The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its Greater Los Angeles Area office announced that they would be filing a lawsuit against US officials, including officials at the FBI, Secret Service, Attorney General Office, Department of Justice, Secretary of Homeland Security, and more. This complaint is filed in the name of two US citizens of Palestinian origin, who were allegedly placed on a No Fly List, or had their electronic devices taken from them while holding them for prolonged interrogation.
One of the plaintiffs is Osama Abuirshaid, also known as “Dr. O,” who has shown extensive connections with and sympathy for Hamas, as will be shown later. Abuirshaid complained in the lawsuit, “upon information and belief,” that he was placed on a federal watch list between 2010-2017, during which period, his flight tickets were stamped with “SSSS” (Secondary Security Screening Selection), “indicating that Dr. Abu Irshaid was designated as a “known or suspected terrorist.” He also complained that agents would seize his electronic devices and was subject to prolonged detentions, which made him feel “degraded and humiliated”.
Now Abuirshaid claims that his name has been reintroduced to a federal watch list as of 2024, also based on “information and belief”. The complaint features the accounts of Abuirshaid’s May 2024 journey to and from Jordan and Hamas leader-host Qatar, denouncing the prolonged screening and interrogations process.
One peculiar aspect of the lawsuit is the incriminating evidence Abuirshaid provides about himself. In one part, Abuirshaid denies to airport agents that he has met with members of designated terrorist organizations and deems them “baseless internet rumors”, despite widely available footage showing that he spoke in a panel with PFLP terrorist Leila Khaled in the same room, acknowledging and commending her. Abuirshaid also admits in the complaint that he refused to answer simple questions posed by airport agents about his whereabouts in Jordan, and openly said that he purposely sends his family on different flights so that they and their belongings won’t have to go through the same screening that he does.
Who is Osama Abuirshaid?
Osama Abuirshaid is a leading figure at the 501(c)3 American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and the 501(c)4 lobbying organization, Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action), both of which are leading organizations in the anti-Israel scene in the US.
Abuirshaid was a member and worker of the Hamas-affiliated Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP),a now defunct organization found guilty of providing aid and financing Hamas. Due to their ties to Hamas, IAP were indicted in 2004 and ordered to pay $156 million in damages to the Boim family whose son David Boim was murdered in 1996 by Hamas terrorists. However, the group disbanded before having paid the said amount, claiming that they were out of business.
In 2017, the Boim family turned to the US courts again in hopes to redeem what had been lawfully sanctioned to them. They filed a lawsuit against Abuirshaid’s current organization, American Muslims for Palestine, pay the damages, highlighting a “startling” similarity in leadership, mission, and operation to IAP, and claiming that AMP was just IAP operating under a different name.
Despite attempting to hide them, Abuirshaid boasts strong ties to Hamas and its leaders. In 2021 he spoke at a conference in Jordan which also hosted Hamas officials Mohammad Nazzal and Sami Khater. In the same event, Abuirshaid was present in the same room with PFLP terrorist Leila Khaled and commended her for her actions. Also in 2021, Abuirshaid posted on his Facebook page an obituary to Hamas leader in Jordan Ibrahim Ghoshe, without mentioning his name. He wrote “Sometimes, stringent circumstances prevent us from mourning symbols who contributed to the revival of a nation and the defense of its rights” - and proceeded to delete the post later on.
Additionally, in 2014, an article written by Abuirshaid appeared on the website of Hamas’s militia, Izz Eddin Al-Qassam, where he commended “the Palestinian resistance in Gaza”, a euphemism for Hamas and other terrorist factions, and denounced “Arab plots” to conspire against them.” He was also mentioned as a “person close to Hamas” in a 2009 article from Al-Arabiya.
Abuirshaid is also close to the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is a self-proclaimed “branch in Palestine”. He is listed as a writer and contributor to the Muslim Brotherhood’s newspaper in Jordan, Assabeel, and was invited as a guest speaker for a 2015 conference held by the Islamic Action Front, which serves as the Jordanian
Despite his avid anti-Israel activism, only last year Abuirshaid traveled to Israel a couple of years ago and visited Jerusalem, posing in a picture with the Temple Mount. Abuirshaid has also made some antisemitic remarks, claiming in 2022 that Facebook’s “masters” sit in Tel Aviv, and convoking the well-known “double loyalty” libels against pro-Israel actors in the US.
As for CAIR, the organization was mentioned as an unindicted co-conspirator belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood in the Boim case against IAP and the Holy Land Foundation from 2009, in which six Americans were indicted of providing funds to Hamas.
Legal expert: Zero tolerance to terror glorifiers
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, an Israeli attorney, human rights activist, and president of Shurat HaDin-Israeli Law Center, commented:
“The FBI and TSA should be applauded for its efforts to bar suspicious and dangerous individuals who it fears are extremists from the airlines regardless of their ethnicity or religion. Those who praise the murderous attacks of the Islamic terror groups in Gaza on Oct. 7th that resulted in the deaths and kidnapping of so many Israelis and Americans cannot hide behind the shield of protected speech or under the banner of vague constitutional safeguards.
“Supporters of Hamas and extremist violence against innocent civilians are fully capable of carrying out atrocities against other airline passengers. If 9/11 taught the civilized world anything, it is that it is better to err on the side of caution and preventiveness than mourn tragedies later. After this long year of violent war and extremist threats perpetrated by Palestinian terrorist groups and their apologists and cheerleaders abroad, Western law enforcement agencies need to spread the message of zero tolerance and take all precautions against those who glorify the murder and kidnapping of innocent people”.