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Anti-Israel Protests Roiled Campuses in May — and Led to Dangerous Concessions
Pro-Hamas demonstrators at Columbia University in New York City, US, April 29, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
The academic school year ended with the anti-Israel movement making significant gains on and off campus. The most visible development was the appearance of protests, encampments, building takeovers, and marches at numerous universities across the US.
An analysis revealed that between October 2023 and May 2024, more than 300 protests were held and more than 120 encampments were created. The distribution, however, was strongly correlated with the status of institutions, with protests most common at highly selective or elite institutions where fewer students received Federal aid.
The implication is that pro-Hamas protests are largely an upper class and not a working class phenomenon. Notable encampments and takeovers occurred at Columbia University, UCLA, Portland State University, the University of Chicago, and elsewhere. In these and other cases, police intervention was required after lengthy negotiations with students broke down. Encampments were established and then cleared, either by police or by agreements, with many being reestablished within days and then cleared once again.
With few exceptions, mainstream media depictions of the May protests emphasized Israeli violence and student non-violence, the participation of Jewish students, and the purity of protestors’ motives and spontaneous actions.
Actual reporting noted the national plans to create encampments had circulated in the fall semester, and extensive training was provided to students on tactics such as seizing and securing buildings, and on strategic goals including recreating the widespread unrest of 2020.
Review of social media postings also revealed frequently antisemitic and violent rhetoric, such as the threat to “guillotine” George Washington University president Ellen Granberg. The damage caused to university property by encampments was considerable, but damage to occupied buildings was profound. Damage to the Portland State University library amounted to at least $1 million and at least $3 million at City College of New York, while extensive damage was also done to the University of California system headquarters in Oakland.
The May campus protests also highlighted the role of professional agitators in organizing anti-Israel protests and their links to earlier Black Lives Matter and other protests. Training materials provided by National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) to encampment organizers also contained a variety of practical manuals for urban insurgency, as well as materials glorifying the Palestinian “resistance” and other violent revolutionary movements.
Commencement disruptions were frequent in May, with many graduates costuming themselves in keffiyahs, with bloody hands, and holding banners and signs. One notable example was at Duke University, where some 30 protestors walked out prior to an address from Jerry Seinfeld. Reports claim that 1,000 people walked out of the Harvard commencement, in part over the university’s decision not to award degrees to 13 protestors who had been suspended.
The clearing of encampments by police prompted backlash from faculty but also additional protests by students including a strike by the UAW affiliated academic workers union at the University of California system. Strikers alleged “unfair labor practice charges based on the way the university reacted to protesters,” and threatened to withhold all “academic labor,” including grades, until their demands for divestment were met.
Jewish students at many institutions continue to document harassment and intimidation by pro-Hamas protestors, deepening exclusion from campus life after accusations of being “Zionists.”
Hillels have been subjected to pro-Hamas protests at Baruch College, while at the University of California at Santa Cruz, the local SJP chapter demanded Hillel be closed for its support of Israel. The university dismissed the demand.
More explicit threats of a US terror campaign to “bring the intifada home” appeared in a manifesto from protestors who seized a building at the University of Chicago, which stated “We embrace many methods of attacking our enemies. Whatever is effective, destructive, fun, creative, creates leverage, disrupts power, or changes minds is welcome. We refuse to police and surveil each other and remember the enemies are the state, the pigs, and the war profiteers.”
In response to protests, encampments, and building takeovers, most university administrations were anxious to negotiate with protestors and to accede to their demands, thereby incentivizing future protests.
At Northwestern University, concessions included a promise to reveal its investments and to establish an investment advisory board with student participation, as well as two professorships and five scholarships for Palestinians, and a “Middle Eastern and North African” residential unit.
Brown University promised protestors that after a student presentation, divestment would be voted on by trustees. The students identified a number of aerospace and defense companies they alleged were complicit in “grave human rights violations” including Northrup Grumman, Boeing, and General Dynamics.
At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, administrators agreed to permit anti-Israel students to present the case for divestment to trustees, called the situation a “plausible genocide,” condemned destruction in Gaza, and demanded a ceasefire. The chancellor later apologized for weighing in on “deeply complex geopolitical and historical issues.”
