Overview: Hatem Bazian has spread classic anti-Semitism, reportedly promoted religious anti-Semitism, denied Jewish peoplehood and Jewish history and has compared Israel to Nazi Germany.
Bazian has called for “intifada" in America, defended the Hamas terror group, expressed support for terrorists and fundraised for a Hamas-linked charity. He has politicized academic coursework and demonized Israel and Zionists.
Bazian is the founder of the anti-Israel organizations Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). As of March 2021, he served as AMP chairman.
Bazian is also a leader within the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
As of March 2021, Bazian was a lecturer in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), where he founded the Center for the Study of Documentation of Islamophobia in 2009.
As of the same date, Bazian was the provost, co-founder and a faculty member of Zaytuna College for Muslim Studies (Zaytuna). As a graduate student, he reportedly headed the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at UC Berkeley.
Bazian is affiliated with IfNotNow (INN) and has spoken before Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).
Bazian writes prolifically against Israel, publishing his work on his personal website and other online sites including Mondoweiss and Electronic Intifada.
He is the author of a 2016 anti-Israel book titled “Palestine … it is something colonial".
Classic Anti-Semitism
Bazian retweeted a July 31, 2017 tweet featuring anti-Semitic imagery and accusing a “Zionist" of supporting the theft of “Palestinian land+resources+body-organs" and “apartheid, occupation, ethnic cleansing, genocide."
The tweet Bazian retweeted included an image of a man dressed in Orthodox Jewish garb, captioned with the words: “MOM LOOK! I IS CHOSEN! I CAN NOW KILL, RAPE, SMUGGLE ORGANS & AND STEAL THE LAND OF PALESTINIANS *YAY* ASHKE-NAZI"
The tweet included another image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wearing a kippah and captioned: “101 JUDAISM WE TEACH IT", “GOD CHOSE ME" and “I JUST CONVERTED ALL OF NORTH KOREA TO JUDAISM....DONALD TLUMP: NOW MY NUKES ARE LEGAL & I CAN ANNEX SOUTH KOREA & YOU NEED TO START PAYING ME $34 BILLION A YEAR IN WELFARE."
On November 21, 2017, Bazian issued an apology for the anti-Semitic retweet, saying he “tweeted it without giving it much thought." However, as of December 20, 2018, Bazian was still listed on the anti-Semitic tweet as having retweeted it.
In December 2014, Bazian spoke at the 2014 MAS ICNA convention, where he suggested [00:14:22] that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) controls the U.S. Congress and American foreign policy.
Bazian also said [00:14:34]: “Our Congress is an Israeli-occupied territory" and urged [00:15:53] college-age attendees to “push the BDS" on campus.
The stated mission of AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobby, is to “strengthen, protect and promote the U.S.-Israel relationship in ways that enhance the security of the United States and Israel."
Bazian spoke [00:00:33] in a Youtube video, published on July 20, 2014, where he said [00:17:42] that AIPAC had a “stranglehold" on American policy not only in the Middle East but also in genera “because there is a convergence of interests among certain elite groupings that want to maintain the world in the way it is."
Bazian then suggested [00:18:11] that Israel shared blame for an increase in homeless U.S. military veterans and said [00:19:03]: “You have to make all these connections in a broader sense that we have a particular global elite, where part of it is here in our own country, that wants the world for the few at the expense of the many."
In 2002, Bazian reportedly led a protest against the arrests of 79 SJP members at UC Berkeley for having “attempted to disrupt a Holocaust Remembrance Day event."
Bazian told protesters to “look at the Jewish names on the school buildings" and said: “Take a look at the type of names on the buildings around campus — Haas, Zellerbach — and decide who controls this university."
In 1994, Bazian was reportedly “an organizer and featured speaker" at a press conference to support a mural depicting Malcolm X’s face surrounded by dollar signs, yellow stars of David, skulls and crossbones and the words “African blood." Jewish students were reportedly forcibly excluded from the event.
