Overview: Mark Ayyash [Mark Muhannad Ayyash] opposed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, spread an anti-Israel conspiracy theory and defended terrorism. Ayyash also defended anti-Israel agitators and demonized Israel and Zionists.
As of 2019, Ayyash was an activist within the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
As of December 2020, Ayyash was reportedly an Assistant Professor of Sociology and the Director of the John de Chastelain Peace Studies Initiative at Mount Royal University (MRU) in Calgary, Canada
In April 2019, Ayyash was the director of the John de Chastelain Peace Initiative since 2017 and reportedly oversees and organizes the annual Calgary Peace Prize at MRU.
According to a March 2020 Facebook post, Ayyash was a Visiting Professor at the University of Sydney in the Department of Arabic Language and Culture.
Opposing the IHRA Definition of Anti-Semitism
On November 23, 2020, Ayyash published an article for Al Jazeera English (AJE) titled: “The IHRA definition will not help fight anti-Semitism."
In the article, Ayyash criticized the Ontario Combating Antisemitism Act, or Bill 168, which sought to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism.
The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Twenty-eight European countries, as well as Canada, Australia, Israel and Argentina, have also adopted the definition.
Ayyash wrote: “the IHRA definition seeks to make rather banal and soft criticisms of Israel acceptable… while censoring more serious and necessary critiques (ie, the Palestinian critique of the colonial foundations of the Israeli state and the need to transform them)."
Ayyash claimed that works by anti-Israel writers such as Judith Butler as well as Joseph Massad and Hamid Dabashi would be deemed anti-Semitic if the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism was adopted.
Ayyash also referred to Israel’s statehood as a “racist endeavour" and compared Israel’s relationship to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to a “political siege on Indigenous communities" in Canada.
Ayyash concluded by denouncing the countries who had adopted the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism as “European or the products of European settler colonialism."
On November 16, 2020, Ayyash tweeted an article titled: “New human rights order risks restricting criticism of Israel," which also criticized the IHRA definition. Ayyash commented: “An excellent piece by Reem Bahdi. This is not just an Ontario issue. Please read and share."
On October 27, 2020, Ayyash tweeted a link to a press release from Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) rejecting the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism and tweeted: "One thing is for certain that we will not be deterred from our efforts to denounce the state of Israel for its systemic racism against the Palestinians. If that means we will be engaging in civil disobedience, then so be it."
IJV has promoted Holocaust denial and has been accused of peddling “antisemitism under the guise of radical anti-Zionism." The group has also promoted the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS).
Spreading an Anti-Israel Conspiracy
On July 7, 2020 Ayyash wrote an AJE article, titled: “Israel is a settler colony, annexing native land is what it does." The subtitle of the article read: “Since its early days of colonising Palestine, the Zionist movement has always aimed to establish a Greater Israel."
“Greater Israel" is a conspiracy theory that claims that Israel plans to expand its territory to encompass most of the Middle East and chunks of North Africa.
In his article, Ayyash characterized Israelis as settlers who “act without the sophisticated rhetoric that hides and conceals the violence of the settler colony. They do not hide their intention to remove Palestinians and expand the state that is to come, the state of Greater Israel."
Ayyash wrote: “Since the early 20th century, the Zionist movement has longed for the creation of a Greater Israel, but it has been savvy enough to hide and conceal its intentions, especially in the international arena."
Ayyash concluded: “Israeli settler colonialism will not rest until the majority of the Palestinians are removed and expelled, and all of the Palestinian lands are under Israeli sovereignty."
Defending Terrorism
On October 22, 2020, tweeted: "Israel has the right to defend itself" is a hollow answer in pretty much all contexts. Though this is especially absurd. Sad thing though is that it works in western countries. Hard to have faith in people when you constantly see their utter disregard for Palestinian life.
On August 30, 2020, Ayyash shared an AJE article on Twitter that referred to incendiary balloons sent into Israel as “‘distress signals.’" Ayyash tweeted: “Group floating incendiary balloons into Israel says it's a form of pressure on Israel to l @AJEnglish."
In August 2020, airborne incendiary devices launched from the Gaza Strip sparked at least 23 fires in southern Israel.
On November 14, 2019, Ayyash tweeted: “Let's be clear: even if there were no rockets being fired from besieged Gaza, @JoeBiden, @AndrewScheer, and all the rest would still go on about Israel's right to defend itself. This kind of talking point springs from a foundation in the architecture of empire: might makes right."
Defending Anti-Israel Agitators
On October 12, 2018, Ayyash signed a petition in support of Dimitri Lascaris, an anti-Israel activist who has spread anti-Semitism and defended the terror organization Hamas. In 2016, Lascaris authored a BDS divestment resolution that was later adopted by Canada’s Green Party (GPC).
The petition in support of Lascaris demanded apologies from various Canadian government officials, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for “smearing" Lascaris as an anti-Semite.
On July 16, 2020, Ayyash tweeted a video of United States Congresswoman Ilhan Omar giving an interview about her stance supporting BDS. Ayyash commented: “It really is a simple question: why won't @theJagmeetSingh say something like this? I know what the Liberals/Conservatives and their weak talking points have to say about @Ilhan's comments, but does the @NDP have its own reasons for not agreeing with Rep. Ilhan?"