Within the University of California system, the Berkeley administration agreed to a divestment task force and the chancellor called for a “permanent ceasefire.” The Riverside administration agreed to similar terms and also terminated a variety of overseas programs including in Israel, which had been the target of long term pressure.
Union Theological Seminary announced that it would “identify all investments, both domestic and global, that support and profit from the present killing of innocent civilians in Palestine” in order to “withdraw support from companies profiting from the war.”
Bard College announced an agreement with protestors that included disclosure of investments, strengthening ties with a branch campus in eastern Jerusalem, and “support of appropriate challenges — political, social, and legal— to Executive Order 157,” banning investments in institutions or companies that boycott Israel.
The most significant and real Israel boycotts have emerged in the Netherlands. Ghent University severed ties with three Israeli research institutions on the grounds they are “problematic according to the Ghent University human rights test,” while Leiden University has put exchange programs with Israeli universities on hold and “will assess all our current ties with Israeli institutions and joint research projects.” The university also stated it will also not admit Israeli students from Tel Aviv University or Hebrew University “until after an evaluation.”
Overall, the universities appear to have provided a mixture of performative and real concessions. Some appear to be simply using delaying tactics, or postponing confrontations until the fall semester. Funding Gazan students and creating “Palestine studies” centers, however, guarantees future campus radicalization by introducing anti-Israel extremists.
The privileged admission of Palestinian students also appears to be in violation of Title IV of the Higher Education Act, while the creation of residential and Muslim-only spaces reinforces campus identity politics.
Faculty remain at the forefront of anti-Israel and pro-Hamas protests in the aftermath of encampments and building takeovers, in many cases joining protests, conducting classes within encampments (where “Zionist” students were prohibited), staging walkouts and “die-ins,” acting as human shields, and being arrested.
Faculty members have been especially vocal expressing outrage over the rare suspensions of students involved in campus takeovers and other hostile activities. One example of that emerged at Harvard University, where 500 faculty members signed a letter complaining that the “unprecedented, disproportionate, and arbitrary” sanctions “undermine trust” and demanded that suspended students be awarded their degrees. The demand was rejected by the Harvard Corporation, who barred 13 protestors from receiving degrees.
Faculty unions with longstanding animosity towards Israel have used the campus violence as a pretext to propose increasingly severe and illegal measures, such as the notoriously anti-Israel union at the City University of New York, which demanded the administration ban all faculty and student trips to Israel. The resolution was voted down.
Northwestern University faculty and staff signed a resolution accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing and genocide,” and demanding the administration condemn “targeted harassment of students and the disproportionate censorship of pro-Palestine speech,” end partnerships with Israeli institutions, and “disclose and divest” from “all companies that support Israeli apartheid.” Similar demands were made by faculty groups at Princeton University, Amherst College, and elsewhere.
Anti-Israel activities also continue to rile the K-12 sector. Reports indicate that dozens of Jewish families in the Oakland, California, school district have begun to withdraw their children after repeated anti-Israel and antisemitic incidents.
Walkouts from public schools were reported at a number of school districts including in Chicago and Princeton, New Jersey, while Berkeley middle school students were led by administrators to a local Jewish Community Center, then occupied by preschoolers, for an anti-Israel protest. Video also emerged of a pro-Hamas protest inside a Bronx high school during which Jewish students and teachers locked themselves in classroom.
Teachers unions continue to be at the forefront of anti-Israel activity. One recent example is a call by the Maine Education Association demanding that the state pension fund divest from companies “complicit in the violation of the human rights” of Palestinian civilians. A “spontaneous” student walkout in Washington, D.C. was apparently also organized by a teachers’ group with connections to American Muslims for Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the Palestinian Youth Movement.
The systematic indoctrination of students by teachers and their unions into anti-Israel bias represents a long-term threat to Jews and to American society that has yet to be addressed.
Anti-Israel protests continued around the world in May including London and New York, and vandalism of Jewish and Jewish-owned sites also continued in May, including three restaurants in Manhattan. Several Jewish children were assaulted in New York, in addition to an attempted car ramming attack against Hasidic Jews, and there were two incidents of shots fired at a Jewish school in Montreal.
