and the U.S. as legitimate targets because of the civilian casualties in Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza. 

The video concludes with a warning, apparently directed at French President Nicolas Sarkozy, that Merah’s wave of terror “is the beginning.”

Online Racism and Anti-Semitism in the Aftermath of Trayvon Martin Shooting

The fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, who was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman, has led to a flurry of racist and anti-Semitic remarks from extremists trying to exploit the incident to further their own hateful views. The remarks have been directed at both the victim and the shooter.

White supremacists are furious that Zimmerman, whose mother is reportedly Latino, is being described as a white man by the mainstream media.

An example of a Stormfront

In an article posted to the white supremacist Counsel of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) Web site, the author asserted, “Each time you see a ‘mainstream’ news outlet rant about the Zimmerman/Martin case...ask yourself why the media is called Zimmerman a white man instead of a Latino. Ask yourself if you think the story is really news or is it agitation/propaganda designed to advance a political agenda.”

Similarly, posters to the white supremacist Internet forum Stormfront, expressed both racist and anti-Semitic views. For example, “Thule Seeker” asserted, “[Zimmerman] can do us another favor by getting his jew-bean ass thrown in prison. Everyone always blames Whites for being racist but now the shoe is on the other foot. It will be nice for jews, beans and/or jewbeans to see one of their own go to prison for the very thing that us Whites are always accused of.”

Another Stormfront member, using the name “Richard Nixon,” wrote: “The anti-white Jew media will still try to spin this in an anti-white angle. And, of course, Blacks will find an excuse to riot, loot, a [sic] wreak overall havoc.”

On yet another white supremacist forum, Vanguard News Network, “Craig Cobb” wrote, “Ha ha the lying media calls a possible jew spic mix a 'white' just like the annual DOJ UNiform Crime Report files do! Probably in about 10 more years George Zimmerman will be as White in America as it gets--like our elite version of an Icelandic pale blue eyed platinum blonde.”

Some white supremacists, while describing Zimmerman in racist terms, lauded him for killing a black teen. On Stormfront, “Thin White Duke” argued, “Zimmerman should be praised as much as any mestizo in America should. Putting white nationalism aside for a moment, this man removed a violent person from a neighborhood voluntarily. If only we had more whites patrolling our neighborhoods and keeping the negroes in check like this mestizo did.”

Another Stormfront member, “Reference,” asserted, “Let's don't get bogged down in Zimmerman's ethnicity. Zim put down negritude while his neighbor ran into the house, locked the doors and called 911 - a completely useless neighbor IMO.”

Revolution Muslim Leader Yousef al-Khattab Anticipates Arrest

Yousef al-Khattab, cofounder and former leader of the fringe extremist Muslim organization Revolution Muslim, has released a 20-minute video on YouTube responding to Younes Abdullah Muhammad’s guilty plea last week to charges of using the Internet to conspire to solicit murder and make threatening communications.

Al-Khattab, who headed Revolution Muslim with Muhammad between 2007 and December 2009, infused the group's activity with his provocative style and virulent hatred of Jews, especially Orthodox Jewry.

In his video, al-Khattab spends much of the time talking about the fine line between free speech and “being a mouthpiece for the mujahedeen,” as well as his relationship and activity with Muhammad during their time with Revolution Muslim. Although he concludes that he never “did break the law,” he expresses his belief that he too will be arrested.

He also defends the statements he has issued online over the years. “I’ll never shut up….everything that I have said when it comes to the issue of Zionists or America’s foreign policy, occupying sovereign territories overseas, I believe that everything I said is true.” 

On several occasions, al-Khattab posted online statements that included implicit, if not explicit, threats, particularly against religious Jews. For example, on October 7, 2009, a poem by al-Khattab on the group’s website included language asking God to “kill the Jews.” In the poem, which coincided with the Jewish holiday of Sukkoth, al-Khattab listed ways Jews could be hurt, including by burning "their flammable sukkos while they sleep" and throwing "liquid drain cleaner in their faces."

This pattern of online threats began several years before al-Khattab founded of RM when, in 2002, al-Khattab posted a seemingly threatening note regarding a New York rabbi. He posted the rabbi's photo and home address and wrote: "Please make every effort to reach this man, and help him understand what its like to suffer under lies…Please Ikhwan [Arabic for "brothers"], just make contact with this man."  Al-Khattab later claimed that his home was raided by the police because of a fabricated complaint by this rabbi.