As of March 2021, Jagmeet Singh was a Member of Canada’s Parliament since 2019 as well as the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) since 2017.
Ilhan Omar was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2018. In February 2019, top Congressional leaders denounced Omar for tweeting anti-Semitic remarks. She has also demonized Israel and endorsed BDS, including introducing a pro-BDS resolution in the U.S. Congress.
In July 2019, Omar sponsored H.Res. 496, referred to as a “pro-BDS" resolution, which Omar described as “an opportunity for us to explain why it is we support...the BDS movement."
Demonizing Israel
On October 12, 2020, Ayyash published an AJE excerpt in “The International News," titled “Fight for liberation." In the excerpt, Ayyash lamented the “international recognition of Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel" and blamed Israel for the “‘de-development’ of the Palestinian economy."
Ayyash also charged Israel with “uninhibited killing and maiming of Palestinians" and “gender-based violence in prisons and at checkpoints." Ayyash lastly decried the “rising tide of diplomatic normalcy between Israel and Arab states."
On September 1, 2020, Ayyash tweeted: “3500 White Europeans ‘displaced from their farmlands’ in Zimbabwe = US/Europe full pressure for 17-18 years to retake land & gain huge compensation. Millions of Palestinians displaced by Israel = US/Europe full support of displacement for 100 years."
On August 29, 2020, Ayyashed shared a Haaretz article discussing how Israelis facing coronavirus flight restrictions have been vacationing in the West Bank. Ayyash tweeted: “Majority of Israelis, even those who dislike settlers in the West Bank, have always admired those settlers and see in them the spirit of Israel. From their longer established settlements, they take vacations into their own settler colonial beginnings."
On July 7, 2020, Ayyash tweeted an article he wrote for AJE and commented: “My piece on #annexation #Palestine. Israel is a settler colony, annexing native land is what it does @AJEnglish."
In the spring of 2020, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israeli sovereignty would be applied to certain areas of the West Bank. The annexation plan was postponed in August 2020.
On June 7, 2020, Ayyash shared a tweet showing political protests against the government within Israel and tweeted: “Hope I'm wrong but this is how it's gonna go:
Leaders around the world, starting with Trudeau: "see, isn't it great that Israel has a vibrant democracy." End of story. Annexation and killing of Palestinians moves ahead unabated."
On June 4, 2020, Ayyash published an article on Middle East Monitor called “Palestinians and Black Lives Matter [BLM] are united against oppression." In the article, Ayyash drew parallels between black Americans and Palestinians, whom he concluded were “under authoritarian and dictatorial rule" and decried “the suffering of those rendered inhuman by state violence."
Ayyash stated: “Both black and Palestinian bodies have been rendered bare, opened up for the unleashing of unbound violence that holds no consequence for the perpetrators and oppressors."
Ayyash concluded that “Palestinians, along with other peoples oppressed, exploited and murdered without consequence" should ally themselves with the BLM movement.
On January 20, 2020, Ayyash tweeted: “I was born and raised in Silwan. This court ruling along with countless other acts of Israeli intimidation, oppression, expulsion, and violence make it a real possibility that the neighborhood I grew up in will cease to exist in the not too distant future."
Ownership claims to lands in Silwan, a Palestinian-dominated community in East Jerusalem, have been hotly contested as many Jews and Palestinians possess conflicting deeds to the same properties, with Jews holding deeds that pre-date those held by Palestinians. Jews who have attempted to reclaim their properties and move into Silwan have been frequently met with Palestinian violence.
Demonizing Zionists
On July 9, 2020, Ayyash tweeted: “ American support for Zionism is not tied to ‘values,’ the ‘Judeo-Christian tradition,’ and most importantly, it does not stem from an actual and authentic concern for the well-being of the Jewish community."
Supporting BDS
On May 14, 2019, Ayyash published an article in Middle East Monitor defending BDS. Ayyash also argued for the “necessity of targeting the Israeli state precisely because it prohibits the realisation of Palestinian rights."
Ayyash concluded: “If BDS is defeated, then history suggests that another campaign or activity will take its place."
On February 22, 2019, Ayyash was listed as a featured speaker at the “Canada and Palestine" symposium held at the University of Ottawa. Ayyash’s speech was called: “The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Movement in Canada." The brochure for the event said the speech would discuss how BDS in Palestine “has developed transnational solidarity networks in Canada, and explores the challenges that the Canadian BDS campaign has faced."
On November 2, 2019, Ayyash shared the statement of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy on Twitter regarding a pro-BDS event scheduled on campus.
The chancellor stated that the event was “being presented by a private foundation – not by the university. This private foundation has, as many non-UMass organizations regularly do, rented space on campus to host the upcoming event, which is being billed as a panel discussion on ‘The Attack on BDS and American Democracy.’"
Ayyash tweeted:"UMass Chancellor uses one of the most common and dumbest arguments against hosting talks on BDS: ‘academic boycotts are antithetical to academic freedom.’ So how else do you propose to deal with Israel’s massive attacks on Palestinian academia?"
On July 28, 2019, Ayyash tweeted: “BDS originated in Palestine, created by Palestinians. Why would they create a campaign to boycott Egypt or Saudi Arabia?? Israel is the country that directly oppresses these Palestinians, therefore why BDS targets it. Not complicated, CNN."