The larger goals of the protestors remain downplayed by the media but are stated clearly in left wing and pro-Palestinian media. The anti-Western slogans include “There is only one solution, intifada revolution!,” “abolish the university,” “from turtle island to Palestine, solidarity forever,” along with demands that Jews “go back to Europe.”
Congressional investigations of K-12 schools and universities over their treatment of Jews, Israelis, and pro-Hamas protestors expanded in May. Presidents of universities again testified before a House subcommittee investigating campus antisemitism, a development that was condemned in advance by members of the higher education industrial complex. The presidents of Rutgers, Northwestern, and UCLA largely avoided the calamitous outcome of earlier hearings but could not easily explain sweeping concessions to protestors.
The major development in the arts and cultural sphere in May was the Eurovision song contest. After efforts to bar Israel altogether from the competition, and to force venues showing the competition to boycott it, Israeli entrant Eden Golan was restricted to her hotel and escorted by by police for fear of angry mobs in the streets.
She was also heckled by the audience members and by other contestants. But large number of votes from European residents rather than official judges enabled her to finish in fifth place.
Finally, writers in particular have been subjected to ideological tests and harassment regarding Israel. Blacklists of writers and musicians alleged to be “Zionists” continue to be circulated. A major corporate sponsor of a literary festival was dropped after a number of writers, including a Member of Parliament, threatened to boycott literary festivals across Britain. An effort to condemn Israel through a motion in the British Society of Authors failed by a narrow margin, but the writers’ group PEN American has been in the news over complaints it has failed to offer sufficient condemnations of Israel.
The author is a contributor to SPME, where this op-ed was adapted from.
The post Anti-Israel Protests Roiled Campuses in May — and Led to Dangerous Concessions first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Lawmakers React to Murder of Israeli Embassy Employees in Washington
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) holds a press conference in the US Capitol in Washington, DC, April 23, 2024. Photo: Annabelle Gordon / CNP/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
In the aftermath of the murders of two Israeli embassy employees, US lawmakers have rushed to issue statements condemning the shooting and offering condolences to the families of the victims.
Two Israeli embassy workers were brutally slain Wednesday night in Washington, DC, in what authorities are investigating as a targeted attack. The victims — Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim — were shot while exiting an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) at the Capital Jewish Museum. Lischinsky and Milgrim were also a couple, and Lischinsky planned to propose marriage to Milgrim soon, according to Israeli officials. The suspected murderer, Elias Rodriguez, was recorded screaming “free, free Palestine” as he was taken into custody by officers.
Lawmakers from across the ideological spectrum immediately condemned the murder of Lischinsky and Milgrim.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), one of the most strident supporters of Israel in Congress, repudiated the attacks and argued that pro-Hamas protesters that utter phrases such as “globalize the intifada” embolden acts of terror against Jews.
“When you repeat slogans like ‘globalize the intifada,’ you are inciting violence against Jews in the United States and around the world,” Torres said.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) posted on social media that the shooting is “unbelievable and appears to be a targeted, antisemitic attack.”
“My heart goes out to the families and loved ones of those who died or were injured in this senseless violence,” Fetterman continued.
Leo Terrell — head of the Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, a newly formed unit within the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division — wrote that the shooting “reflects a systemic crisis of antisemitism — seen in the shooter’s hatred, the failure to enforce hate crime statutes, the institutions that helped shape him, and the media narratives that normalize or excuse antisemitism.”
Rep. Pramilla Jayapal (D-WA), a progressive and vocal critic of Israel, wrote that the murders of the Israeli embassy employees represent “senseless, unacceptable violence.”
“I condemn it absolutely. Antisemitism is wrong. Full stop. My heart goes out to all those affected,” Jayapal wrote.
Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), shared a picture of Milgrim and revealed that he met her two weeks before her assassination.
“I just met Sarah two weeks ago in my office at EPA HQ. She struck me as a young woman filled with life and positivity. Heartbroken to learn she was one of two tragically murdered last night by a Jew-hating radical screaming ‘Free Palestine.’” Zeldin wrote.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the Democratic Senate leader, argued that the shooting reflects the rising surge of antisemitism across the country.
