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OPINION: Pro-Hamas vandal’s mom claims he’s just a free speech martyr
After a pro-Hamas activist was recently arrested in Massachusetts for various acts of vandalism, his mommy complained that he’s innocent and just “being punished for his views on Gaza.”
Jermaiah Sawaqed was nabbed over a week ago for allegedly vandalizing the Massachusetts State House, George Washington Monument, and MIT Stata Center, according to WCVB.
Sawaqed, who’s “associated” with the “extreme anti-Zionist” group Direct Action Movement for Palestinian Liberation, was charged with vandalism, destruction of property, vandalizing a war or veterans memorial, and “possession, transportation or use of a hoax device or substance.”
But Sawaqed’s mom said her son “does not belong to any group,” and claimed there is no evidence regarding his relationship with DAMPL. She also said Sawaqed simply was targeted for his online criticisms of Israel.
Hilariously, according to court documents, mommy also was arrested for spitting on a cop during the execution of a search warrant on her (and Sawaqed’s) home. No doubt she’ll assert hocking a loogie on a police officer’s face is protected by the First Amendment.
And why not? This has been pro-Hamas activists’ M.O. for years now.
After all, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, aka CAIR, said it was “an attack on free speech” when the activists who broke into and occupied the Stanford University president’s office were charged with crimes: “Instead of listening to [activists’] demands for justice and accountability, our institutions have chosen repression,” CAIR’s Zahra Billoo said.
At Harvard, one of its librarians justified tearing down posters of children either taken hostage or killed by Hamas with the justification that libraries “are not neutral” and “neutrality creates a chilling effect and facilitates the suppression of dissenting voices by mainstream ones.”
And students at Columbia started a petition to rehire a professor who was dismissed for posting “I’m with Hamas & Hezbollah & Islamic Jihad” on October 8, 2023 — the day after Hamas’ slaughter of over 1,000 Israelis — claiming he was a victim of the “McCarthyist backlash against pro-Palestinian speech.”
(Imagine if a professor had written “I’m with the KKK” or “I’m with the Nazi Party.”)
Now a report by York University’s Islamophobia Research Hub claims Canadian “public and private institutions are violating the speech rights of those speaking out against Israel’s war in Gaza.”
MORE: Pro-Palestinian ‘sham’ charity partnered with Ivy League schools: reports
According to The Canadian Press, “Law students, teachers and medical professionals” have been investigated and/or reprimanded for their alleged speech against Israel.
York’s Nadia Hasan, a professor of gender, sexuality, and women’s studies whose research focuses on “systemic racism and Islamophobia in legal, administrative, and discursive regimes and their relation to Muslim life,” said “many Canadians have paid an unfair price” (for their pro-Hamas speech).
The Press article does not link to the report, nor offers specifics regarding free speech violations. I did manage to track down what appears to be the report via York U.’s Islamophobia Research Hub.
In it, we read supposed free expression infractions such as politician Sarah Jama’s expulsion from the New Democratic Party after she “released a social media statement calling for a ceasefire” and to “end all occupation of all Palestinian land and end apartheid.”
The linked source material notes Jama also had said “violence and retaliation rooted in settler colonialism [Israel] have taken the lives of far too many innocent people,” and “described Israel’s historical and continued actions as ‘domination and occupation of Palestinian land.” (Her comments came mere days after Hamas’ murderous assault against Israel.)
Shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, “humanitarian” doctor Ben Thomson allegedly was “harassed,” “doxxed” and briefly suspended for pro-Palestinians statements, including claiming “racism” was behind reports that Hamas raped women and beheaded babies during its initial assault.
Perhaps most ridiculous is the response to the Clerk of the Privy Council’s condemnation of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks four days after they occurred. The Council’s condemnation became the subject of a human rights complaint because it came “after nearly 1,000 Palestinians had already been killed in airstrikes, including many children.”
It also failed to mention “anti-Palestinian racism, or Palestinians” nor was “followed up with any similar expressions of solidarity with Canadian Palestinian public servants who had lost loved ones in the bombardment, or who were emotionally impacted.”
Look, let’s get this straight: Hamas (along with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades) is officially recognized as a terrorist group by Canada. Its attack on Israel that fateful October day in 2023 killed the equivalent of 48,000 Americans.
Canada has no First Amendment like its neighbor to the south, which would grant Canadians broader speech protections than they currently enjoy. But hey, that’s on them.
Jews in Canada are the victims of hate crimes way more often than Muslims. In 2023, the year of Hamas’ attack, more than four times as many Jews were victimized — 900 to 211.
This all is not a defense of harassing and/or committing violence against folks with pro-Palestinian viewpoints. It is a showcase of the tiresome pro-Palestinian penchant for ridiculous hyperbole and perpetually acting as “victims.”
When an officially recognized terrorist group launches an attack and murders the equivalent of almost 50,000 Americans, and then residents in the West openly celebrate it and condemn the victims, reactions like yelling “f*** you” or giving them the finger (such instances are included in the Islamophobia Research Hub report) aren’t “hate” crimes or harassment.
They are quite reasonable responses to the glorification of barbarism.
MORE: Janitors trapped by pro-Palestinian mob reach settlement with Columbia U.
IMAGE CAPTION & CREDIT: An angry Muslim woman shouts at someone; Sean Mccrory/Facebook. INTERIOR IMAGES: Ben Thomson, Peter Cook/X
