According to a recent report published by the Anti-Defamation League, while much of the world welcomed the pause in hostilities that came with the recent cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas, leading anti-Israel activists in the United States instead utilized the cease-fire agreement in order to enhance their anti-Israel activism.
By Rachel Avraham
According to a recent report published by the Anti-Defamation League, while much of the world welcomed the pause in hostilities that came with the recent cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas, leading anti-Israel activists in the United States instead utilized the cease-fire agreement in order to enhance their anti-Israel activism, leading to a surge in anti-Semitism on US college campuses and other places across America. According to the ADL, prominent anti-Israel activists in America “celebrated the ceasefire as a “victory” for Hamas, shared Hamas propaganda footage online and displayed terrorist group paraphernalia at protests.”
For example, the Anti-Defamation League reported that the Pennsylvania-based Philly Palestine Coalition commented on January 19, “The ceasefire offers a glimpse of what is possible when the resistance prevails… Do not underestimate the resistance and its capabilities… Glory to the martyrs. Glory to our prisoners. Glory to our fighters.” In a post that same day, the Palestinian Feminist Collective stated, “We honor the tenacity of our freedom fighters who fought until their last hour of life across the Gaza Strip. It is they who have shattered the myth of the Zionist regime’s invincibility.”
According to the report, student groups, including various Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace chapters, also glorified Hamas in the wake of the cease-fire agreement. Responding immediately to the first reports of the tentative ceasefire agreement on January 15, Duke University’s SJP chapter posted in praise of the “Axis of Resistance—armed and determined that broke the Zionists [sic] will” and added that the group was “praying for the death of the terrorist Zionist [sic] regime soon <3.”
The Anti-Defamation League added that Central Florida Students for Justice in Palestine shared a post on January 20 that prominently featured imagery of Hamas terrorists holding guns alongside the message, “GLORY TO ALL OUR MARTYRS, TOTAL LIBERATION IS NEAR.” In a January 16 post, the University of California, Davis, Students for Justice in Palestine chapter characterized Hamas’s October 7 massacre as an admirable act of “resistance” while ignoring the hundreds of people killed and kidnapped by Hamas during the attack, stating: “The October 7 Operation Al-Aqsa Flood [Hamas’s name for the attack] was launched in order to liberate Palestinians taken and tortured by the Israeli Occupation Forces.”
The Anti-Defamation League reported that anti-Zionist groups on and off campus also offered unbridled praise for Khalida Jarrar, a senior PFLP leader who was among those released from Israeli prison on January 19 during the first phase of the ceasefire deal. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is an internationally recognized terror organization. Nevertheless, the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) praised Jarrar as a “revolutionary intellectual.” Messages of support were also posted by many longtime anti-Israel activists, including Max Blumenthal, conspiracy theorist and editor-in-chief of The Grayzone, and Ariel Gold, former leader of the anti-Zionist group Code Pink.
According to the report, SJP’s national umbrella organization and many of its associated local chapters reacted to the ceasefire by renewing their attacks on Zionism on college campuses. National SJP announced on January 16 its plans for a nationwide “Day of Action” the following week in response to the ceasefire centered on the theme of “GAZA RISES, ZIONISM FALLS.” “Our work has only just begun,” National SJP posted on X on January 19, calling to “eradicate Zionism on our campuses.”
The Anti-Defamation League noted that a coalition of Chicago-based SJP chapters stated on January 15 in response to the cease-fire, “Let this be a stepping stone toward the downfall of Zionism.” The University of Maryland SJP affirmed their “resolve to dismantle Zionism” in a post on January 20. Swarthmore College SJP and JVP similarly wrote in a joint statement on January 18 that “the fight to dismantle Zionism will rage on.” A regional coalition of 20 SJPs across various college campuses in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania declared in a published statement on January 16 that they would “continue to fight for…the end of Zionist [sic] normalization from our campuses.”
According to the report, at a Philadelphia, PA, ceasefire rally on January 25 sponsored by the Philly Palestine Coalition, SJP, Penn Against the Occupation and Healthcare Workers for Palestine, protesters wore Hamas headbands, carried an Abu Obaida flag and displayed a Samidoun-branded banner reading “Long Live October 7th.” Local Samidoun organizer Abu Ali elicited cheers from the crowd when he stated, “All of us should be thanking Hamas, should be thanking [Palestinian] Islamic Jihad, should be thanking the PFLP…This is a huge, huge victory, and it’s all thanks to the Resistance.”
