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‘Student Intifada’: Pro-Hamas Groups to Follow 9/11 Anniversary With ‘Day of Action’

Anti-Israel demonstrators clash with New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers during a protest on April 18, 2024. Photo: Reuters Connect

National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) is planning to follow up the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks with a nationwide “Day of Action” on Thursday, Sept. 12, the group’s latest apparent evocation of Islamist terrorism in its campaigns against Israel and what it has described as the “American empire.”

“Last school year, the Student Movement for Palestine showed the world what we’re capable of,” NSJP said in a post published on X/Twitter last week, referring to the anti-Israel demonstrations which included acts of property destruction, antisemitic assault, and celebrations of terrorists its members perpetrated at colleges and universities across the US. “University repression will not stop us. Draconian speech codes will not stop us. There is only one way out: cut ties with the Zionist entity.”

The tweet featured a picture of a young man, who appeared to be Arab, concealing his face with a keffiyeh, a common practice of pro-Hamas activists who engage in unlawful activity and utter profane and antisemitic remarks at their demonstrations.

Last school year, the Student Movement for Palestine showed the world what we’re capable of.

University repression will not stop us. Draconian speech codes will not stop us.

There is only one way out: cut ties with the Zionist entity. pic.twitter.com/GNf6qVGVjh

— National Students for Justice in Palestine (@NationalSJP) September 5, 2024

NSJP has been building up anticipation of its “Day of Action” all month, calling it the continuance of a “student intifada” on Instagram on Sept. 2.

“Our universities have done everything in their power to ignore and redirect our demands for divestment, dodging accountability by suspending and surveilling students. Administrators far and wide have chosen to unleash police violence on students rather than end complicity in the Zionist occupation,” it said. “We will not rest until our universities divest. The Student Intifada continues — until divestment, until arms embargo.”

Meanwhile, the group at Pomona College last week promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories falsely accusing Israel and the US of spreading the Covid-19 virus to commit genocide and maintain “colonial” rule over people of color.

“Pandemics are a tool of the colonizer,” said an SJP pamphlet distributed during a club fair at the school, according to a Jewish students club, Haverim, that acquired a copy the document. “By bomb or by pathogen, these attacks on Palestinian life are man-made, intentional policy choices … The american [sic] state and israeli [sic] settler colony have found a dress rehearsal for more targeted genocides in their construction of today’s eugenicist normalcy wherein everyone is expected to sustain repeated covid infections indefinitely until death.”

Earlier this month, NSJP, which has been linked to Islamist terrorist organizations, publicly discussed its grand strategy of using the anti-Zionist student movement as a weapon for destroying the US in a now-deleted tweet that was posted to X/Twitter.

“Divestment is not an incrementalist goal. True divestment necessitates nothing short of the total collapse of the university structure and American empire itself,” the organization said last week. “It is not possible for imperial spoils to remain so heavily concentrated in the metropole and its high-cultural repositories without the continuous suppression of populations that resist the empire’s expansion; to divest from this is to undermine and eradicate America as we know it.”

The tweet was the latest in a series of progressive revelations of SJP’s revolutionary goals and its apparent plans to amass armies of students and young people for a long campaign of subversion against US institutions, including the economy, military, and higher education. Like past anti-American movements, SJP has also been fixated on the presence and prominence of Jews in American life and the US’s alliance with Israel, the world’s only Jewish state.

On the same day the tweet was posted, Columbia University’s most strident pro-Hamas organization was reported to be distributing literature calling on students to join the terror group’s movement to destroy Israel during this year’s convocation ceremony.

“This booklet is part of a coordinated and intentional effort to uphold the principles of the thawabit and the Palestinian resistance movement overall by transmitting the words of the resistance directly,” said a pamphlet distributed by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) spinoff, to incoming freshmen. “This material aims to build popular support for the Palestinian war of national liberation, a war which is waged through armed struggle.”

Other sections of the pamphlet were explicitly Islamist, invoking the name of “Allah, the most gracious” and referring to Hamas as the “Islamic Resistance Movement.” Proclaiming, “Glory to Gaza that gave hope to the oppressed, that humiliated the ‘invincible’ Zionist army,” it says its purpose is to build an army of Muslims worldwide.

