CAIR’s BLOOD LIBEL: Ohio Senate Gives Platform to Hamas-CAIR Terror Group On Antisemitism Vote

Before even addressing the terror leader’s Hitlerian rhetoric, the far more pressing question is this: why is a jihadist organization being given a platform before a state Senate Judiciary Committee — particularly on the issue of whether Ohio should adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism?

Mind you, none of my colleagues, world’s leading scholars on Islam and Islam have never been invited to speak on the subject of Islam or jihadic doctrine- the gravest threat to then West.

Hamas-tied CAIR has been actively working for decades on the annihilation of the Jewish state. The organization, tied to Hamas and documented in federal court filings connected to the Holy Land Foundation terror fudning case has, for decades, opposed the existence of the Jewish state. On what conceivable basis could such a group be treated as an authority on antisemitism? Elevating its voice in this context is akin to consulting the Third Reich or any of the ideological enemies of Jewish self-determination on how antisemitism should be defined.

Senior CAIR official invokes blood libel in front of Ohio Senate

The ADL condemned the comments from the executive director of CAIR’s Ohio chapter as ‘hateful, utterly false’ rhetoric

Khalid Turaani, co-chair of the Abandon Biden campaign in Michigan, speaks at the Islamic Center of Detroit in Detroit, Friday, Jan. 26, 2024.

By: Danielle Cohen-Kanik, Haley Cohen, Jewish Insider, February 25, 2026

Jewish groups condemned testimony by the executive director of the Ohio branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations at a recent state Senate Judiciary Committee hearing during which he accused Israel of harvesting skin from deceased Palestinians.

Khalid Turaani testified on Feb. 18 against Senate Bill 87, which would see Ohio adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, asserting that “Israel has the largest human skin bank in the world.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Turaani claimed as his evidence a report by Israel’s Channel 10 from March 2014, though no such report exists. The conspiracy theory of Israeli organ harvesting originated in 2009, when a Swedish tabloid published falsehoods that the IDF kills Palestinians to provide organs to Israeli hospitals, and has been repeated by Palestinian media for years.

The claim, which reemerged in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, also plays on the blood libel trope, an antisemitic conspiracy accusing Jews of murdering Christians to use their blood, that dates back to the Middle Ages.

“Where do you think they got all this skin from?” Turaani continued. “They have more human skin than China and India. They are literally skinning the dead bodies of my brothers and sisters in Palestine,” he said, without offering evidence. “And if I call them Nazis, your law is going to punish me.”

Greg Miller, board chair of Ohio Jewish Communities, which represents the state’s eight Jewish federations, told Jewish Insider that the “false, abhorrent and libelous statements made during this testimony are the kind that have been inciting hatred and violence against Jews for thousands of years.”

Miller said the testimony “only reinforces the need for passage of this bill that provides absolute clarity that those statements are antisemitic. By codifying the IHRA definition, such statements aren’t criminalized but makes it obvious to be condemned by all Ohioans as the blind hatred that inspired them.”

Lee C. Shapiro, the American Jewish Committee’s Cleveland regional director, told JI that while there is “room for reasoned discussion about the IHRA definition,” Turaani “chose to ignore facts and instead propagated hatred and easily dispelled lies. It’s an insult to Ohioans and a disservice to the public square.”

The Anti-Defamation League’s Ohio River Valley office said it was “appalled” by Turaani’s testimony. “The antisemitic organ harvesting myth plays on the blood libel trope, which has spurred the torture, murder, and expulsion of Jews for centuries,” the statement continued. “It continues to fuel violence against Jewish communities today. Such hateful, utterly false rhetoric has no place in our state capitol. We call on Ohio’s leaders to join us in condemning these remarks and standing firm against antisemitism in all its forms.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Leaders and senior officials of CAIR have on numerous occasions in recent years drawn ire from the Jewish community over comments relating to Israel and antisemitism.

Turaani himself moderated an event in October featuring a Hamas official designated as a terrorist by the Treasury Department, as well as other Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members.

And as Hamas was conducting its rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, Hussam Ayloush, the executive director of CAIR-LA, praised the attacks, tweeting a prayer for Allah to “grant relief, freedom, and victory to the people of Gaza.” Weeks later, Nihad Awad, the executive director of CAIR, said at a conference that he was “happy to see people breaking the siege” on Oct. 7, describing the attacks as an act of self-defense.