As a graduate student at San Francisco State University (SFSU) in the 1980’s and 1990’s, Bazian reportedly helped foment an anti-Semitic environment that has persisted for over a decade at SFSU. As president of the SFSU Associated Students and Student Union Governing Board, Bazian reportedly blocked the appointment of a Jewish student to the Student Judicial Council because the student “supported the state of Israel and was therefore, by definition, a racist."
Promoting Religious Anti-Semitism
On June 4, 2004, the website academia.org reported that Bazian was quoted in 1999 in the The Detroit News as saying: “The Day of Judgment will not happen until the trees and stones will say, ‘Oh Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’"
The quote is part of an important area of Islamic scripture and is known for being quoted in the Hamas charter [Article 7].
Bazian reportedly denied making the statement.
Denying Jewish History and Peoplehood
On March 23, 2014, Bazian published an article in the Harvard International Review, where he claimed that much of ancient Jewish history in the land of Israel is a “mythical past" and that Jews are a group that is a “historical passer-by in the land."
On August 22, 2016, Bazian tweeted that Zionists have “never have moved on from supposedly 3000 years & uses ancient text for its argument."
On December 20, 2016, Bazian tweeted: “Historical evidence does not support Zionist claims re the Western Wall – Mondoweiss."
The Western Wall refers to a part of the retaining wall of the complex that housed the Second Jewish Temple approximately 2000 years ago in Jerusalem.
On July 26, 2017, Bazian tweeted: “Sorry American Jews, you don't have a birthright."
Bazian’s tweet referred to the Birthright Israel heritage trips for diaspora Jewish young adults to Israel.
On December 24, 2017, Bazian wrote an article in dailysabah.com where he denied that Israel had a right to claim Jerusalem as its capital. Bazian claimed the city is “the occupied capital of Palestine and is, at the core, a Palestinian Arab city, pure and simple!"
On April 19, 2018, Bazian tweeted: “The 'Jewish nation' is the central myth of Zionism. It needs to be dismantled." He included a Mondoweiss article with the same title.
The article claimed that Jews’ sense of collective nationhood is only a modern concept, that Jews should abandon this concept and that Judaism must “become a mere religion or societal tradition within modern constructs of ‘nations.’"
Bazian retweeted an October 21, 2018 tweet from Mondoweiss with an article titled: “Canard du Jour: Antisemitism and the denial of Jewish self-determination."
The article said: “How about Jews? What precisely makes them a ‘people’ in the same way that, say, Norwegians are? Is it anti-Basque or anti-Semitic to suggest that Basques or Jews are not ‘peoples’ possessing a political-territorial ‘right’ to self-determination?"
Comparing Israel to Nazi Germany
In January to February of 2011, Bazian headlined a 13-city speaking tour called “Never Again for Anyone," which was launched on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The tour was organized by AMP, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) and the Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA). In a February 2011 statement about the tour, IJAN said that Zionists “exploited Nazism" and the Holocaust, and reportedly analogized Zionists with Nazis by comparing Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto.
The phrase “Never Again" is often deployed as a general declaration against genocide, invoking the Nazis’ war of extermination against the Jews.
On July 13, 2015, Bazian tweeted: “‘Gaza: an epistemic Warsaw Ghetto but only different Semites are locked-up this time around.’" The line was from an article published by Bazian, which he linked to in his tweet.
Bazian retweeted a May 27, 2018 tweet claiming that Israel was maintaining Gaza as a “concentration camp."
Bazian retweeted a July 11, 2018 tweet that also claimed that Gaza was a “concentration camp."
Bazian retweeted a September 23, 2018 tweet from Mondoweiss, with an article titled: “The Holocaust, vengeance and the Palestinians."
The article said: “The Jewish collective memory demanded a vengeful response to the Holocaust. The Nazis deserved some taste of what we had experienced at their hands. We were not able to achieve that satisfaction. We displaced those feelings on to the Palestinians."
Bazian retweeted December 2 and 3, 2018 tweets that both featured the hashtag: “#PalestinianHolocaust."