“This sickening shooting seems to be another horrific instance of antisemitism which as we know is all too rampant in our society,” Schumer said. “I’m praying for those who were killed, all those affected, and their families.”
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) wrote that she will “continue to work to push back against antisemitism, and we must all disavow these violent, hateful, antisemitic murders.”
Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) added that “this attack must be strongly condemned.”
“Having worked in diplomacy and in embassies abroad before, I am further disgusted by the targeting of embassy personnel on American soil. My heart goes out to the families of the victims, the Israeli embassy staff, the American Jewish Committee who hosted the event, and others who were present,” Kim said.
Some of the most strident critics of Israel in the US Congress expressed sympathy for the victims and condemned their murder.
“The murder of two Israeli embassy staff outside an [American Jewish Committee] event in DC is unconscionable and unacceptable. Our freedoms and our destinies are truly tied. I’m praying for the victims, their loved ones, and everyone impacted,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) wrote.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), another vocal critic of Israel, said she was “appalled” by the Wednesday night murders.
“I am appalled by the deadly shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum last night,” she said. “Holding the victims, their families, and loved ones in my thoughts and prayers. Violence should have no place in our country.”
Omar has come under immense criticism for her anti-Israel rhetoric. The lawmaker has called for an arms embargo to be placed on Israel and declared the Jewish state’s defensive military operations in Gaza a “genocide.” She has also claimed that Jewish colleges students who support Israel are “pro-genocide.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), a lawmaker who has condemned the ongoing war in Gaza, wrote that he is “appalled by the vile attack on those attending an event at the Capital Jewish Museum, that has taken the lives of 2 Israeli Embassy aides. I’m praying for them & their loved ones.”
“This is a horrific act of violence and antisemitism & the perpetrator must be brought to justice,” Van Hollen continued.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said that “absolutely nothing justifies the murder of innocents.”
“I am devastated by the killing of two people outside an [American Jewish Committee] event here in Washington. Our prayers are with the victims, families, and loved ones of all impacted,” she added.
Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most prominent progressives in Congress, has sharpened her criticisms of Israel in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel. She condemned Israel’s response as “genocide” and has called for an arms embargo to be placed on the Jewish state.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the only Palestinian American in Congress, also said her “heart breaks” for the two victims of the shooting.
“My heart breaks for the loved ones of the victims of last night’s attack in DC. Nobody deserves such terrible violence. Everyone in our communities deserves to live in safety and in peace,” Tlaib wrote.
Tlaib’s conduct in the months following the Hamas-led massacre throughout Israel has incensed Jewish communities across the country. The progressive firebrand was slow to condemn the Oct. 7 massacre. However, she was among the first lawmakers to condemn Israel’s response and declare their military operations a “genocide.” She has called for sanctions and a full arms embargo to be placed on the Jewish state. Moreover, she has served as a distinguished guest and speaker at multiple conferences that hosted members of terrorist groups.
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Iran Threatens to Relocate Nuclear Material, Blame US for Potential Israeli Strike Ahead of Rome Talks
USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, Sept. 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
Iran on Thursday warned it would hold the United States responsible for any Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities, following reports that Israel could strike Iranian nuclear sites if ongoing negotiations between Washington and the Islamic regime fail.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi sent a letter to the United Nations threatening to relocate Iran’s nuclear material to undisclosed sites to safeguard it from a possible Israeli military strike.
“Iran strongly warns against any adventurism by the Israeli Zionist regime and will respond decisively to any threats or unlawful actions by this regime,” the letter read.
“We also believe that if any attack is carried out against the nuclear facilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Israeli regime, the US government will be complicit and bear legal responsibility,” the top Iranian diplomat wrote.
In a letter to the UN SG & UNSC, Iran’s Foreign Minister warned of catastrophic consequences after alarming reports emerged quoting U.S. sources that the Zionist regime of Israel is preparing to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities and sites. He urged an urgent, decisive response & a… pic.twitter.com/SEo1BEJwgw
— I.R.IRAN Mission to UN, NY (@Iran_UN) May 22, 2025
If Tehran moves its nuclear material to undisclosed locations, it could derail ongoing negotiations by denying the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — which has sought to maintain access to monitor the country’s nuclear program — the ability to conduct crucial inspections.
