A South Florida dentist was fired Wednesday after he was caught on camera tearing down Israeli hostage posters that had been plastered across Miami – an act he claimed was meant to quell racial hatred in the city.
Dr. Ahmed ElKoussa was quickly identified as one of the two men who on Tuesday destroyed banners of about 200 people kidnapped by Hamas that had been put up throughout the trendy Brickell neighborhood.
Viral footage shared by the organization Stop Antisemitism showed the couple walking down a busy street with a handful of crumpled papers, sparking a social media outcry.
ElKoussa was fired from his job at a Coral Gables dentist the next morning.
“We are very sad to see this situation when we wake up,” CG Smile said in a statement.
Miami – two men were spotted removing posters of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas in the Brickell area.
The men appear to be dentists Ahmed ElKoussa (left) and Xave Ramoul (right). pic.twitter.com/cl2Sec8WlA
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) October 18, 2023
“Our office CG Smile is not in favor of any action taken by Dr. ElKoussa. We do not support terrorist groups, actions or supporters.
“He has been removed from our staff, all of our social media pages and groups.”
ElKoussa, however, claims he acted in good faith when he and his friend tore down the image.
Dr. Ahmed ElKoussa was fired from his dental office less than a day after he was caught tearing down an Israeli hostage poster in a trendy Miami neighborhood. Stop Antisemitism/X
The dentist said he was forced to act after learning that a 71-year-old homeowner in Illinois had stabbed Wadea Al-Fayoume, a Palestinian American boy who recently celebrated his sixth birthday, 26 times and wounded his mother because of Islam. them. and in response to the war between Israel and Hamas.
“His personal opinion is that posters from both sides may potentially trigger conflict and he does not want any escalation of conflict in his local community,” Hassan Shibly, ElKoussa’s representative and lead attorney at Muslim Legal, told The Post.
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“And he’s concerned that the poster has the potential to incite conflict – rightly or wrongly, he’s concerned that it will incite and escalate conflict.”
ElKoussa contacted police to voice his concerns with the flyer and was told to either put up his own counter-poster or take down the existing one, which ElKoussa chose to do, Shibly said.
The viral video shows two men tearing up flyers in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood.Local 10
The ensuing rage was swift and terrifying: He had received death threats and harassing calls — conflicts he tried to avoid, according to lawyers.
“It was never his intention to harm anyone, nor at the time did he believe that doing so would do that. He’s just worried that someone might see this poster and react with a hate crime and that might spark a counter-hate crime and it just becomes an endless conflict,” Shibly said, adding that ElKoussa apologized for hurting the Jewish community.
“We can criticize his analysis, but it was the analysis he did on the scene after hearing that a 6-year-old was stabbed 26 times.”
ElKoussa will seek to regain his job, which Shibly said he was wrongfully terminated for violating his contract.
The dentist’s own social media account has been removed and his Yelp page for dentistry has been flooded with comments slamming him for his actions.
“If you want a dentist who rips up flyers of babies kidnapped by terrorists, this is your guy. won’t let him touch my mouth,” wrote one Floridian.
A California reviewer wrote: “This Dentist is hostile and racist! What kind of quality of care can I expect from someone with antisemitism?”
ElKoussa’s counterpart was identified as Xave Ramoul, an Instagram influencer who had nearly 35,000 followers before his page was deactivated.
The pair are the latest in a series of public prosecutions by the organization Stop Antisemitism after sharing a video of them tearing down posters of Israeli-Hamas war hostages.
Flyers featuring images of missing civilians in Israel who have been kidnapped by Hamas have appeared across the country since the terrorist group’s October 7 attacks. Local 10
Flyers featuring images of missing civilians in Israel who have been kidnapped by Hamas have appeared across the country since the terrorist group launched its surprise attack on October 7, killing 1,300 Israelis.
New York University student and former Anti-Defamation League intern Yazmeen Deyhimi issued a public apology after she was identified as one of three students caught tearing down a banner posted outside the city’s campus.
Follow The Post’s live blog for the latest news on Hamas attacks on Israel
Deyhimi blamed his behavior on misplaced anger amid “very uncertain times.”
Two teenage girls — who have not yet been identified — were caught vandalizing the same poster on the Upper East Side as people filmed and questioned them.
About 3,000 people have died in the Gaza Strip, while nearly 10,000 have been injured, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Almost two thirds of those who have died are children.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
