A significant crowd of protestors assembled Sunday outside the Maybourne Hotel in Beverly Hills, raising their voices against the hotel’s Qatari owners’ support for the terrorist organization Hamas, which perpetrated the October 7th massacre in Southern Israel that left 1400 people dead, 5000 wounded, and 240 hostages kidnapped and taken into Gaza.
The protest rally was marked by a series of powerful speeches and brought together a diverse group of community leaders and activists, united in their call for the hotel to be boycotted and its owner sanctioned for their association with the murderous terrorist group.
Jonathan Kellerman, the renowned author and a resident of Beverly Hills, addressed the crowd, delivering a strong message that stressed how unacceptable it is to have any business operating in the United States that is linked to an organization which promotes violence and perpetrates terror. His words echoed the sentiments of all of those in attendance, highlighting the desire to see the Maybourne Hotel’s owners suffer the consequences of their sponsorship of Hamas.
Beverly Hills Council Member John Mirisch also spoke, emphasizing his commitment to ensuring that the Maybourne Hotel would not slip through the cracks, and that every effort is made to highlight Qatar’s pernicious involvement in funding terror. He stressed that Beverly Hills, one of the world’s best-known cities, could not possibly remain silent while the Maybourne Hotel remained in Qatari hands.
Former Miss Iraq, Sarah Idan, brought a unique perspective to the protest, sharing her insights on the impact of terrorism and the importance of global solidarity against such threats. As an Arab, who was born and who grew up under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, she noted that Qatar was led by an evil regime, and was active in promoting terrorism via the Al Jazeera media network, known by many in the Arab world as “the platform for terror.” Her presence at the protest and her poignant words reinforced the international dimension of the issue, in that it transcends local concerns and resonates with broader global challenges.
Rabbi Pini Dunner, a respected religious leader and the senior rabbi at Beverly Hills Synagogue, provided a powerful moral standpoint to the protest. He noted that the owners of the Maybourne Hotel – the former Emir and former Prime Minister of Qatar – were the ones who originally welcomed Hamas to Qatar and arranged for them to open their political HQ in Doha. “How can we allow such people in our neighborhood,” he asked the crowd.
“They support and fund Qatar – every Hamas bullet, every Hamas gun, ever Hamas rocket, and ever Hamas tunnel, is paid for with Qatari money,” he said. “The profits from your visit to or stay in the Maybourne could very well be funding Hamas terrorism. The Qataris are whitewashing their support for terrorism by buying luxury hotels and famous brands in the West, and using the money to pay for murder and mayhem in the Middle East.”
Sundays protest in Beverly Hills was just the beginning of an international campaign to identify and highlight Qatari assets in the Western world. The organizers intend to get the message out that far from being innocent intermediaries between Hamas and Israel, the Qataris are deeply complicit in Hamas terrorism, and in the promotion of Islamic fundamentalism and violent unrest in the Middles East – and on college campuses, and on the streets of Western capitals, via violent protests and funding insidious political activism.
Watch R’ Dunners’ passionate speech below:
There’s no longer any excuse! #Qatar must be sanctioned and its leaders arrested for aiding and abetting terrorists, and for #CrimesAgainstHumanity! @TheMaybourneBH is owned by 2 Qatari thugs – the former Emir #HBK and his cousin the former Prime Minister #HBJ. #LockThemAllUp pic.twitter.com/4lDt2tBBZa
— Pini Dunner (@pinidunner) November 20, 2023
This needs to be said again and again, until it penetrates: #QatarFundsHamas #QatarIsHamas #HamasisISIS Every bullet, every gun, every rocket, and every tunnel used by #Hamas was paid for with Qatari money. Thank you @rich_goldberg https://t.co/w5UYQuilSQ
— Pini Dunner (@pinidunner) November 16, 2023
