Filmmaker Ami Horowitz, posing as representative for faux-organization "American Friends for Hamas," asks students of Portland State for donations to fund anti-Israel activity.
By CORAL BRAUNUpdated: MAY 24, 2016 13:14Ami Horowitz, "Hamas is Fantastic."
American Jewish filmmaker Ami Horowitz recently took to the lawns of Portland State University in an experiment, to quip at students and see how far he could draw out their anti-Israel, pro-BDS sentiment.Posing as a representative for a faux-organization dubbed "American Friends for Hamas," Horowitz set out to raise donations for the Hamas cause, explicitly stating that donated dollars would be funding violent intentions and promoting the destruction of the state of Israel."I want to see if these guys are willing to take it to the next level," Horowitz said pre-experiment, set in the "Pacific Northwest: American home of the BDS movement against Israel."Horowitz introduced himself as an activist for the Hamas-linked organization, describing Hamas as "not your fathers terrorist organization.""We've kind of evolved beyond that," he said. "We've rebuilt and re-branded ourselves [as Hamas]," he argued. And yet, his descriptions of what donations would be funding digressed back to the traditional Hamas methodology of striking civilian targets."We want to fund operations against Israel," Horowitz said. "The type of attacks we're talking about are cafes and schools - you know, soft targets."He described suicide bombers as the "poor man's F-15," and told students that hitting civilian targets is "the only way to fight back, really." Funding the organization would be taking BDS to the next level, Horowitz said, referring to "American Friends for Hamas" as a logical extension to the BDS movement.Horowitz explicitly stated that Hamas was looking to wipe Israel off of the map - to conquer "all of Israel" - Gaza would not suffice. Students [at least those caught-on-camera], showed overwhelming support for the cause."I've been learning in this last school year about everything that's going on over there, so I like the sound of what you're doing," said one student."I'm totally against the Israeli genocide," said another.
Calls for donation racked in an average of $5-$30 from students. One female student agreed to put down $27 - an amount equivalent to that she shelled out for Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign.Horowitz spoke of his video to Hannity on Fox News. "Let's be clear," he started. "Its not that these kids are stupid or misinformed or ignorant - I could not have spelled it out more specifically, that we want to use this money to kill Jews.""And their response was, 'hey, I've been learning about school and I'm happy to help you.'"He argued that his experiment was a manifestation of "poison" in the form of anti-Israel sentiment being taught to children over the past decade."I spelled it out to them," Horowitz said of his interaction with the students. "As long as you're killing Israelis, our college students are happy to do it because of the poison being fed to them by professors year in and year out."