Over the weekend, critics on Twitter blasted U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley for her support for Israel and attacks against the Hamas insurgents who caused a skirmish around the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.
Mohamad, a Twitter user who goes by the handle @The_Black_Camel and who identifies himself as a student at the University of Houston (UH), attacked UH for inviting Haley to speak on the campus.
“Shame on UH for welcoming Nikki Haley to come speak on Tuesday! As U.S. ambassador to the UN, she claimed that Israel ‘showed restraint’ in the Gaza massacre of 109 protesters & walked out on a Palestinian rep in a meeting. DM me if you’re down to respond to her coming,” Mohamad tweeted.
Shame on UH for welcoming Nikki Haley to come speak on Tuesday!
As U.S ambassador to the UN, she claimed that Israel “showed restraint” in the Gaza massacre of 109 protesters & walked out on a Palestinian rep in a meeting.
DM me if you’re down to respond to her coming
🇵🇸✊🏼 pic.twitter.com/YYHVkVJWd8— Mohamad (@The_Black_Camel) May 19, 2018
The student later argued that “there’s no room for dialogue with someone like Haley… she’s not someone who’s open-minded & willing to have dialogue.” He insisted that the U.N. ambassador “gives the same political answers continuing to dehumanize Palestinians.”
Mohamed proceeded to compare Haley to white supremacists. “Same concept: we wouldn’t see any room for dialogue with a white supremacist coming to campus,” presumably because both “dehumanize” people.
She knows 100% what she’s doing.
Same concept: we wouldn’t see any room for dialogue with a white supremacist coming to campus.
— Mohamad (@The_Black_Camel) May 19, 2018
Haley actually responded, and with grace. “It’s a shame you think that. I am very open minded and thoughtful in everything I do,” the ambassador tweeted. “You may not agree with me but to think I’m one side[d] is inaccurate. I hope to meet you at some point.”
It’s a shame you think that. I am very open minded and thoughtful in everything I do. You may not agree with me but to think I’m one side is inaccurate. I hope to meet you at some point.
— Archive: Ambassador Nikki Haley (@AmbNikkiHaley) May 20, 2018
Then came Haley’s powerful response to the ridiculous comparison. “I’m not white. I’m Indian American. Don’t ever judge or assume. Many people are looking for peace just like you,” the ambassador tweeted.
I’m not white. I’m Indian American. Don’t ever judge or assume. Many people are looking for peace just like you.
— Archive: Ambassador Nikki Haley (@AmbNikkiHaley) May 20, 2018
Randa Aimour, an Algerian based in Belgium, attacked Haley as a bad Sikh and “woman of color.” “Imagine carrying your child for 9 months and naming her Nimrata only for her to start calling herself Nikki. Her ancestors BEEN turning in their graves,” Aimour tweeted.
https://twitter.com/randaaimour/status/997453662359343105
Haley shot back again, tweeting, “Nikki is my name on my birth certificate. I married a Haley. I was born Nimarata Nikki Randhawa and married Michael Haley.”
Nikki is my name on my birth certificate. I married a Haley. I was born Nimarata Nikki Randhawa and married Michael Haley.
— Archive: Ambassador Nikki Haley (@AmbNikkiHaley) May 20, 2018
A user named Andrew Love congratulated Haley for her excellent response. “Imagine thinking you know someone, and instead of simply asking a question, you attempt to shame and besmirch them. Only to find out that you were completely wrong and outstandingly rude,” he tweeted. “You rock, Nikki.”
Imagine thinking you know someone, and instead of simply asking a question, you attempt to shame and besmirch them. Only to find out that you were completely wrong and outstandingly rude. You rock, Nikki.
— Andrew Love (@VictoryInLove) May 20, 2018
Haley may have won the Twitter skirmish, but on Tuesday night, Mohamed and the other students protested her speech anyway.
Students at UH walked out of a speech by Nikki Haley, U.S Ambassador to the U.N. Stay tuned for more coverage. pic.twitter.com/bmhPGRE1Px
— The Cougar (@TheDailyCougar) May 22, 2018
According to The Daily Cougar, junior Muhammed Fattouh (who seems like the same “Mohamed” from Twitter) accused Haley of “signing off on a genocide.”
While 62 people tragically died in riots around the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, a Hamas spokesman announced that 50 of those people were members of his militant anti-Israel terrorist organization. The Hamas spokesman called them “martyrs.”
More of the fatalities were claimed by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Israeli Defense Forces Spokesman Ronen Manielis exposed Hamas’s deception campaign in The Wall Street Journal.
“On May 13, Mahmoud Al-Zahar, a co-founder of Hamas, said in an interview with Al Jazeera: ‘When we talk about ‘peaceful resistance,’ we are deceiving the public.’ You can trust Hamas only when they admit to their lies,” Manelis wrote. “The Hamas spokesmen orchestrated a well-funded terrorist propaganda operation.”
“Behind the theatrics was a plan that threatened Israel’s border and civilians. Hamas provided free transportation from throughout the Gaza Strip to the border for innocent civilians, including women and children. Hamas hired them as extras, paying $14 a person or $100 a family for attendance—and $500 if they managed to get injured. Hamas forced all of their commanders and operatives to go to the border dressed as civilians, each serving as a director of an area—as if to direct their own stage of the operation,” the IDF spokesman wrote.
Complaints about Israel’s use of force against such riots are incomplete if they do not mention the context of Hamas’s strategy. The deaths of protesters are indeed tragic, but if Manelis is correct, those deaths are on the hands of Hamas more than on the hands of Israel.
Nikki Haley was right to push back against the Hamas narrative, and UH was right to invite her to speak. Unfortunately, many leftist Americans have adopted the cause of Hamas and Palestine into their identity politics (the cries of “white supremacy” and “genocide” are meant to suggest a racial war between Israel and Palestine, with the oppressed Palestinians similar to allegedly oppressed black people).
Do not expect protesters like Mohamed to change their minds, even if they attack Haley for not being “open-minded.”
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