CAIR-Ohio Director Calls to "Get Rid of" Israel "Once and For All" on Hezbollah-Affiliated TV
CAIR-Ohio director Khalid Turaani has previously spread a blood libel before the Ohio State Senate and moderated a conference with a Treasury-sanctioned Hamas official
Khalid Turaani, Executive Director of the Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said he hoped "we get rid of this occupying, Zionist, Israeli entity, once and for all" during a March 4 interview on Al-Mayadeen TV, according to a translation by MEMRI TV. Al-Mayadeen TV is a Lebanon-based satellite network affiliated with Hezbollah and supportive of the Iranian regime.
In the same interview, MEMRI reported, Turaani said negotiations with Iran were the only way to resolve the crisis and that Tehran was ready to give President Trump “a ladder to climb down from this tree” if talks were real, binding, and guaranteed Iran would not be targeted and would be compensated.
Al-Mayadeen TV, the Beirut-based network, functions as a primary media outlet for Hezbollah and the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance, regularly hosting IRGC officials and Hamas leadership.
A Pattern, Not an Incident
The Al-Mayadeen interview is the latest in a documented series of controversies involving Turaani.
On February 23, Jewish Onliner reported on Turaani’s February 18 testimony before the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee against Senate Bill 87, legislation that would define antisemitism in language closely modeled on the IHRA working definition.
During that testimony, Turaani claimed Israel operates the world’s largest human skin bank using skin from dead Palestinians. ADL has described organ-harvesting allegations of this kind as a modern blood libel trope and later said it was “appalled” by Turaani’s remarks
On October 26, 2025, Jewish Onliner also reported that eight days after Rep. Elise Stefanik and Sen. Tom Cotton asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to investigate CAIR’s funding, Turaani participated in an Arabic-language online conference hosted by Lebanon-based Al-Zaytouna Centre.
The event featured Majed al-Zeer, a senior Hamas official in Europe sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department, and Sami al-Arian, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide services to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) before being deported from the United States.
The Institutional Context
Scrutiny of CAIR predates Turaani. In a 2007 pretrial filing in the Holy Land Foundation prosecution, federal prosecutors publicly listed CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator. Government exhibits in the case also listed CAIR as a Palestine Committee “working organization,” though later court proceedings treated the public naming as an untested government allegation rather than an adjudicated finding against CAIR.
HLF and five of its leaders were convicted in a case the FBI said involved funneling more than $12 million to Hamas. In 2014, the United Arab Emirates included CAIR on its published list of designated terrorist organizations.
Khalid Turaani, you evil person of an inhumane, merciless, and cowardly obscure sect. You and your cronies will meet the fate that you wish upon us Jews and decent people.