Marching Toward Violence: Conclusions

Marching Toward Violence:
The Domestic Anti-Israeli Protest Movement (full report)
Executive Summary | Background | Four Overlapping Circles
Strategic Alliance | Conclusions | Countering the Movement
Table of Pro-Terrorist Groups | Appendix A: Pro-Terrorism Groups
Full report PDF

Conclusions

The study, which is believed to be the most comprehensive analysis of the current anti-Israel protest movement, reached the following 12 conclusions:

1. The current anti-Israel protest movement on and off the college campuses is driven by over 150 pro-terrorism groups, with the vast majority supporting Hamas and/or the October 7 terrorist attacks. The actual number of terrorism-tied groups involved in the protests is certain to be much higher.
2. The backbone of the current protest movement is Hamas or at least can be reasonably characterized as Hamas.
3. The movement is increasingly militant and criminal, and significant elements are pushing it to escalate into a wider and more destructive domestic terrorism campaign aimed at forcibly “dismantling” the “infrastructure” of the U.S.-Israeli alliance.
4. Some militants aspire to incorporate the campaign into a broader war on law enforcement if not an insurgency. The most revolutionary elements advocate for a more far-reaching guerrilla-like or insurgent-style campaign to overthrow what they label the “imperialist,” “Zionist,” “settler-colonial,” “capitalist” system.
5. The movement’s leadership largely consists of revolutionaries who advocate radical forms of socialism, communism/Marxism, anarchism, and Islamist extremism.
6. Some major groups and coalitions in the movement, including “mainstream” civil society groups, directly encourage and assist criminal “direct actions” like seizing and damaging buildings. They do so by providing guides on tactics for avoiding being identified and prosecuted by law enforcement.
7. The protest movement’s leaders have successfully branded it as a movement limited to opposing “genocide” and supporting a ceasefire even though it was created almost entirely by supporters of anti-Israel terrorism who were inspired by the October 7 attacks and seek to assist Hamas and other terrorist groups.
8. The protests and strategic messaging demanding U.S. intervention to stop Israeli retaliation began almost instantly after news of the attacks broke, while the terrorist attacks were still in progress and before major Israeli counterattacks had begun—contrary to the widespread impression that the protest movement was triggered by Israel’s allegedly genocidal military response to the October 7 terrorist attacks.
9. Media coverage of the protests suffers from a systemic failure to accurately characterize the stated positions of the protesting groups and their leaders. On all but the rarest occasions, news reports quote protesting groups without any disclosures about their publicly declared, easily discoverable support for Hamas and the October 7 attacks. The media’s neglect enables the named organizations to turn the news coverage into positive public relations for themselves and their cause without the minimal accountability that would enable readers to assess their credibility.
10. A large proportion of the protesting groups express solidarity with the Iran-led Axis of Resistance, which includes Iran-backed Palestinian terrorists such as Hamas, the government of Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and extremist militias in Iraq who are attacking the U.S. military. A significant number also endorsed Iran’s direct attack on Israel on April 13.
11. Only a handful of the protesting groups have condemned Hamas and the October 7 attacks. Of these, some still support violence against Israel and seek Israel’s elimination as a country.
12. The majority of the protesting groups seek the destruction of Israel, a goal that fits the international legal definition of “genocide”—the very atrocity they purport to be trying to stop. Only a tiny minority have proclaimed the goal of achieving a permanent two-state solution where an independent Palestine and a Jewish state of Israel live peacefully side-by-side, accepting each other’s existence.

Limitations and Further Research

The actual number of terrorism-linked entities involved in the protests is far greater than the over 150 groups listed and annotated in Appendix A. As ongoing monitoring and research by CRC identifies additional groups, this list will be expanded and updated. Periodic updates will be posted on both the CRC website and InfluenceWatch.

In the next installment, legislators, law enforcement, and concerned citizens have at least 10 options for taking action against the movement.