Araghchi’s latest remarks came amid escalating tensions ahead of this week’s renewed negotiations between the US and Iran in Europe.
This week, CNN and Axios reported that Israel is preparing for a potential strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities if talks between Washington and Tehran collapse in the coming weeks.
In a statement on X, Araghchi warned that if the international community fails to take “preventive measures” against Israel, Iran would be compelled to take “special measures in defense of [the country’s] nuclear facilities and materials.”
Threats from the rogue Israeli regime are nothing new. But the recent leak citing US officials as divulging Israeli plans for an unlawful attack on Iran and its nuclear facilities is alarming and warrants immediate and serious condemnation from the UN Security Council and the…
— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) May 22, 2025
After concluding their fourth round of nuclear talks in Oman last weekend, Araghchi and US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff are set to hold a fifth round of negotiations in Rome on Friday, with Oman’s foreign minister serving as mediator.
So far, diplomatic efforts have stalled over Iran’s demand to maintain its domestic uranium enrichment program — a condition the White House has firmly rejected.
“We have one very, very clear red line, and that is enrichment. We cannot allow even 1 percent of an enrichment capability,” Witkoff said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
On Tuesday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected US demands to halt uranium enrichment as “excessive and outrageous,” warning that the talks are unlikely to yield results.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that Tehran has no viable “Plan B” should the current nuclear negotiations fail, according to a senior Iranian official.
While the Iranian diplomat said the country’s strategy would include strengthening ties with allies like Russia and China, neither Beijing nor Moscow can be counted on as fully reliable partners, given Beijing’s trade war with Washington and Russia’s focus on the war in Ukraine.
Ahead of Friday’s talks in Rome, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to uphold any agreement that prevents Iran from enriching uranium and obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“But in any case, Israel maintains the right to defend itself from a regime that is threatening to annihilate it,” Netanyahu said in a press conference.
On Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, described negotiations with the White House as “difficult,” accusing Washington of not adhering to any “conventional diplomatic norms” and contradictory actions.
“Imposing sanctions while claiming to pursue a diplomatic path with the Islamic Republic of Iran is itself evidence of their lack of seriousness and goodwill,” the Iranian diplomat said in a statement.
“This reality proves that American policymakers maintain a hostile attitude toward the Iranian people, and their claims of commitment to dialogue and diplomacy should not be taken seriously,” Baghaei continued.
As part of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran — which aims to cut the country’s crude exports to zero and prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon — Washington has been targeting Tehran’s oil industry with mounting sanctions.
In April, Tehran and Washington held their first official nuclear negotiation since the US withdrew from a now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal that had imposed temporary limits on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanction relief.
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‘Globalize the Intifada’: Scholars Link DC Murder of Israeli Embassy Aides to Campus Antisemitism, Incitement
Members of the group Misaskim clean blood off the ground where two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, May 22, 2025. Photo: Evelyn Hockstein via Reuters Connect.
Rampant antisemitism and anti-Israel activism on university campuses helped lay the groundwork for Wednesday night’s fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers leaving a Jewish event in Washington, DC, according to experts who spoke with The Algemeiner.
Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, a couple about to become engaged, were murdered as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum for young professionals and diplomatic staff hosted by the American Jewish Committee (AJC).
Elias Rodriguez, a 30-year-old left-wing and anti-Israel activist from Chicago, was charged on Thursday in US federal court with murdering the Israeli embassy aides. According to witnesses and federal agents, he chanted, “Free, Free Palestine” — a war cry that has been a staple of the pro-Hamas movement on campuses across the US. An affidavit filed by federal authorities in support of the criminal complaint charging Rodriguez revealed that he also said at the scene of the shooting, “I did it for Palestine; I did it for Gaza.”
On Thursday, a Middle East scholar and the executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, Asaf Romirowsky, who is Jewish, told The Algemeiner that Rodriguez’s alleged crimes can be linked to higher education’s normalizing of antisemitism.
