Majed al-Ansari, a Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman and advisor to the prime minister, praised Palestinian suicide bombings and rocket attacks on Israeli civilian centers in social media and blog posts prior to taking up his post in 2022.

Al-Ansari is one of the Qatari government’s most public faces, hosting regular press briefings and giving interviews about the Gulf state, including to Israeli media. 

In May 2021, when Palestinian Islamic Jihad launched 130 rockets at Israel, Al-Ansari posted his support on X, saying that “Palestine emerges to remind this nation of its glory and the greatness of its message.” Al-Ansari added the hashtag #Tel_Aviv_is_burning to his post.

During the ensuing 11 days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian terrorists in Gaza and the West Bank, and rioting by Israeli Arabs in mixed Jewish-Arab cities in Israel, Al-Ansari posted: “Jerusalem, the interior [of Israel], the West Bank, Gaza … rise with one voice against the occupier. This unity is what terrifies the enemy the most. Oh Allah, unite their word and guide their aim.” 

The posts were resurfaced by analyst Eitan Fischberger.

Al-Ansari also maintained a blog, which he linked to on his verified X account. 

In one blog post, Al-Ansari praised the Second Intifada — the 2000-2005 Palestinian terror campaign — against the “Zionist enemy” and its “martyrdom operations,” a euphemism for terrorist attacks. He credited the intifada with leading Israel to pull out of Gaza in 2005. 

In an overview of Palestinian terrorism against Israelis in recent decades, Al-Ansari argued that “the Israeli military losses were great, but the most important loss was Tel Aviv’s loss of a large part of its narrative and story of its victimhood in the West, following the spread of images of the brutal aggression throughout the world.” 

Al-Ansari encouraged “a celebration of the continued march toward victory in the conflict,” praising what he described as the Palestinians’ advancement from “resistance with stones and bare chests [to] the launching of 3,000 rockets in ten days toward the entity’s [Israel’s] cities.” 

In another blog post, in which Al-Ansari wrote about the Israeli Arab riots in May 2021, which included burning down Jewish-owned businesses and a synagogue, he falsely claimed that “the occupation forces were forced to withdraw” from Lod — a central Israeli city in which Ben Gurion Airport continued to operate normally and most neighborhoods continued to function peacefully. 

The blog and X posts were written when Al-Ansari was the head of the Qatar International Academy for Security Studies. The blog was deleted after Jewish Insider sent a request for comment about the matter to the Qatari Embassy, which the embassy did not respond to.

In earlier posts on an unverified Facebook account under Al-Ansari’s name, the Qatari spokesman repeatedly called President Donald Trump a racist.

In 2015, during Trump’s first presidential campaign, Al-Ansari wrote, “We call on the board of directors of Qatar Airways to cut ties with Trump and his racist empire.” Also that year, he lamented that the head of Qatar Airways “brags about his friendship with this racist.” 

Ibrar Nadeem, a Muslim affairs advisor to New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, bragged that he wasn’t taking money from Jews at a campaign event last weekend organized by a group called Muslims 4 Jack.

Ciattarelli, the Republican nominee, appeared alongside Nadeem on Saturday evening at the event, held in Piscataway, N.J, where he called Nadeem one of his closest advisors. At the event, Nadeem alleged some Muslims in his community had accused him of “taking money from Jews” to support Ciattarelli, which he pointedly denied. 

An invitation to the event, which described the gathering as a “community dinner honoring” the GOP gubernatorial hopeful, listed Nadeem’s official title as “executive director” of “New Jersey – Muslim relations.” 

“Every time I got tired, people from my community — when I was blamed that — somebody said ‘You are taking money from Jews.’ I said, ‘I check my bank account every day, brother, it is not there,’” Nadeem told the crowd, after also having made remarks against same-sex marriage.   

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), the state’s Democratic nominee for governor, criticized Ciattarelli in a social media post on Monday for not condemning Nadeem’s comments at the event.

“This blatant antisemitism is coming from a member of Jack’s inner circle. Jack could have condemned it but instead sang his praises. Absolutely disgraceful,” Sherrill wrote. 

Reached for comment, a spokesperson for Ciattarelli’s campaign referred Jewish Insider to a post by Ciattarelli on X explaining Nadeem’s remarks and attacking Sherrill for her refusal to weigh in on the New York City mayoral race against Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.

“Do you ever get tired of lying @MikieSherrill? You know I support same sex marriage,” Ciattarelli wrote on X on Monday night. “You also know the full clip of Dr. Nadeem’s remarks are clear: He was talking about the grief he gets from some BECAUSE of my unwavering support for the Jewish community and Israel and his own efforts to build bridges between Muslim and non-Muslim communities.”

Nadeem defended his support of Ciattarelli’s candidacy during his remarks on Saturday, arguing that an embrace of his campaign could ensure that the Muslim community could have “a seat at the table” if he were elected. 

“We want to have a seat at the table. We want to be in those rooms where decisions will be made. I do not necessarily mean me,” Nadeem explained, adding that he planned to collect resumes from some attendees in the room to recommend for positions in Ciattarelli’s potential administration. Nadeem also noted that he “wants to have a ban on same-sex marriage” in New Jersey. 

In remarks delivered shortly after Nadeem’s speech, Ciattarelli embraced the local Arab leader as a close confidante without condemning his comments about Jews.

“Dr. Ibrar Nadeem: Just once, I wish you would say what’s exactly on your mind,” Ciattarelli said, prompting laughter from the crowd. The gubernatorial nominee went on to call for a round of applause for Nadeem to thank him for his political engagement. 

“I am the first [Republican] gubernatorial candidate in history that has a Muslim as part of his inner circle of advisors, and that advisor is Dr. Ibrar Nadeem,” he later added. 

Ciattarelli then detailed how he and Nadeem, whom he described as a “very, very impressive man,” were first introduced in February. “He said to me, eight months ago, ‘I am going to help you be the next governor of New Jersey,’ and that man hasn’t let me down one day since that very day,” Ciattarelli said of Nadeem.

Ciattarelli posted about the event on Sunday, writing on Instagram alongside several photos that featured Nadeem that it was “great to be in Piscataway last night for a Meet & Greet with members of New Jersey’s thriving Muslim community. Our state is built on respect for all faiths and traditions, and I remain committed to being a Governor for every New Jerseyan — ensuring every voice is heard and every family feels welcome.”