Middle East experts have long suspected that foreign agents are conspiring with SJP chapters — and its spinoffs — in the US to convulse college campuses and lobby for the disintegration of the US-Israel relationship, an outcome that would benefit Middle Eastern powers such as Iran, whose leaders regularly call for the destruction of both the US and Israel.

In July, US National Intelligence Director Avril Haines issued a statement outlining how Iran has encouraged and provided financial support to the anti-Israel campus protest movement and explaining that it is part of a larger plan to “undermine confidence in our democratic institutions.” However, Haines stopped short of arguing that there a hostile fifth column in the US seeking to subvert it from within, arguing that “Americans who are being targeted by this Iranian campaign may not be aware that they are interacting with our receiving support from a foreign government.”

Nevertheless, Haines confirmed that US intelligence agencies have “observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post ‘Student Intifada’: Pro-Hamas Groups to Follow 9/11 Anniversary With ‘Day of Action’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Midwest Campus Groups Use ‘Pro-Palestinian’ Label as a Way to Attack Jews and Israel

University Hall at Ohio State University. Photo: OZinOH/Flickr

While the Midwest is known for its “Midwest Nice” reputation, on college campuses, pro-Palestinian student groups in the region have used that hospitality to justify open support for terrorist groups and violence against Jews in the Middle East.

In doing so, these groups blur the line between activism and extremism, raising serious questions about their true agenda in our now vulnerable academic institutions.

Take, for example, the recent release of Agam Berger, an Israeli civilian who was held captive by Hamas for 482 days.

Instead of celebrating her survival and release, the group “United With Milwaukee Popular University for Palestine (UWM PUP)”  posted an image comparing her being embraced by other former hostages against a faceless, malnourished (assumed to be a Palestinian) man, with the caption: “Difference in treatment between Palestinian hostages held by the genocidal entity vs. Israeli hostages held in Gaza.”

What they’re saying is that Hamas treats the hostages they brutally kidnapped on Oct. 7 with dignity, while Israel abuses its prisoners.

This narrative not only ignores the fact that hostages held by Hamas endured torture, starvation, and sexual violence while the overwhelming majority of Palestinians incarcerated in Israel are treated by Western prison standards — but completely ignores that Palestinians are in Israeli jails because they have been convicted of crimes — often violent ones — while the hostages were illegally stolen by Hamas.

In fact, conditions in Israeli prisons are such that at least one Palestinian prisoner recently slated for release actually begged Israel to keep him rather than return to relative freedom under Hamas in Gaza.

By casting Hamas as more humane than a democratic state, these “pro-Palestinian” groups engage in a false moral equivalence that legitimizes terrorism and dehumanizes Israeli victims.

In St. Louis, a community group active but not affiliated with students on local campuses, Voices of Palestine Network, shared a video with  the caption: “Don’t let the killer become the victim.” They claimed to reveal the “truth” about the Israeli hostages’ lack of innocence, as if such context could justify the crimes against humanity committed on October 7 and afterwards.

Eastern Iowa Jewish Voices for Palestine and Ohio State University Jews for Justice in Palestine shared similar posts claiming that Western media have not covered Israel’s actions, which is just plain wrong. Even prestigious private schools are suffering from this kind of hateful bullying. Northwestern University was just defaced with antisemitic graffiti that included statements such as, “Death to Israel” and “Intifada now!”

Many students, faculty, and administrators may believe that this rhetoric — however inflammatory — is merely speech and not action.

But across the country, we’ve already seen how inflammatory expression can evolve into extremely toxic behavior — harassment, bullying, social exclusion, violent attacks, and fear — especially when targeting the minority of students who are visibly Jewish or openly pro-Israel.

When this kind of intimidation replaces discussion, students begin self-censoring to avoid backlash and the foundation of academic freedom erodes.

It is time for universities, student governments, and community leaders across the Midwest to draw a clear moral line between upholding free speech and implicit endorsements of bigoted threats against the Jewish and pro-Israel communities. Administrators must publicly condemn the glorification of terror and demand accountability from groups that harass and intimidate their peers.

