“Gaza Strip” in America: New 61,000 Square Foot Muslim Facility Under Development in Georgia

A new 5.4-acre retail development in Marietta, Georgia, located at the intersection of Barrett Parkway, Bells Ferry, and Piedmont roads, has drawn attention and mixed reactions following remarks by developer Sam Jamal Awad, who referred to the project as the “Gaza Strip”.

Developer Sam Jamal Awad and his brother, lawyer Ali Jamal Awad, referred to the project as the “Gaza Strip” on social media while promoting the development and highlighting their Palestinian heritage.

Ali Awad is a vicious anti semite who flooded social media with anti-Israel and Jew hating propaganda in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 massacre—when over 1,200 Israelis were slaughtered, raped, kidnapped, and tortured—pushing Jewish conspiracy theories, blood libels, and outright lies that echo some of the oldest hatreds against Jews, all while downplaying or excusing one of the worst mass killings of Jews in modern history. (scroll down for Canary Mission dossier.)

A new 61,000 square foot Muslim dining and shopping facility id being developed in Georgia

The developer and person doing the legal paperwork are both Muslim from Palestine

They’re making videos calling it the “Gaza Strip” in America

“The real estate developer is “Palestinian. His brother, who’s doing all the legal paperwork, is also Palestinian. I watched some videos. They jokingly call it the Gaza Strip”

“I came across this other facility that they are trying to rezone for in Lilburn — including 104 tenant properties. It went before the rezoning board in August 2025 and what it appears it was kicked back (for now) — the LLC’s name was taqua. If you look that up, that’s Sharia based Finance. That should be concerning to everyone”

A new 61,000 square foot Muslim dining and shopping facility that’s being developed in Georgia

The developer and person doing the legal paperwork are both Muslim from Palestine

They’re making videos calling it the “Gaza Strip” in America

More Muslim only communities discovered… pic.twitter.com/9tJ4I0Fywd

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) February 18, 2026

Retail project draws attention after developer’s ‘Gaza Strip’ …

By Megan Jackson, Marietta Daily Journal, February 2026;

Construction is underway for the Walk at Piedmont development at 140 Piedmont Road.

Construction on a new 5.4-acre retail center is underway at the corner of Barrett Parkway, Bells Ferry and Piedmont roads.

Here is one of the partners (source: Canary Mission):

Ali Awad [Ali Jamal Awad] is an attorney who spread anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel during its war against Hamas terrorists in late 2023.

Awad wrote his posts following a series of Hamas terror atrocities and war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, which were executed on October 7, 2023.

The Hamas terror attacks left over 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, European Union, Israel and other countries. Founded in 1987, it has killed thousands of Israeli civilians through mass shootings and suicide bombings. Hamas has also kidnapped children, families and the elderly and held them hostage in Gaza. It has desecrated [slide 2] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.

Anti-Semitism during Israel’s War against Hamas

On December 3, 2023, Awad suggested in a tweet that “… Israelis should go back to Europe, Russia, Poland and America – where they came from…”

One way that anti-Israel activists spread anti-Semitism is to claim [00:06:46] that Israeli Jews, particularly Ashkenazi Jews, do not descend from the ancient Israelites. This claim alleges that Israeli Jews are white Europeans who lack a connection to the Land of Israel.

On November 9, 2023, Awad tweeted: “In Apartheid Israel it is illegal to: / – Get a DNA test / – ‘Like’ a post about Palestine / … It is, however, perfectly legal to: / – Harvest organs of Palestinians for decades in an Israeli organ bank…”

Accusations against Israel stealing or harvesting organs have been revived over the years, echoing old anti-Semitic blood libels against Jews.

On November 8, 2023, Awad posted a video on TikTok where he invoked the “Greater Israel” conspiracy theory by suggesting [00:00:13] that Israel would take over Egypt, “most of Syria,” Jordan, Lebanon, “expand into Turkey” and take over “part of Saudi Arabia.”

“Greater Israel” is a conspiracy theory which claims that Israel plans to expand its territory to encompass most of the Middle East and chunks of North Africa.

Also in the same TikTok post, Awad referred [00:00:46] to the October 7 terror attacks, he said Israel “allowed for the murder of their own Israeli people so they can push their own agenda for more real state in Palestine. They want more of the Gaza Strip.”

On November 7, 2023, Awad posted on Instagram: “USA and Israel together want world domination. / USA controls the western hemisphere, and Israel will be the entry point for the eastern hemisphere…”

On October 25, 2023, Awad posted on Instagram: “…America is funding terrorism. Israel is the oppressor. Zionism is Nazism. Palestine will be free! .”

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as one possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Over 40 countries have adopted the definition as well.

Hatred of Israel during a Hamas War

On November 21, 2023, Awad tweeted: “…So why the unyielding support of the Palestinian genocide?…Zionism=terrorism.”

Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture.

On November 19, 2023, Awad posted on Instagram: “…Keep posting and exposing the hypocrisy and terrorism of the Israeli apartheid regime…”

On November 18, 2023, Awad tweeted: “… Zionist oppressors use Judaism as a tool to justify killing of Arabs and Muslims. / This has been going on for 75 years.”

