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American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) held a webinar on January 28, 2025, where community leaders discussed the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel. AMP chair Dr. Hatem Bazian criticized AIPAC, stating that the organization should not have influence over U.S. policy in the Middle East. He urged American Muslims to press politicians not to accept money from AIPAC and emphasized the importance of recommitting to a "broad strategy" on Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Later in the webinar, he calling to "push for cementing Palestine studies in different universities", citing UC Berkley’s recent establishment of a Palestinian and Arab studies department, which received a $3.25 million endowment. He emphasized the potential long-term impact of such programs, noting that it is important to "narrate Palestine" within the lines and landscape of academia.
Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies remarked on the resilience of Hamas and Palestinian steadfastness, calling it extraordinary. Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), called for an expansion of BDS, describing the situation in Gaza as "unprecedented genocide" and criticizing Germany's support for Israel, because the Holocaust took place mainly in Germany.
Marium Uddin of the Muslim Legal Fund of America stated that the only thing keeping the ceasefire intact were the Israeli hostages held in Gaza. She added: "We need to feed our stories, our cases, and our issues to as many media and social media outlets as possible."
Activist Linda Sarsour of MPower Change expressed joy over the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza, while Basim Elkarra of CAIR Action noted that this marked the first time since 1948 that Palestinians had returned in such large numbers.
The webinar was hosted by Mohamad Habehh of AMP.
Hatem Bazian: "AIPAC should not have its say in determining U.S. policy and U.S. outcome relations to the region. And it was... it's not coincidental that Miriam Adelson was right there in the inauguration, right behind Trump.
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"They begin to ask politicians to commit themselves to not taking a penny from AIPAC.
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"We need to recommit ourselves to a broad strategy on the BDS front, the Boycott Divestment and Sanction.
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"I do think that for many of us who have retirement funds from these public institutions, we do have standing, legal standing, to actually say that these institutions are not actually following judicial responsibility by investing and putting our money in a state and a political leadership that is, under the ICC, facing a genocide. Which means that these funds might be liable."
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Phyllis Bennis:"I don't think we can say that the Palestinians have won this war. Hamas survived, yes, the triumph of Samoud, the ability of Palestinians to survive has been an extraordinary thing to see, but too many people did not survive."
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Nihad Awad: "We have to expand our BDS work. Do not give up. It is working globally, it is working in the U.S. and that is one of the biggest weapons. The pro-Palestine movement around the world have and Israel and its Allah is failing. We need to ask and pressure more universities to divest from Israel. We need places of worship, more churches, more synagogues, to make sure that they divest from the state of Israel. Corporations, religious institutions, even entertainment industries.
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"There are a couple of challenges that the pro-Palestine movement may face, but also they have to think about this strategically. Is HR 2425 that gives the... it has not passed, but it will be introduced for sure, under republican control, House and Senate. This bill is designed to empower the secretary of treasury to take away non-profit licenses from organizations, mainly those who are pro-Palestine."
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Marium Uddin: "We would be fools to not see the writing on the wall. The only thing that really stands in the way of the ceasefire not falling apart, and I defer to the experts on this panel so forgive me, but the way I see it, are those 91 Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza as of last Thursday.
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"What else will not fail us in this time? Inshallah, Palestinian resistance and insistence on self-determination. It remains to be seen whether the global protest movement against the war crimes in Gaza loses intensity.
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"We've got to lobby for the policy of freezing U.S-held assets of individual Israeli settlers and settler groups, if only for the strong symbolic impact. Advocate for the State Department, Josh would be able to speak to this, to add Israeli settler groups to the U.S. foreign terror organization list. Pressure the new administration to reverse course on sending the bombs, respond to Trump's executive order reopening the possibility of sanctions against the ICC – Senator Lindsey Graham said he's preparing to bring that legislation this week. We need to feed our stories, our cases, and our issues to as many media and social media outlets as possible."
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Linda Sarsour: "I feel absolutely overwhelmed, but more so with joy. Although we've been through 15 months of genocide, watching the Palestinian people in their defiance, in their resilience, and we've said this for many decades, we will return, and we will return. And the people of Gaza were returning. We are watching them literally walk on foot all the way back to their homes in the north of Gaza.
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"And usually in New York City, the mayor usually gets two terms, this one's about to get one term. And one of those candidates that's running against Eric Adams in New York is a young Indian-American Ugandan-born Muslim named Zohran Mamdani. He is unapologetically pro-Palestine and also he happened to be one of the champions of a piece of legislation in New York's legislator – of course that has not passed yet – but the conversation around it has been incredible and courageous and important, around sanctioning New York organizations who support settler organizations and illegal settlements in Israel. And that's important because there's a lot of folks who are operating under non-profits and doing things that are not in the purview of being non-profit. So again...
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"Because this type of administration, they are master manipulators, masters of chaos and disinformation.
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"This non-profit killer bill that folks had defeated prior to Donald Trump coming in. Now we have a trifecta meaning that we have a republican Congress, a republican Senate, and also a republican White House. This bill is going to come up again and it could be very likely that it could pass which would hurt pro-Palestinian advocacy organizations or any group that shows any..."
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Basim Elkarra: "I want to thank all those that protested, that pressured their elected officials on all levels to support ceasefire, those that were out in the encampments. And I just want to say that the people of Gaza were paying attention, are still paying attention, and we're their hope. In Al-Mawasi on their tents, they put the names of the universities that held encampments to show their solidarity. And for the first time since 1948, Palestinians have returned in mass. We saw the Lebanese were turning to the south. Our people are resilient and should inspire us all to continue the fight for political justice.
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Bazian: "On the university level, I think it's very important, at this time, to push for cementing Palestine studies outfits and Palestine studies in different universities. It's not only to continue to oppose U.S. policies and to oppose the state of Israel, but it's important to narrate Palestine within the lines, within the landscape, of academia. And I would have to say, positively, UC Berkley have already, actually, created the Palestine studies program with an endowed chair. Just today, this morning, UC Santa Cruz, actually, have sent out a lecturer position that is open to – in the anthropology department – for a person to teach two courses on Palestine. These are very, very important because it actually begins to actually create, intellectually, academic productivity that will have a long-term shape in there."
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Awad: "This is an unprecedented genocide. This is the most documented, the most broadcast live genocide in human history.
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"The magnitude of the genocide is unprecedented.
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"The world was speaking 24/7 loudly and clearly to the hypocrisy of western government. Especially to the United States, European governments. Especially those who... like Germany, for example, where the Holocaust mainly it happened. Of course it happened [in] other European countries. But it exposed their hypocrisy. They wanted, you know, not to blame Israel, but at the expense of humanity."
