MIAMI, FLORIDA: Ahmed ElKoussa, a 31-year-old South Florida dentist, has been fired after a shocking video went viral showing him tearing down posters of kidnapped and murdered Israelis plastered across Miami.
ElKoussa and his accomplice Xave Ramoul were quickly identified on Tuesday, October 17, after they were caught ripping down and crumpling up posters of the roughly 200 people kidnapped by Hamas militants that were posted throughout the trendy Brickell neighborhood.
By Wednesday, ElKoussa was ousted from his job at the Miami dentist practice CG Smile.
"We are very sad to see this situation upon waking up. Our office CG Smile is not in favor of any of the actions taken by Dr. Elkoussa. We do not support terrorist groups, actions, or supporters," the office wrote on Instagram.
"He has been removed from our staff, all of our social media pages and groups. CG Smile DOES NOT support terrorist groups actions or supporters," the office owners added in another post.
Juan Carlos Izquierdo, the owner of the dental clinic, claimed that his office has faced severe backlash since the acts of ElKoussa, which he condemned.
"I believe it's not right. It's against our position on the entire situation," Izquierdo said. "Later on, I got a call saying he wanted to explain and that after he explained, everything would be cleared, and I told him I don't want to hear it," he said to NBC6.
What did Ahmed ElKoussa say about his actions?
Despite the furious backlash, ElKoussa is adamant that he and his companion acted in good faith when they destroyed the posters.
The dentist was allegedly compelled to take action after discovering that Wadea Al-Fayoume, a six-year-old Palestinian American boy, had been fatally stabbed 26 times by a 71-year-old Illinois landlord, who also injured his mother, due to their Muslim faith and in reaction to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
“His personal opinion was that posters from either side may potentially incite conflict and he did not want there to be any conflict escalation in his local community,” Hassan Shibly, ElKoussa’s representative and lead attorney at Muslim Legal, told The New York Post.
“And he was concerned that those posters could potentially trigger conflict — rightfully or wrongfully, he was concerned that they would trigger and escalate conflict,” the attorney continued.
Shibly further noted that after reporting the flyers to the police, ElKoussa was instructed to either remove the existing posters or paste his own, the latter of which he chose to do.
Would Ahmed ElKoussa regain his job?
Following the horrifying outcry, the dentist has been receiving harassing calls and death threats — bringing him face-to-face with the very situation he was allegedly trying to prevent.
“His intention was never to cause harm to anyone, nor did he at the time believe that doing so would do that. He was just concerned someone may see these posters and react with a hate crime and that may trigger a counter-hate crime and it just becomes endless conflict,” Shibly said.
The attorney continued by adding that ElKoussa has been apologizing for causing harm to the Jewish community. “We can critique his analysis, but it’s an analysis that he did on the spot after hearing that a 6-year-old child was stabbed 26 times,” he added.
ElKoussa intends to return to his job, which Shibly said he was wrongly fired from, which breaches his contract.
