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During February 2018, three lectures were delivered at the Muslim Center of Middlesex County in Piscataway, NJ, under the title "Al Quds: The Palestine Lecture Series." Sayel Kayed, President of the NJ Chapter of the American Muslims for Palestine, spoke on February 2, expressing support for the Intifada and opposition to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. He said that the Intifada had been "very effective" and that "I believe we would have been a lot further if we continued with no peace." Muhammad Habba, a member of the American Muslims for Palestine, talked about the BDS movement in his February 17 lecture, and recommended boycotting dates from Israel. He criticized J Street as being "just a liberal Zionist organization" and said: "They still believe in the occupation." Nizam Ahmad Raouf Zaman, Imam of the Muslim Center of Middlesex County, who also spoke on February 17, said that the BDS should boycott products originating from American companies that give donations to Israel. He recommended boycotting Poland Spring water, because "these are people who support Israel."
Following is a transcript:
Sayel Kayed: This is something that should be on our minds all the time – for Allah to allow us to pray in that [Al-Aqsa] Mosque, and we have to be a part in helping to free that area.
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What gives the [Israelis] the right to come into Palestine, take it over, kill and kick out the indigenous people? What is their claim to it? What is their reasoning behind it?
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They are trying to claim that they have been there three thousand years ago. Well, guess what? The Canaanites, which are Arab tribes, were there five thousand years ago. So if you are going to have any historical claim to it because you think you were there first, well, then you have got to go to the Canaanites, who are in the Bible. They were there five thousand years ago, almost two thousand years before anybody from the Israelites came.
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Goliath… with a rock… With a rock, [David] kills Goliath. The first Intifada, the first uprising in Palestine, was with rocks.
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Netanyahu will come into Congress and say: “We were there three thousand years ago.” If you look at the whole history, they did not spend more than… I would say, max, you give them two hundred years. Any time they spent in Palestine, it was never consecutive. They actually never completed one generation in Palestine, not even one generation.
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So what right does it give you to tell… to come in 1947, 1948, and in the early immigration, and say: “My Book says this is my land, promised to me, so I am going to kill you, and you have to get out, because I was here three thousand years ago?”
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[The first Intifada] was with rocks, you know, and it got a lot of attention, and actually, it was very effective. They saw the effectiveness of it, and that’s why they wanted to quell the Intifada by having peace. And it quelled the Intifada. But I believe we would have been a lot further if we continued with no peace, until we get all of our rights.
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Audience Member: You need to mention that actually, most of the Jews today are not the Children of Israel. They are actually the Khazars. You know, they are not even Jews.
Sayel Kayed: Yes. Most of the people right now in occupied Palestine – they call it Israel – are not originally Israelites. They are mostly European, and the European Jews inside Palestine are treated like the first-class citizens. The actual…
Audience Member: They are actually… Their ancestors are not even the Children of Israel. They are the Russians.
Sayel Kayed: Yes, correct.
Another point for the Muslims here, who think that this is a Palestinian issue, an Arab issue… In the 70’s, Menachem Begin, the prime minister of Israel, actually said: “Mecca belongs to us, because it is where Abraham built [the Kaaba], and he is our grandfather.” These people are on the Knesset, as you know…
Sayel Kayed: Yes.
Audience Member: “The Land of Israel is from the Nile to the Euphrates.”
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Sayel Kayed: Yeah, I mean, some dispute it, but some even say that their flag… When you see that the flag, with the Star of David, has the two rivers – the Nile and the Euphrates… Some have disputed it, but you know – yes, there are a lot of narrations that say that.
Audience Member: On the Knesset, it is written…
Sayel Kayed: Yeah.
Audience Member: It is written in stone: “The Land of Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates.”
Sayel Kayed: Yes.
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Sayel Kayed: They were willing to settle anywhere. They wanted a homeland for the Jews, and they were willing to settle anywhere. They considered Uganda, Alaska even, Argentina – they really didn’t care. But they thought the easiest way to sell [Zionism] was Jerusalem and Palestine.
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We have no problem with the Jews or the Christians. That is why I always say “Zionists.” Sometimes, it’s kind of… people – especially old school – will confuse the two, and say: The Jews… The Jews… Because most of them are… There are a lot of Jews who are Zionists, so that kind of, maybe…
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When you say “antisemitism” – we are actually Semites, as well, so they took that for themselves, but that is from Shem, the son of Noah, so we are actually Semite.
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Muhammad Habba: BDS is Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions on the State of Israel. They produce a list of certain companies that you should boycott, because these companies have either money or some form of influence in Israel. That way, when you boycott these groups, you are taking money away from them, because of the illegal actions that they have been doing.
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Unfortunately, many of us purchase dates that come from Israel without knowing. What happens is that Israel has date farms in the West Bank, and what they do on those farms is they use child labor, Palestinian children’s labor, where they don’t pay them as well as they should, and they give them inhumane conditions to work in. So these kids are working very long hours, not getting paid enough, not getting breaks. So because of that, people started boycotting these dates.
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When it comes to working with these organizations, it is not really…it is not our goal as an organization to go talk to these people. In the case of J Street, actually – J Street is just a liberal Zionist organization. They still believe in the occupation. They still believe America should support Israel. They just do not support everything Israel does. So a lot of these organizations are like that. AMP works with Jewish organizations that are against the occupation. One of our closest allies is actually a national group called the Neturei Karta, which are Jewish people who are against the occupation of Palestine.
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Sayel Kayed: So when we say BDS, the first thing people think about is just boycotting Israel, boycotting Israeli products. What actually you have is divesting. It means to take your money, anything that does anything to aid the occupation, instead of investing your money in those companies, what do you do? You divest. So we always talk about only boycotting, but there is divesting. And what is the third one? Sanctions. So the sanctions take many different forms. Sanctions means we are going to sanction Israel, we have nothing to do with Israel. So they have gotten a lot of singers, for example, that were supposed to play in occupied Palestine – Israel – to sanction Israel and say: “You know what? I am not going to go sing in Israel.” When the BDS movement reaches out to them, when people from the Solidarity Movement from Palestine reach out to them, and say: “You are playing in Israel. Do you know what’s going on in Israel?” – they sanction them, they don’t go. NFL players – they wanted them to go on this tour in Israel…Palestine, occupied Palestine – Israel, I don’t like calling it that… Some NFL players said: “You know what? You’re not going to use me as a propaganda tool. I’m not going to occupied Palestine – Israel.”
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Nizam Ahmad Raouf Zaman: There are products that originate, maybe, from American companies, but these companies support Israel by huge donations. And we should be careful about the products that we are using, because every time we purchase from them, a portion of it will go to Israel. Maybe a lot of the things we have in our homes, and that we perhaps use in the mosque, come from such companies. Check Poland Spring water, for example. Poland Spring – that’s the main type of water that we have here in the mosque. These are people who support Israel, constantly giving donations to them.
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Any of those companies that are supporting Israel, that are giving donations to Israel, and so on – we should not support their products. We should not buy from them at all. Individually, families, as well as the mosque, should not buy from them.
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