NY Jets Player Speaks at Extreme Anti-Israel Conference

July 9, 2013 By Joe Kaufman 39 Comments

Oday Aboushi has been touted as being the first Palestinian-American player in the National Football League (NFL), but his radical behavior since being drafted by the New York Jets less than three months ago could [should–Dorrie] get him sent home early. His latest infraction was made as he gave a speech at a radical Muslim conference sponsored by a group denying Israel’s right to exist and associated with blatantly anti-Semitic and terrorist propaganda.

When the New York Jets chose Offensive Lineman Oday Aboushi in the fifth round of the 2013 NFL draft, they did so because of Aboushi’s athletic skills. It seems, though, that his personal life was not a consideration, at least not enough to stop the team from picking him. Problems in the NFL usually revolve around drugs or alcohol abuse or players being bad influences in the locker rooms. Aboushi’s problem is an unusual one for pro sports. He’s a Muslim extremist.

In January, Aboushi posted a photo to his personal Twitter page depicting an old woman looking down while three clearly Orthodox Jews converse with one another in the background. The photo, which is attributed to the anti-Israel publication Middle East Monitor (MEM), was part of a large-scale smear campaign against the Jewish state. The caption over Aboushi’s tweet reads, “88 year-old Palestinian evicted from home in Jerusalem by Israel authorities to make room 4 Orthodox Jews.”

Aboushi might have gotten the idea to post the propaganda from his relative, Fatina Abuzahrieh, who also grew up in and resides in New York City. In November of last year, Abuzahrieh posted on her Facebook page a shockingly anti-Semitic cartoon portraying an evil looking Orthodox Jew with a huge smile on his face, wearing an Israeli flag across his chest, and an old Palestinian woman looking down, crying, claiming to be “thrown out” of her “own home.”

From there, Aboushi’s conduct has continued to get more extreme.

On April 19th, just one week prior to the draft, Aboushi praised a conference sponsored by Islamic Relief (IR), a charity that the Israeli government has labeled a front for Hamas and that has been cited for both receiving and giving huge sums of money to al-Qaeda related groups.

Only weeks after the draft, Aboushi tweeted the following: “65th anniversary of the Nakba and palestinians all across the world are still thriving.” For persons unaware of the term “Nakba,” the statement might seem innocuous, but for those who care about Israel, the term is a very dangerous and provocative one. The Nakba or Catastrophe is a derogatory reference to Israel’s May 1948 founding as an independent Jewish state. It is used to spread enmity against Israel and to fuel terrorist attacks from groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

Lest anyone believe this was an honest misunderstanding on Aboushi’s part, Aboushi solidified his extreme anti-Israelism late last month when he was a featured speaker at a conference run by an organization which denies Israel’s existence and associates with those involved in violence against her citizens.

According to the group sponsoring the event, “El-Bireh Palestine Society was founded to perpetuate the strong ties among its members and to link their communities around the world together and with their ancestral roots in El-Bireh, Palestine.” One of the ways the group accomplishes this is by holding annual conferences.

Speaking at the Society’s August 1986 Fifth National Convention held in Dearborn, Michigan was Fouad Rafeedie. Two years later, the INS charged Rafeedie with being a high-ranking member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist group. The PFLP is currently named as such on the U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Also speaking was Osama Siblani, the publisher of Arab American News (Sada al-Watan) and a public supporter of Hezbollah and Hamas.

The three-day El-Bireh Convention 2013 (Connect 2013) began this past June 28thin Arlington, Virginia. Featured as a speaker at the event was Oday Aboushi. Also participating in the conference was Nitham Hasan, the President of the Islamic Center of South Florida (ICOSF). ICOSF’s mosque property is owned by the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), a group named by the U.S. Justice Department as being a party to the financing of millions of dollars to Hamas.

El-Bireh Palestine Society’s logo, found atop the organization’s website, contains a graphic of the entire nation of Israel covered in a Palestinian flag – a patent denial of Israel’s legitimacy and right to exist. Like Aboushi’s Nakba, images such as this fuel terrorism and hate abroad and potentially here at home as well. Worse still, the Facebook page for the conference – which is administered by the same individual who created the Society’s website, Ashraf Abed – is accompanied by horrifically anti-Semitic, anti-Christian and terrorist propaganda.

On the same El-Bireh Facebook site as the conference, there are contained different images of Hitler and rabid anti-Christian cleric Ahmed Deedat, who authored the infamous work CRUCIFIXION OR CRUCI-FICTION? There are terrorist memorials for Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, PLO leader Yasser Arafat, Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin and Hamas bomb maker Yahya Ayyash. About Arafat and Yassin, the site states in Arabic, “The martyr leader Yasser Arafat with the Mujahid Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. G-d have mercy on them.”

As well, there are a number of pictures of the imprisoned head of the PFLP, Ahmad Saadat, and a photo glorifying members of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) in the process of launching rockets into Israel. There is also a photo of Oday Aboushi’s friend, Linda Sarsour, the Executive Director of the Arab American Association of New York (AAANY), and a picture of four individuals stomping on an American flag, which they pulled down from atop a sign.

Following the conference, Aboushi tweeted, “Al bireh convention was a pleasure. Proud Palestinians is always a good sight.”