Campus spaces are meant for students to wrestle with ideas. But how can that happen when a minority of bullies exploit that freedom to suppress the speech of others?

 The choice is simple. Speak out now or allow antisemitic and anti-American radicalization to take root under the guise of activism.

Jasmyn Jordan is a spring 2025 graduate of the University of Iowa, where she was a Presidential Scholar, double majoring in Political Science and International Relations. She was a 2024–2025 CAMERA Fellow and organized a variety of pro-Israel initiatives, including bringing a speaker to campus. Her work has appeared in The College Fix, New Guard, and Breitbart, and she has been featured in interviews at the local, state, and national levels.

The post Midwest Campus Groups Use ‘Pro-Palestinian’ Label as a Way to Attack Jews and Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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The Labor Party Sends an Alarming Message to Australian Jews in Upcoming Election

Car in New South Wales, Australia graffitied with antisemitic message. The word “F***” has been removed from this image. Photo: Screenshot

With just a few days to go before Australians head to the polls on May 3, the country’s Jewish community is reeling from a decision that has left many feeling betrayed, sidelined, and deeply concerned about the future.

In a move that has shocked — but not entirely surprised — us, the ruling center-left Labor Party has entered into preference deals with the far-left Greens party — effectively elevating them in key electorates across the country. In Australia’s unique preferential voting system, these deals play a critical role in determining who ultimately wins a seat, often tipping the balance in tight races.

And this year, this move has sent a very clear and troubling message to Australian Jews: our concerns are expendable.

To understand the magnitude of this, one needs to understand who the Greens are in the Australian context. This is not merely a progressive party focused on the environment. The Australian Greens have positioned themselves as one of the most strident anti-Israel voices in mainstream politics, openly accusing Israel of apartheid, calling for arms embargoes, and failing to condemn the Hamas atrocities of October 7. Their members have fueled division on campuses, marched under banners declaring “Resistance by Any Means,” and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with movements that seek to delegitimize the Jewish State.

Now, through Labor’s preference deals, they have been granted a possible path to greater power.

It’s a decision that is difficult to reconcile — especially given that the Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, is himself Jewish, holds a very safe seat, and is the most senior Jewish member of the Australian Parliament. He is acutely aware of the deep concern and distress felt by the Jewish community in the wake of rising antisemitism and anti-Israel hostility.

And yet, despite his unique position of influence within the Labor Party, he and Labor have chosen to preference the Greens — an openly hostile and inflammatory party when it comes to Israel — over moderate candidates in key electorates.

This gut-wrenching move not only undermines the re-election chances of Josh Burns — one of only three other Jewish Labor MPs, and one of the caucus’ few consistent voices of support for Israel and opposition to antisemitism — but it sends a demoralizing message to the Jewish community: that even in this moment of fear, pain, and increasing isolation, political expediency trumps principle.

For many, this is not just disappointing — it feels like a betrayal.

What makes this moment even more precarious is the very real possibility of a hung parliament — a scenario in which no party secures a majority in the House of Representatives. If that happens, Labor will need to negotiate with minor parties and independents to remain in government.

That means deals not just with the Greens, but potentially with the so-called Teals — a group of climate-focused independents who campaigned on integrity and transparency but have increasingly aligned themselves with activist rhetoric and anti-Israel narratives, while remaining silent in the face of rising antisemitism, effectively enabling it through inaction and association.

While their positions may not be as extreme as the Greens, their silence has often been deafening — and their willingness to serve as kingmakers in a divided parliament raises significant questions for the Jewish community.

This political realignment comes at a time when antisemitism is on the rise in Australia. In the months since October 7, we have seen hate rear its head on our streets, in our universities, and across social media. Jewish students are being harassed. Hostile graffiti now stains our neighbourhoods. Community institutions are forced to bolster security, and families are afraid to publicly identify as Jewish.

The silence — or worse, strategic partnership — with those who embolden this environment is not just disheartening. It is dangerous.

We are told this is simply politics. That preference deals are just mechanics. But when those mechanics elevate those who have shown contempt for our community’s safety, values, and identity, then the message is clear: power matters more than principle.