Bazian retweeted a March 13, 2021 tweet that described Israel’s razing of an illegally constructed village: “Think of 1930s Germany. This is 21st century Israel."
Calling for an American “Intifada"
In April 2004, which was during the second intifada in Israel, Bazian called for an “intifada" in the U.S., at a rally in support of the Iraqi insurgency.
The second intifada was characterized by more than 120 suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians on buses and in cafes.
Bazian asked the crowd: “Are you angry? Are you angry? Are you angry? Well, we've been watching intifada in Palestine, we've been watching an uprising in Iraq, and the question is that what are we doing? How come we don't have an intifada in this country?… and it's about time that we have an intifada in this country that change[s] fundamentally the political dynamics in here. And we know...they're gonna say it’s some Palestinian being too radical, well you haven't seen radicalism yet!"
Defending Hamas
On September 11, 2014, Bazian tweeted: “‘Debunking Israeli Propaganda (3): “Hamas uses the Gaza population as human shields.’" His tweet linked to a story with that title.
Throughout the summer of 2014 — during Operation Protective Edge (OPE) — Hamas's deployment of human shields was extensively documented and publicized. Hamas encouraged Gazans to act as human shields to frustrate Israeli efforts to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza.
On January 12, 2015, Bazian tweeted an article challenging the definition of the word “terrorist." The article stated: “The Europeans who fought Nazism with arms were labeled ‘terrorist’ by Hitler. Hamas is fighting against the occupation of Palestinian lands and is labeled ‘terrorist’."
On May 24, 2018, Bazian spoke at an event showing solidarity with Hamas-backed rioters in the “March of Return." The event was co-hosted by AMP, INN and MPower Change, an organization co-founded by Linda Sarsour.
In May 2018, violent riots, instigated by Hamas on the Israeli-Gaza border, saw thousands of rioters attempting numerous breaches of Israel’s border fence, with participants declaring their intention to harm Jews across the border.
Media reports confirmed [00:00:20] the March of Return protesters’ breaches and attempted breaches of Israel’s border fence, some by armed Palestinians. On May 15, 2018 senior Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahhar said that the Gaza protests were a pretext of “peaceful resistance."
The event that Bazian spoke at was meant to condemn “the massacre of Gazans by the far-right Netanyahu government."
Supporting Terrorists
Bazian retweeted an October 13, 2017 tweet in support of Ahmed Manasrah.
Ahmed Manasra (sometimes spelled Mansara) was wounded on October 12, 2015, while he and his 15-year-old cousin, Hassan, were engaged in a stabbing spree in Jerusalem, critically wounding a 13-year-old Israeli boy and moderately wounding a 25-year-old man.
The Manasras’ stabbing spree was interrupted when police shot Hassan and a passing Israeli motorist hit Ahmed, who was thereupon surrounded by enraged and cursing onlookers.
Ahmed was not killed, but taken by Israeli police for treatment at an Israeli hospital. Manasra, who admitted to investigators “I went there to stab Jews," was later tried and convicted on two counts of attempted murder.
Bazian retweeted a July 7, 2017 tweet from Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization’s official twitter page. The tweet said: [Palestine and the International Solidarity Movement mourn the Uzbek solidarity ‘Zibuniso Mirzaeva’] #PFLP #Uzbekistan #Russia #Palestine #BDS."
On November 6, 2014, Bazian tweeted in support of Rasmea Odeh, writing: “#Justice4Rasmea From the LA-8 case to targeting Ramsea we can see a clear paradigmatic process for silencing Palestine in the US."
Odeh was a key military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a PFLP supermarket bombing that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh later moved to the United States but was deported to Jordan in 2017 for immigration fraud.
On October 27, 2013, Bazian tweeted: “Free Marwan and all Palestinian political prisoners. Free Palestine. Palestine's Mandela."
Marwan Barghouti is currently serving five consecutive life sentences for his role in suicide bombings and shooting attacks that killed five Israelis during the second intifada.
