Marching Toward Violence: Executive Summary

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

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Executive Summary

Over 150 groups involved in the disruptive anti-Israel protests on college campuses and elsewhere in the United States are “pro-terrorism,” as this study documents.

The movement contains militant elements pushing it toward a wider, more severe campaign focused on property destruction and violence properly described as domestic terrorism.

Its long-term goals are revolutionary. It demands the “dismantlement” of America’s “colonialist,” “imperialist,” or “capitalist” system, often calling for the U.S. to be abolished as a country.

These revolutionary goals are held by the two different factions of 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.

For example, white supremacist leader Nick Fuentes said he favors Hamas “over all these tricky Zionist Jews,” while pro-Hamas Minnesota Imam Asad Zaman has promoted Nazi propaganda, and Max Blumenthal, editor of the “far-left” outlet Grayzone, used the white supremacist term “Zionist-Occupied Government” to allege that Israel controls American foreign policy.

This study designates a group as “pro-terrorism” only when justified by documentable evidence, usually found in the group’s own statements.

“Pro-terrorism” is defined as endorsing, contributing to, or having substantive links to individuals or groups that commit violent and criminal acts to further ideological goals or are associated with or inspired by designated foreign terrorist organizations (including governments that sponsor terrorism such as in Iran).

This definition is based on the FBI’s definitions of domestic and international terrorism. Mere opposition to Israeli or U.S. policy does not meet this definition, nor do other extremist beliefs or actions, such as favoring the destruction of Israel or promoting anti-Semitism. Therefore, exclusion from this list does not exonerate a group from criticism.

Groups whose names or logos appeared on promotional materials, social media, or news reports related to anti-Israel protests were compiled. The groups’ histories and statements on terrorism were then evaluated using the stated definition of “pro-terrorism.”

The pro-terrorism groups’ sizes vary, though size need not correlate with influence or dangerousness. While all operate within the U.S., they are not necessarily headquartered here.

The list of over 150 groups is not exhaustive and will be expanded as new information appears.

Appendix A provides documentation for all listed groups.

The group by far most responsible for the current anti-Israel protest movement is Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The organization most responsible for SJP’s success is American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).

SJP celebrated the October 7 attacks and declared allegiance to Hamas even before the attacks ended. It announced a “national day of resistance” for October 12, stating demonstrations would occur “across occupied Turtle Island,” a term used to reject the United States’ right to exist.

In a toolkit SJP distributes to supporters, it endorses Hamas without naming the group. But since “Hamas” is an acronym for “Islamic Resistance Movement” and since the toolkit explicitly supports the October 7 attack as “the first time since 1949 that a large-scale battle has been fought within ’48 Palestine,” SJP declares that it is Hamas when its toolkit states, “We as Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement” (original emphasis).

SJP also signed a declaration of the Committee of Anti-Imperialists in Solidarity with Iran that backs Iran’s direct attack on Israel and endorses the Iran-led Axis of Resistance, which consists of Syria’s government and Iran-backed Palestinian terrorist groups including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the Yemen-based Houthis, and the Iran-backed militias in Iraq trying to kill U.S. troops. The declaration also sides with Russia by denouncing the “US and NATO proxy war in Ukraine.”

Intertwined with SJP is American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), whose president reportedly created SJP’s first chapter. He also chairs the Muslim Legal Fund of America, which supports the protests and provides invaluable legal support to student activists who break laws.

AMP plays a critical role in organizing SJP activity, training student activists, planning events, and providing unknown amounts of funding. AMP itself receives donations through its “charitable” arm, Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation.

Nine American and Israeli victims of the October 7 attacks are suing SJP and AMP for their support of Hamas. The suit alleges SJP and AMP not merely support Hamas’s terrorism abroad but are “intentionally extending their aid to fomenting chaos, violence, and terror in the United States.”

Groups in the pro-terrorism, anti-Israel movement co-exist as four concentric circles of increasing malevolence. Groups in the outermost circle avoid risks as they recruit new protest members and seek to integrate as many political causes as possible under the anti-Israel umbrella.

Groups in the second circle glorify and assist illegal protests of varying severity. They recruit protesters and donors and also provide legal aid to protesters facing consequences for crimes. They encourage those crimes by directing activists to militant websites that teach how to fight police, destroy property, and commit other guerrilla acts.

Groups in this category include the National Lawyers Guild, Muslim Legal Fund of America, Palestine Legal, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and the China-linked Shut It Down for Palestine coalition which includes the Palestinian Youth Movement, and the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition.

The third circle consists of groups and activists hoping to escalate the severity of criminal protests. They propose actions such as causing greater property damage, seizing property, and resisting law enforcement. SJP activists and chapters are increasingly moving into this circle, whose groups include the People’s Forum, a China-linked group that incited protesters to riot at Columbia University and mobilized supporters to go to City University of New York to resist police.

The fourth circle is the smallest but contains the movement’s most dangerous elements, who openly support domestic terrorism. It aims to “dismantle” the “infrastructure” of the U.S.-Israeli alliance and anything else perpetrators view as sustaining “Zionism.” One example is the group of violent protesters at the University of Chicago who issued a statement titled, Bring the Intifada Home.

Many fourth circle groups are revolutionary communists and anarchists, such as the distributors of a zine that applauds Minnesota’s 2020 riots and links “Black liberation” with “Palestinian liberation.” The zine concludes, “Freedom for Palestine means Death to America.”

The study reached 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 protests is certainly higher. The IRS has granted organization status, and in some cases, nonprofit status to a portion of these entities, meaning that the groups have successfully completed the IRS approval process on at least some level.
2. The backbone of the protest movement can reasonably be characterized as Hamas.
3. The movement is increasingly militant and criminal, with significant elements pushing it to escalate into a wider 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 campaign to overthrow 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” such as seizing and damaging buildings. They also provide guides on how to avoid being identified and prosecuted by law enforcement.
7. The movement’s leaders have successfully branded it as only 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 messaging demanding U.S. intervention to stop Israeli retaliation began almost instantly after news of the attacks broke—contrary to claims the movement was triggered by Israel’s response to the October 7 terrorist attacks.
9. Media coverage suffers from a failure to accurately characterize the positions of the protesting groups and their leaders. On all but the rarest occasions, news reports quote protesting groups without disclosing their public support for Hamas and the October 7 attacks.
10. A large proportion of the protesting groups support the Iran-led Axis of Resistance, which includes Hamas, Syria’s government, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, and extremist militias in Iraq attacking the U.S. military. A significant number also endorsed Iran’s April 13 attack on Israel.
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, which 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 in which an independent Palestine and an independent Jewish state of Israel live peacefully.

Legislators, law enforcement, and concerned citizens have at least 10 options for taking action against the movement:

• Strip nonprofit status from criminal organizations.
• Charge offenders under federal racketeering and sedition laws.
• File state-level charges and use domestic terrorism statutes.
• Deport terrorism-supporting foreign protesters.
• Federally designate foreign groups as terrorist organizations.
• File class action lawsuits against Students for Justice in Palestine.
• Proactively educate reporters on groups’ extremism.
• Substantiate claims of foreign support by safely declassifying credible intelligence.
• Reform nonprofit regulations to increase transparency and accountability.
• Pressure universities permitting unchecked antisemitism through high-profile donor statements and actions.

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In the next installment, upon learning of the October 7 attack, dozens of organizations in the anti-Israel movement reacted with celebrations.

Source: https://capitalresearch.org/article/marching-toward-violence-part-1/