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CAIR-LA Director: ‘Israel Doesn’t Have Right to Defend Itself,’ ‘Every Day for Palestinians Has Been Oct. 7’
Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Los Angeles office, speaking at the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, Dec. 1, 2023: Photo: Screenshot
Israel “does not have the right” to defend itself from Palestinian violence, and for the Palestinians “every single day” since the Jewish state’s establishment has been comparable to Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre, according to the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Los Angeles office (CAIR-LA).
“For 75 years, every single day for the Palestinian people had been October 7,” Hussam Ayloush said while delivering a sermon at the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City in the US state of Oklahoma on Friday.
Ayloush was referring to Hamas’ onslaught across southern Israel on Oct. 7, when the Palestinian terror group invaded the Jewish state, murdered 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 240 others, taking them back to Gaza.
Ayloush’s sermon was first reported by the Middle East Media Research Institute and posted online by CAIR’s Oklahoma branch.
In his remarks, Ayloush also seemed to rationalize the Hamas atrocities and condemn Israel’s defensive war in response to them, arguing the Jewish state does not have the right to defend itself.
“Israel does not have the right to defend itself, as an occupier to defend itself from the occupied,” he said. “No, it doesn’t. This is not a rhetorical thing — it doesn’t, legally, under international law. No occupier has the right defend itself from the occupied.”
Ayloush then compared Israel to Nazi Germany, apparently drawing a moral equivalence between the lone democracy in the Middle East and the perpetrators of the Holocaust.
“Imagine we tell Nazi Germany: ‘You have the right to defend yourself against French resistance, or Polish resistance, or Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto.’ People would laugh at you if you said that,” he claimed. “Imagine if you said that Russia has the right to defend itself against Ukrainian resistance — you don’t. As long as you are an occupier, you do not have the right to resist, or to defend yourself.”
“Guess who has the right to defend themselves?” Ayloush asked. “The Palestinians.”
Ayloush went on to argue that people trust news from “on the ground photojournalists” putting their content on social media rather than traditional media outlets, before accusing Israel without evidence of faking the deaths of Israelis.
“You can’t fake the image of dead children. You can’t fake the image of dying parents. You can’t fake the image of burying, you know, people crying,” he said. “You can fake one or two if you want to be the Israeli government, etc., as they do once in a while, right?”
The CAIR-LA director then touted Al Jazeera as “the most credible, most comprehensive of the outlets providing material on what is happening there, English or Arabic.”
Al Jazeera was established by the Qatari royal family, which has infamously hosted senior Hamas leaders for years. Qatar, along with Iran and Turkey, has also provided a large portion of the Palestinian terror group’s budget.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), meanwhile, “some of CAIR’s current leadership had early connections with organizations that are or were affiliated with Hamas.”
Critics have accused CAIR of being sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood and a creation of the Islamist movement’s broad network. Hamas is a Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
CAIR has previously disputed the accuracy of the ADL’s claim about its Hamas links, asserting that the Muslim advocacy group “unequivocally condemns all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by al Qaeda, the Real IRA, FARC, Hamas, ETA, or any other group designated by the US Department of State as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization.’”
In October, the ADL criticized CAIR for signing on to a statement of the US Council of Muslim Organizations following the Oct. 7 massacre that “ignored Hamas’ violence against Israeli civilians and instead called for the United States and world governments to ‘exert pressure on Israel’ to stop its ‘atrocities’ against the Palestinians.”
The head of the ADL has previously lambasted CAIR for backing racist and antisemitic statements made by one of its executive directors, accusing both of “blatant antisemitism.”
CAIR-LA and Ayloush didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.
The post CAIR-LA Director: ‘Israel Doesn’t Have Right to Defend Itself,’ ‘Every Day for Palestinians Has Been Oct. 7’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.