Canadian human rights executive posts antisemitic meme of ‘Jewish’ octopus with tentacles wrapped around Congress

A Director of a Canadian human rights group has posted a virulently antisemitic meme and antisemitic text on Facebook and Twitter, according to a report.

Aliya Hasan, also known as Aliyawa Jamal Hasan, a Director of Canadian Defenders for Human Rights (CD4HR), uploaded a post to Facebook on 14th October featuring an octopus with a Star of David symbol and a letter “Z” (for Zionist) on its head and its tentacles wrapped around the Capitol building. Each tentacle bore the initials of a Jewish organisation. The caption read: “Dear Americans, Sorry to break it to you, but America is under occupation and Biden and the Democrats won’t change that. Sincerely, The rest of the sane world.”

Commenting on her own post, Ms Hasan wrote: “I’ll be getting blocked by some more diehard dems [Democrats] soon.” She accompanied her post with ‘sad-face’ and ‘crying’ emojis.

She added, “Just letting the trash take itself out,” with a series of ‘laughing’ and ‘crying with laughter’ emojis.

On October 14, 2020 Hasan tweeted: “Dear Americans, Sorry to break it to you, but America is under occupation and #Biden and the #Democrats won’t change that. Sincerely, The rest of the sane world.” She attached the same antisemitic meme of an octopus with its tentacles wrapped around America’s seat of government.

The notions of the Jews as excessively powerful – often illustrated through tentacles imagery – and parasitic are common antisemitic themes.

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