The modern State of Israel was founded 75 years earlier, in 1948.

On November 11, 2023, Awad posted on Instagram: “It’s not terrorism when you resist your oppressor. Israel may win this battle but it has lost the war. The world now sees this apartheid occupying state for what it is – a terrorist, fascist government that usurps land from native Arabs and Muslims. When Zionism is destroyed, all ‘terrorism’ will die with it.”

Among Palestinians and anti-Israel activists, the term “resistance” can be a euphemism for nationalistic terror. It is often used to excuse or even glorify anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence.

On November 5, 2023, Awad posted on Instagram: “Yes it really is black and white. It’s not confusing. Israeli Zionism is more terroristic than Hamas… Israelis believe they are superior humans with a God-given right to the land. And anyone who stands in their way is an anti-Semite.”

On November 3, 2023, Awad tweeted: “The history of slavery in America and black torture is well-documented…lynchings, burnings, killings, and unimaginable horrors were inflicted upon an entire group of people just because of their skin color…Israelis have been doing the same thing to Palestinians for 75 years. You wouldn’t side with slave-owners then… Don’t side with Israeli Zionists now.”

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

On Saturday, October 7, 2023, approximately 2,900 heavily armed Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza. They executed numerous war crimes on civilians, including mass murder, beheadings of children, rape of men and women, torture, kidnappings and mutilation. Hamas broadcast videos of their butchery on social media, often to victims’ accounts for families to see. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”

As of November 10, 2023, over 1,200 Israelis, the vast majority of them civilians, were murdered during the attacks. Hamas kidnapped 242 Israelis, including at least 30 children. At least 3,500 people were wounded, many severely.

As of December 25, 2023, Hamas had fired over 10,600 missiles from Gaza at Israeli communities, with Hamas claiming 5,000 the day it launched the attack. While Hamas was the main group involved, members of other terror groups also joined in the atrocities.

Many Palestinian civilians, including women and children, also participated in the attack. In several instances, Gazans who worked in the targeted Israeli communities gave intelligence to Hamas on where to strike.

In a December 2023 poll, 57% of Gazans and 82% of Palestinians in the West Bank supported the terror attacks. 42% of Gazans were supportive of Hamas rule, up from 38% before the attacks, and 44% in the West Bank supported Hamas, up from 12%.

Hamas began by launching thousands of rockets at Israel and using motorized paragliders “to infiltrate Israeli territory and secure terrain.” Terrorist ground forces destroyed parts of the border fence with Gaza, murdering and kidnapping soldiers.

Terrorists then turned their attention to 22 communities around Gaza, where they went house to house to savagely murder, mutilate and kidnap anyone they found. They executed children in front of their parents and parents in front of their children.

Terrorists beheaded children and babies, and massacred entire families, burning some alive who hid in their homes. Hamas terrorists kicked around the heads of beheaded victims like soccer balls. Israelis between the ages of three and 85 were kidnapped and taken forcibly to Gaza. Hamas has not allowed the Red Cross access to the hostages.

Over 360 unarmed young men and women were surrounded and slaughtered at one music festival alone. Bodies were publicly desecrated, with some dragged through the streets of Gaza, then beheaded.

Women were raped next to the bodies of dead friends. Some were raped and then shot in the head. Others, including young girls, were raped and murdered or mutilated in other ways. Israeli officials opened an unprecedented investigation into the widespread sexual assault. Forensic analysis of corpses showed evidence of torture and rape.

Hamas terrorists said they were given explicit orders to carry out the atrocities, including chopping off legs and raping the corpses of murdered victims.

Hamas intentionally targeted youth centers and elementary schools to execute and kidnap children. They also took stimulant drugs to give added energy to murder and maim. Nazis also took drugs during World War II to fuel their anti-Semitic massacres.

The atrocities were acknowledged as the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, including by U.S. President Joe Biden, who also compared Hamas to ISIS. Hamas attacked on the annual holiday of Simchat Torah, which that year was on Shabbat, the weekly Jewish Sabbath.

The Hamas atrocities against Israeli civilians are crimes against humanity according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The mass murder generated great sympathy for Israel from many countries but led to countless celebrations among Palestinians and anti-Israel organizations in America that back the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Hamas called the October 7, 2023 terror attacks “Al-Aqsa Flood,” a reference to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the mosque has been a pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before Israel was founded in 1948. Such propaganda has led to multiple periods of violence against Israeli civilians.

Biographical Information

As of December 2023, Awad’s LinkedIn said he was the founding attorney at Ali Awad Law, P.C. (The CEO Lawyer Personal Injury Law Firm), where he represents “injured victims throughout Georgia.” As of same date, Awad was listed on the company’s website as its “Managing Attorney.”

As of December 2023, Awad had been listed with the State Bar of Georgia as a member, licensed in “Insurance Law” in Atlanta, Georgia since December 2015.

Also as of December 2023, Awad’s LinkedIn said he had received a JD from Georgia State University (GSU) College of Law in 2015.