It is okay to be proud of one’s heritage. Few, if any, would disagree. But what is not okay is when the heritage that you are praising instills hatred and violence in its followers and threatens and brings terror to the lives of others. It is apparent that that is exactly what the organization Oday Aboushi spoke in front of believes.

What will the Jets do? [My guess? Nothing. It’s about the money, Joe, not the patriotism.–Dorrie]

In a previous article, this author detailed the extremist ties and behavior of football player Oday Aboushi, which resulted in Aboushi removing material from his Facebook site. Yet, to this day, the New York Jets have ignored the actions of their Islamist draft pick, only to see his behavior get worse. So far, the team has appeared to put Aboushi’s athletic ability over his ties to Muslim fanaticism. This author, however, believes that the Jets have much more to worry about than whether or not Aboushi can create holes in the opposing team’s defense or if he can provide protection for the quarterback.

Given the actions he continues to engage in and the dangerous persons and groups he chooses to surround himself with, the Jets must change the game plan they originally had when they took Oday Aboushi in the 2013 NFL Draft and release this player. In the end, those individuals Aboushi truly wishes to protect may very well be the ones we have to worry about the most.

I put this article out on 5/14/13 with the notes. I don’t think I was far off about what was important:

http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/05/11/3295488/jets-aboushi-a-rare-palestinian.html

Jets’ Aboushi a rare Palestinian-American in NFL

By DENNIS WASZAK Jr. The Associated Press; AP sports writer

Saturday, May. 11, 2013 | 11:40 AM Modified Sat, May 11, 2013 11:42 AM

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — The congratulatory messages flooded Oday Aboushi’s Twitter page for a few days after he was drafted by the New York Jets two weeks ago.

Many were happy to see the hometown kid from the New York borough of Staten Island starting his NFL career close to his family and friends. It was the other tweets, first dozens and then hundreds, from places such as Dubai and Saudi Arabia [and that should certainly make us feel safe and secure and sure that this is a good thing, yes?] that made the enormity of the situation really sink in.

As a Palestinian-American, the Jets’ offensive lineman is a rarity in the NFL. Aboushi, drafted in the fifth round out after a standout career at the University of Virginia, is one of just a handful of players with that ethnic background.

“People weren’t just talking about me being a New York Jet, but being one of the first Arab-Americans, a Palestinian-American [it would be just so refreshing if that wasn’t what was important; is the guy any good, for instance? Seems to me that the story ought to be about why he was drafted], to be drafted. It’s settling in now. It’s a different feeling, one that I’m embracing and really loving.”

As are Palestinian-Americans around the country. The short list of NFL players with Palestinian backgrounds includes former linebacker Tarek Saleh (played for 5 years in 59 games; was a starter once); former quarterback Gibran Hamdan, who is half Palestinian and half Pakistani (2003-2010; played for 6 teams); and former defensive lineman Nader Abdallah (I couldn’t find anything but this from NFL.com: “This player does not have any statistics…”).

As a Palestinian-American, the Jets’ big offensive lineman is a rarity in the NFL. Aboushi, drafted in the fifth round out after a standout career at the University of Virginia, is one of just a small handful of players with that ethnic background.” You don’t see many of us in the sport,” said Aboushi, who signed a four-year deal Friday. “So for me to kind of break that mold and sort of open the door for other people [I probably sound like a nag, but it would soooo nice to just hear him say, “I want to do a good job for the team”], and show them that it is possible, it’s a great feeling. It’s a pleasure for me, an honor, and I’m happy to be able to be that sort of person for people.”

The 6-foot-5, 308-pound Aboushi is the ninth of 10 children born in Brooklyn to Palestinian parents who came to the U.S. from the town of Beit Hanina in the occupied territory of the West Bank. His family, which now resides in Staten Island, includes lawyers, doctors and accountants, but Aboushi might end up being the greatest success story of all.

And to some, he already is.

“You can’t underestimate what a big deal this is,” said Linda Sarsour, the executive director of the Arab-American Association of New York [and if anyone’s thinking this could have Muslim Brotherhood ties, you wouldn’t be wrong]. “When a lot of Americans think of Palestinians, I feel like there are two images. There’s either the image of a suicide bomber or an image of some poor refugee in Gaza. There’s really nothing in between [and whose fault is that?]. Oday, being a young Palestinian-American born to Palestinian immigrant parents in New York and gets drafted by the Jets – the dream of every American boy – I think gives a new image to what it is when you think of Palestinian, when you think Arab and when you think Muslim.” [Well, it’s not working for me, and won’t until the MB stops fouling everything it touches.]

Sarsour, a fellow Palestinian-American, is a long-time friend of Aboushi’s family. Sarsour’s 14-year-old son, Tamir, has been using a photo of him posing with Aboushi, when the offensive lineman helped Staten Island victims of Superstorm Sandy in December, as his Facebook profile picture.

“He’s a role model for young Arab-American and Muslim people who are trying to find their roles in the community, like, who are we and what can we be in this country at this time?” Sarsour said. “It has been such a profound experience. There are not many times that we feel like this, unfortunately. I can’t remember the last time post-9/11 that I’ve felt this proud and so triumphant and victorious as when Oday was drafted by the New York Jets.” . . . .

And now, for the heck of it, see what Bare Naked Islam did with the story:

http://www.barenakedislam.com/2013/05/13/how-long-until-the-nfl-requires-all-teams-to-put-muslim-prayer-rooms-in-their-stadiums/