Hazami Barmada was honored by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee at an event that also featured prominent Democrats like Rep Ro Khanna
An anti-Israel activist who received the “Advocate of the Year” award from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), a prominent Arab civil rights group, organized an anti-Semitic protest at Washington, D.C.’s Union Station on Thursday that Jewish groups are calling a shocking display of blood libel.
Hazami Barmada, a former U.N. official, organized the “Friendsgiving Event” alongside members of Code Pink and Teachers Against Genocide, according to social media posts.
Participants wearing masks of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and others held a mock dinner in which they drank fake blood and ate fake body parts. A “menu” for the mock dinner lists main courses and dessert as “stolen organs” and “illegally harvested skin,” videos show.
The American Jewish Committee wrote the stunt was “nothing less than the revival of one of the oldest and most dangerous antisemitic tropes in history.”
“Blood libel was on full display today at Union Station in Washington, D.C.,” the group wrote. “At a time of rising antisemitism, leaders and authorities must condemn this display and ensure that public spaces are not used to spread dangerous hate.”
According to the Anti-Defamation League, allegations that Israel harvests the organs of Palestinians are “a modern iteration of the age-old antisemitic blood libel,” and have spiked in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
Barmada is no fringe participant in the anti-Israel movement. The Harvard graduate is a frequent guest at pro-Palestine events. And the ADC, the largest Arab civil rights group in the country, awarded Barmada its “Advocate of the Year” award at its annual ArabCon gala in September.
The gala featured other high-profile participants, including Rep. Ro Khanna (D., Calif.) and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D.). The Democrats faced scrutiny over the event for speaking alongside activists who have praised Hamas and other terrorist groups.
Barmada spoke on a panel at ArabCon with Linda Sarsour, a prominent anti-Israel activist and early backer of New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (D.). Other panelists were Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin and Zahra Billoo, an official at the pro-Hamas Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Barmada, who touted her “high level positions at the U.N.,” referred to Zionists as “vile,” and said in order to sway opinion on Israel, activists must confront people “at their workplaces, in their communities and their synagogues and their churches, in front of their places of work.”
The ADC did not respond to a request for comment.
Barmada organized the event with Atefeh Rokhvand, the founder of Teachers Against Genocide. Last year, Barmada and Rokhvand were sued by a Washington, D.C., rabbi for assaulting him during a prayer service outside the Israeli embassy, the Washington Free Beacon reported. A federal judge ordered the activist duo to pay the rabbi, Shmuel Herzfeld, $182,000 for the assault.
In February 2024, Barmada and Rokhvand threw fake blood at former secretary of state Antony Blinken’s young children at a protest outside Blinken’s home, Politico reported.
Ahmad El-Masry, an activist with Code Pink, posted videos from Thursday’s protest, including one in which the person dressed as Netanyahu dragged Trump and other American officials by a leash in front of the U.S. Capitol building. Rubio was played by Hasan Isham, according to Barmada. Isham posted an instructional video to Instagram earlier this month on how to make Netanyahu masks using a 3D printer.
Social media influencer Amanda McGonigle filmed the event, which she called “a popup protest using art as resistance.” McGonigle rose to popularity among the left last year after she created the “Cats on the Couch” social media account in protest of Vice President J.D. Vance’s criticism of “childless cat ladies.”
Barmada did not respond to a request for comment.
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