Barghouti led the Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorist Tanzim force and founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. He also financed the guitar-case bomb used in the Sbarro Cafe massacre, where 15 civilians were killed and 130 injured.
Fundraising for a Hamas-Linked Charity
On June 18, 2004, Bazian was a featured speaker at a fundraising event titled “Palestinians in Agony!" for KindHearts for Charitable Humanitarian Development (KindHearts).
KindHearts dissolved in 2011 after the U.S. Treasury Department discovered that it was funneling funds to the terrorist organization Hamas.
Politicizing Coursework
On February 5, 2014, the Toronto Sun revealed that a student in one of Bazian’s courses reported: “I will be required, as part of my grade, to start a Twitter account and tweet weekly on Islamophobia. I can’t help but feel this is unethical. This is his agenda not mine."
The student also said that all 100 students enrolled in the course were “forced to create individual Twitter accounts" but that Bazian “excludes both the Twitter account requirement AND the final project from his official syllabus."
Bazian confirmed the Twitter requirement to the Toronto Sun. The course was titled “Asian American Studies 132AC: Islamophobia."
Anti-Israel Activism
In October 2017, Bazian was a plenary speaker at the 2017 National SJP Conference. National SJP said its conference aimed to strengthen “collaborative efforts within all regions to pass BDS" and pursue “pathways to achieving sanctions in the future."
On August 22, 2014, Bazian posted on Facebook, calling for an “International Day of Action on College Campus" on September 23 to “push for" BDS in order to “Free Palestine and End the Siege on Gaza." The planned date was the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
On July 26, 2014, Bazian spoke at an anti-Israel rally in San Francisco during OPE where he accused [00:06:45] Israel of committing “genocide" and stated [00:08:10] that “we need to give them [the U.S. political leadership] [a] genetic mutation and constitute a Palestinian spine for them… we need to harass them."
Demonizing Israel and Zionists
Bazian retweeted a February 21, 2021 tweet that said: “Is there a single Jewish politician of prominence in Israel who does not publiclly call for ethnic cleaning of all Palestinians?"
On December 17, 2018, Bazian claimed in an opinion piece: “Palestinians face real and substantiated acts of genocide and never-ending documented war crimes daily…"
On October 1, 2018, Bazian featured in a Facebook video where he claimed [00:14:24] that after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, “Israel’s role in stoking internal tensions" in Arab countries like Iraq and Egypt took place through “operations" that were done “to create the perception that Jews in there are not secure."
Bazian retweeted a June 21, 2018 tweet with a fake quote from David Ben-Gurion, the first Israeli Prime Minister, that said: “We will expel the Arabs and take their place."
On May 28, 2018, Bazian posted an Instagram image promoting a popular anti-Israel propaganda map.
The maps claim that lands once controlled by Britain, Egypt and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian land," were purportedly stolen by Israel.
In February 2016, publisher McGraw-Hill Education recalled copies of a college-level textbook that contained the fraudulent maps. In October 2015, the United States cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.
On May 15, 2018, Bazian tweeted: “Fact: The Israeli army massacred 58 unarmed Palestinian civilians on Monday May 14th, 2018." On May 16, 2018, Hamas reportedly claimed that 50 of its operatives were among those killed during the May 14 riots, while PIJ claimed that 3 of its operatives were among the dead.
On June 3, 2017, Bazian tweeted: “Israel provoked the Six-Day War in 1967, and it was not fighting for survival - Mondoweiss."
On December 11, 2016, Bazian featured in a Youtube video where he promoted his book “Palestine… it is something colonial." In the video, Bazian argued [00:35:00] that European Zionists “accepted anti-Semitism as the norm" and condemned Zionist Jews in Europe for continuing a path of national liberation instead of confronting the Nazis.
On May 2, 2012, Bazian appeared in a Youtube video where he claimed [00:11:10] that pro-Israel advocates are the primary source of Islamophobia in the United States, a narrative that Bazian regularly promotes on social media.