This isn’t about party loyalty. The Jewish community in Australia is diverse in its political views. But what unites us is the growing fear that we are being pushed to the margins. That we are being treated as politically inconvenient. That we are alone.

For the international Jewish community, this should be a moment of solidarity and concern. Australia has long been a beacon of multicultural harmony — a place where Jewish life thrived openly and proudly. But the cracks are showing. And if a new government is formed with the Greens and Teals holding the balance of power, those cracks could widen quickly.

The next government will shape more than just policy. It will shape how safe Jewish Australians feel in their own country. It will shape whether antisemitism is confronted or excused. It will shape whether Jewish voices are listened to or left behind.

This election may be Australian, but its consequences are global. We ask our friends and allies abroad to stand with us, to raise awareness, and to understand that the fight against antisemitism is not confined to one nation — but is a global moral test.

Australia is at a crossroads. We hope it chooses the path of courage, principle, and solidarity.

Michael Gencher is Executive Director StandWithUs Australia, an international nonpartisan education organization that supports Israel and fights antisemitism.

The post The Labor Party Sends an Alarming Message to Australian Jews in Upcoming Election first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Examining the Hate at Harvard, Columbia, and Elsewhere

Demonstrators take part in an “Emergency Rally: Stand With Palestinians Under Siege in Gaza,” amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, Oct. 14, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder

My bet is that both Ruth R. Wisse and The Wall Street Journal received more than a handful of nasty comments and threats since her opinion essay (“Harvard is an Islamic Outpost”) appeared in the WSJ last week.

But we should thank her for this powerful piece, where she documents the slow penetration and infestation of Islamist ideology into Harvard and academia at large. This has rapidly accelerated in classrooms and through student action since October 7, 2023. The same process has been happening on numerous other campuses around the US, most prominently at Columbia University.

The ensuing chaos, encampments, limiting campus access to Jewish students and faculty, calls for destruction of Israel and so much more, were encouraged by some campus administrators and faculty as expressions of free speech.

But this conduct has finally been called out for what it is — support for terrorist groups, and an assault on the rights and safety of Jewish students. And as Ruth Wisse compared celebrations of October 7 to Kristallnacht pogroms, she noted that “some people were forced to confront what they tried to ignore.” Some, however, did not — and continued to claim that support for October 7, and calls for genocide against Jewish students, were protected as free speech.

It is incomprehensible that the previous administration let radical leftists, radical Islamists, and their supporters have free rein when it came to endangering the civil rights of Jewish students, and it is incomprehensible that the few student leaders of these antisemitic and anti-Zionist demonstrations were considered heroes and freedom fighters.

This would not have happened if the hate had been directed against any other minority group besides Jews.

Now, Columbia, Harvard, and other universities are grappling with the consequences of their inaction. They do not want to lose the huge amount of Federal money they receive, but they do not want to be seen as acquiescing to Trump and people like him. That might be the reason why Harvard President Alan Garber is finalizing a task force dealing with antisemitism and anti-Israeli sentiment at Harvard. Unfortunately, this task force is diminished by a concurrent task force “on combating anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian bias.”

Harvard still refuses to admit that it has a unique problem regarding discrimination against Jews.

And as for foreign students who have been allowed to support terrorism in the streets of America and on their campuses, it is tragic — if not a travesty — that they are allowed to extol support for radical and terroristic ideologies that seek to destroy our way of life. They often do not appreciate the freedom they experience here, or tolerate any viewpoints that differ from their own. They do not express gratitude for the opportunity to obtain a great education that they can take back home to improve lives in their countries, but are instead seeking to misuse their visas to advocate for terrorism.

It is a pity that this is lost on some of the best universities in the US. Kol Hakavod to Ruth Wisse.

Dr. Jaroslava Halper has been a professor of pathology at The University of Georgia in Athens, GA for many years. She escaped from communist Prague because of antisemitism, and lack of freedom and free speech. The gradual increase of antisemitism and anti-Zionism in certain circles in her second homeland, and the devastating October 7 massacre by Hamas, led her to realize that more active engagement is necessary to combat antisemitism, including anti-Zionism. 

The post Examining the Hate at Harvard, Columbia, and Elsewhere first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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