“Last night’s heinous acts by Elias Rodriguez once again show how normalized antisemitism has become, being tolerated and institutionalized in our universities and media for decades,” Romirowsky explained. “Words have meaning and consequences and there is a reason why slogans used on campus calling for ‘resistance,’ ‘globalize the intifada,’ and ‘Free Palestine,’ are actionable Islamist terroristic commands synonymous to how the perpetrators of 10/7 [Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel] acted.”
He added, “There is no surprise that within hours after the murders he received praise from Moustafa Bayram, a member of Hezbollah.”
Esteemed Jewish scholar Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, founder and executive director of antisemitism watchdog AMCHA Initiative, noted that in the days leading up to the shooting, pro-Hamas campus groups called on their supporters to “escalate” their conduct.
“They give us no choice,” a campus group which calls itself Columbia University Apartheid Divesthttps://www.algemeiner.com/2025/04/01/meta-boots-anti-zionist-columbia-university-group-instagram/ wrote in a Substack email blast shared on Wednesday morning, some 12 hours before the murders. “We will continue to disrupt the imperialist system that thrives on bloodshed and exploitation … We can disrupt and bring these rotten institutions to their graves.”
CUAD was preceded by other activists whose rhetoric portrayed Israel and the Jews who live there as evil.
On Saturday, a graduating George Washington University senior, Cecilia Culver, accused Israel of targeting Palestinians “simply for [their] remaining in the country of their ancestors” and said that GW students are passive contributors to the “imperialist system.” An economics and statistics major, Culver went on to charge that the university has “blood on its hands.”
Similar remarks were uttered during New York University’s commencement ceremony for the Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
“I want to say that the genocide currently occurring is supported politically and militarily by the United States, is paid for by our tax dollars, and has been live streamed to our phones for the past 18 months,” said Logan Rozos, who presented administrators with a false draft of his speech, leaving them unaware of his intention to promote notions frequently trafficked by neo-Nazis and jihadist terror groups. “I want to say that I condemn this genocide and complicity in this genocide.”
The connection between the incidents is undeniable, Rossman-Benjamin told The Algemeiner.
“The missing link between the commencement speeches and the shooter’s action is the CUAD bulletin, and its call to ‘escalate,’ which the commencement speakers and shooter each did in their own way,” she said. “What we also understand is that the shooter apparently claimed, ‘The action [killing] would have been morally justified taken 11 years ago.’” Around 11 years ago is when he would be 19 years old, around the time he was at UIC [the University of Illinois Chicago]. It could be where he became radicalized.”
Domestic terrorism may be the end game for the over 150 pro-Hamas groups operating on colleges campuses and elsewhere across the US to foster anti-Israel demonstrations, according to a September 2024 report published by the Capital Research Center (CRC) think tank.
“The movement contains militant elements pushing it toward a wider, more severe campaign focused on property destruction and violence properly described as domestic terrorism,” researcher Ryan Mauro wrote in the report, titled “Marching Toward Violence: The Domestic Anti-Israeli Protest Movement.” “It demands the ‘dismantlement’ of America’s ‘colonialist,’ ‘imperialist,’ or ‘capitalist,’ system, often calling for the US to be abolished as a country.”
He continued, “These revolutionary goals are held by the two different factions of the anti-Israel extremist groups. The first faction combines Islamists, communists/Marxists, and anarchists. The second faction consists of groups with white supremacist/nationalist ideologies. They share Jew-hatred, anti-Americanism, and the goal of sparking a revolutionary uprising.”
The group most responsible for the anti-Israel protest movement is Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), according to the report.
Drawing on statements issued and actions taken by SJP and their collaborators, Mauro made the case that toolkits published by SJP herald Hamas for perpetrating mass casualties of civilians; SJP has endorsed Iran’s attacks on Israel as well as its stated intention to overturn the US-led world order; and other groups under its umbrella have called on followers to “Bring the Intifada Home.” Such activities, the report explained, accelerated after Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, which pro-Hamas groups perceived as an inflection point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an opportunity. By flooding the internet and college campuses with agitprop and staging activities — protests or vandalisms — they hoped to manufacture a critical mass of youth support for their ideas, thus creating an army of revolutionaries willing to adopt Hamas’s aims as their own.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Globalize the Intifada’: Scholars Link DC Murder of Israeli Embassy Aides to Campus Antisemitism, Incitement first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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