Referring to his 2009 posting on the Revolution Muslim Web site of a picture of Chabad's world headquarters in Brooklyn with a message encouraging readers to “make EVERY attempt to reach these people and teach them the message of Islam or leave them a message from Islam,” al-Khattab admits that he is “the one that posted the things about Crown Heights,” and that he doesn’t view it as “anything illegal and I don’t think that it was a threat…”
He adds, however, that he “would have thought that they [law enforcement] would have considered that a threat much more than what he [Muhammad] did.”

Younes Abdullah Muhammad Pleads Guilty to Threatening “South Park” Creators

Update: On June 22, 2012, Muhammad was sentenced to 11.5 years in prison.

Younes Abdullah Muhammad, co-founder of the fringe extremist Muslim organization Revolution Muslim, pleaded guilty on Thursday for his role in threatening the creators of the cartoon “South Park.” 

Muhammad (a.k.a. Jesse Curtis Morton) was arrested by Moroccan authorities in May 2011 after being charged in the U.S. with communicating online threats. His threats targeted Matt Stone and Trey Parker for their satirical depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in an episode of their cartoon. In October he was placed into American custody and brought before a federal judge in Virginia to face charges.

Muhammad helped Zachary Chesser, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison on a similar charge, draft a statement containing language justifying “the death of those who insult Islam or defame its prophet…” The statement was issued on behalf of Revolution Muslim in response to the national attention garnered by Chesser after he threatened the “South Park” creators on a number of online platforms.

Under Muhammad’s leadership, Revolution Muslim distributed anti-Semitic and pro-terrorist propaganda at its street protests and online, which often included implicit and explicit threats of violence. The group was active mostly in New York until the end of 2010, when Muhammad moved to Morocco. Currently, it operates under the name Islam Policy.

Muhammad, who has a long history of justifying violence against anyone he views as an enemy of Islam, served as Revolution Muslim’s most prolific writer. In addition to his various posts on the group’s website, he contributed to Jihad Recollections, an online English language magazine created by Samir Khan. Khan, who is better known for editing Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) English-language magazine, Inspire, was killed by a U.S. drone strike on September 30, 2011, two years after he moved to Yemen to align himself with Al Qaeda.

In the inaugural issue of Jihad Recollections, released in April 2009, Muhammad expressed support for Al Qaeda, writing that the September 11 terrorist attacks “…were, for the most part, positive and the results even better than expected.” He also called on like-minded Muslims to “exploit these results and advance the jihad... It is time to begin to think about the necessary next steps that must predicate the conquering of Rome.”

Rampant Anti-Semitism on “March to Jerusalem” Facebook Page

Update – February 14, 2012: Gilad Atzmon, an anti-Semitic author, writer and musician, is scheduled to speak in Oakland, California, on February 25, at a “benefit for the Global March to Jerusalem – North America.”

The Facebook page of the “Global March to Jerusalem” campaign, which is coordinating efforts by activists to cross Israel’s borders and enter Jerusalem to “demand [its] freedom,” is rife with anti-Semitic and other extreme content.

The designated date for the “Global March to Jerusalem” (GMJ) is March 30, 2012, or “Land Day,” which commemorates six Israeli Arabs who were killed while protesting against Israeli soldiers in 1976.

The Facebook page features what it describes as “worldwide Jewish lobby news,” which links to an anti-Semitic Web site that features Holocaust denial. One of the news items reposted to the Facebook page calls Tel Aviv’s status as a gay-friendly destination consistent with “historical Jewish efforts to spread corruption and perversion among all human societies.”

In early January, a poll was posted on the GMJ Facebook page with the question, “Are what the Zionists doing to Palestine and its people with expulsion and killing similar to Hitler’s Holocaust?” The poll choices were, “Yes,” “No,” or “Even Worse.” 

Among the extreme comments found on the page is one that reads: “We will not go to Jerusalem as if we are going to Paris or as if we are going for tourism…This is our land. This is our country and we shall return to it through blood and martyrs. We will liberate it from the Jewish impurity by God’s will…By God we shall not enter it other than conquerors, this is God’s promise and God shall not forsake his promise.”

The administrator of the page posted a picture of the Ka’aba [the holiest shrine for Muslims] in Mecca with the message, “The alarm bells are ringing for over 65 years…the Zionist entity is demanding Jewish property in Saudi Arabia dating to the prophet’s time.”