Posted to NYC News on
by Joe Kaufman - FrontPage Magazine

NY Jets Player Speaks at Anti-Israel Conference

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 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?

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.

Related Articles

13 Comments

  • Just Sayin

    Asinine. Cut a football player for his beliefs? Do you really think this is the first anti-Semite to play in the NFL? Or in any professional sport?

    Israel’s right to exist is our belief, which is shared by our great country. However, he has the right to believe whatever he wants. When he crosses the line and the belief turns to violence, or actively supports violence (lip service doesn’t count), THAT’S when the Jets have an obligation to invoke the morality clause in his contract. Until then, it’s illegal.

    How would you feel if a team fired a Jewish player who supported communities in the “occupied” territories, because it didn’t line up with the Arab-American point of view, or even US foreign policy? Yes, it’s a fair comparison, considering the world view on the “occupation.” You don’t have to agree with it.

    NFL teams in particular have been caught in the middle of the “rights” movement lately, with players voicing their opinions, religious and moral, on the marriage equality debate. The league and the teams are entities which provide entertainment. They aren’t there to decide what people should believe, even their employees. When a player makes a hateful remark in public, the teams are usually very quick to correct the situation (see: Culliver, San Francisco 49ers). If someone would print actual hateful rhetoric from this player, I’m sure the Jets would rectify the situation, especially considering their loyal Jewish fan base (vis-a-vis the rescheduled game Erev Yom Kippur).

    • BigBen

      Just Sayin your comment is … probably because you are a very fair (“liberal”) person who respects everyone’s opinion.
      The article is spot. Also it is good to let people know what some of these players say and do.
      Sports should be entertainment and fun but when these guys show their true colors people have a right to know and to take action. Like contacting the owners and boycotting those teams.
      The Jets stink anyway and will probably win only 5 games this season. Go Steelers.

  • TO NUMBER 2

    ISRAEL’S RIGHT TO EXIST IS NOT OUR “BELIEF” IT’S FACT. BELIEF AND FACT ARE VERY DIFFERENT!!!!!!!!!

    if i tell you i have a penny in my pocket and you BELIEVE ME and then i tell you i don’t, then your belief was wrong.

    we don’t believe, WE KNOW!!!!!!

    NOT UP FOR DISCUSSION
    :)

  • Andrea Schonberger

    Everyone will probably be mad at me but it all comes down to freedom of speech. As an American Aboushi has the right to tweet or facebook anything he wants to regardless how odious it might be to others and to go/speak at any public forums he wishes so long as he leaves the NFL out of it. He must remember to do it as Oday Aboushi, private citizen and not as a New York Jets team member.

  • To #2. Just Sayin

    While you have valid points, your liberal, lenient and permissive attitude towards wrongs perpetrated against us (anti-Semitic remarks, caricatures etc.) is ultimately detrimental to our people and our national pride. No other group tolerates bashing and most are extremely vigilant in demanding retribution for even the most minor slight. We should and must not be any less demanding!

    This is way beyond having a belief. He should clean up his act and apologize or be Fired!

    • Just Sayin'

      What wrong was perpetrated against you? He attended a conference which spoke of ideals other than yours? He posted a cartoon to his twitter account? And since you don’t agree with him, he should lose his job? That’s tantamount to gay-rights groups pushing for players to be fired for attending churches where they consider homosexuality a sin.

      My attitude is not “liberal, lenient, and permissive” as you suggest. I just don’t see anything constructive being accomplished by calling for the man’s job. Is that going to make him like Israel, or hate Israel more? Is it going to decrease the anti-Semitim in the Muslim community, or increase it? Is it going to decrease acts or support of violence against Israel and Jews, or increase it? I don’t agree with him, but by reacting to his new-found platform, I magnify it.

      On a partially unrelated note, I’ve noticed people throwing out labels like “liberal” when someone shows a little tolerance for opposing ideas. Just because we’ve become country divided by partisan politics doesn’t mean we have to become intolerant of others and their beliefs. The Rebbe was a liberal in the frum world. He stood for tolerance and understanding. He didn’t agree with everyone who came to see him, but he didn’t start riots and protests to enforce his views. He changed their mind through love. Let’s change the world using his examples, not the strong-arm tactics used by the same “liberal” minority groups we like to mock when it suits us.

  • My reply To #2. Just Sayin

    Your response reminds me of the story about two Jews in front of a firing squad r’l. One of them starts to say “Shema”, the other shouts at him: “Sha, you might get them angry at us!”

    He posted a hateful caricature. (per the article) he aligns himself with hate groups. Yet you’re all OK with that! First amendment bla bla.. Ignore it and he’ll magically become our best friend!

    Could you be any more apologetic?

    What about the recent story about the woman who used the N word TWENTY years ago? She was fired – zero tolerance.

    I at least wrote that he could apologize, but on second thought, WHY?

    good shabbos

    • Ari

      He should could get fired because of his beliefs. Strange. I guess a lot of people will be fired if they express how they feel.