Marching Toward Violence: Four Overlapping Circles

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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Four Overlapping Circles of Pro-Terrorism Groups

The internal makeup, complimentary strategies, and interconnected operations of the current pro-terrorism, anti-Israel movement are best described as four overlapping, concentric circles.

The decreasing sizes of the circles reflects a smaller population within the movement that is increasingly willing to take more aggressive actions and accept the likely reputational costs that reduce popularity and political access and to risk suffering bodily harm, lawsuits, or prosecution.

Circle 1: Political Warfare. The outermost circle consists of the organizers and endorsers who are solely or almost solely focused on avoiding risks while conducting the delicate and pragmatic assembling and widening of the protest movement. These groups are also the ones most likely to transfer the movement’s power into exercisable political capital.

This category of groups is the most cautious and seemingly moderate. They limit their public support for terrorism and criminality to carefully constructed statements that avoid those topics altogether or express support only indirectly. They hope the general public will be deceived into seeing them as moderate, while their allies will accurately interpret their words as support for Hamas. They typically limit their comments to expressing solidarity with Palestinians, advocating for a ceasefire that ends Israel’s targeting of terrorists, and opposing genocide.

A similar straddling of the line occurs when the groups support the protests without any qualification, which implies endorsing protesters’ illegal behavior because the groups don’t utter a word to discourage it. The groups emphasize that the demonstrations are “peaceful” and “nonviolent” so that an uninformed reader assumes the protesters’ behavior is unobjectionable. Only a laser-focused observer would notice the telling absence of the word “legal.”

Those depictions are paired with overdramatic rhetoric that inspires imagery of brutal police officers who are immorally suppressing admirable demonstrators. The intended effect is to trigger mental associations between today’s campus protests and the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, which strengthens the perceived righteousness of the current movement, helps to generate a backlash against law enforcement that may deter police action, and increases the prospect of police and prosecutors dropping charges and releasing any detained protesters. It also helps further integrate anti-police movements into the pro-Hamas movement.

The main strategy of the outer circle is to assemble a coalition of diverse sub-coalitions and individual civil society groups that are involved in as many different issues as possible, including completely unrelated issues. The maneuvering achieves five objectives:

• Broadening and maximizing the movement’s appeal by integrating as many causes as possible into a generic anti-Israel umbrella while preserving pro-Hamas leaders’ ability to steer the movement toward more specific, narrower, and obfuscated objectives like advocating for policies and actions that benefit terrorists and weaken Israel.
• Building the movement’s legitimacy and positioning it and its leaders as mainstream or even centrist forces by increasing the numbers of its members and endorsers. A long list of credible-sounding backers helps to pre-empt characterizations of the movement and its leadership as fringe, extremist, or a passing trend.
• Diluting the movement’s outward-facing appearance so that the most relevant players’ uniform support for terrorism and extremism is not immediately apparent.
• Avoiding the alienation of potential supporters who would object to the organizing groups’ extremist sympathies while strengthening the movement’s ability to recruit and instruct masses of well-intentioned protesters and advocates who can be motivated by simplistic messaging about replacing genocide, war, and oppression of minorities with ceasefires, peace, and Palestinian national liberation.
• Attaining the ability to saturate media coverage, social media activity, and national political discourse through sheer volume of output. Coordinated messaging by dozens or hundreds of entities enables the movement to fill the public’s limited bandwidth for daily news and controversial issues, drowning out competing messages and news that reflects poorly upon the groups or their cause. Achieving saturation also equips the movement with a force-multiplying ability to amplify beneficial stories, characterize new developments as soon as they occur, negatively brand opponents, and influence the media’s decisions about what warrants coverage based on audience interest.

Circle 2: Supporters. The second circle glorifies, encourages, and facilitates illegal acts of protest of varying severity, depending upon the moral standards and risk tolerances of each group. The groups in this circle undertake one or more of the following actions:

• Providing moral and political support for law-breaking acts of protest (often called “direct actions”), as opposed to the first circle’s publishing of endorsements that evade the question of criminality by talking only about the protests overall. Responses taken by schools and law enforcement are reflexively and loudly condemned and villainized.
• Giving more direct assistance to criminal protests by amplifying the results of “direct actions,” advertising scheduled actions so that supporters can participate or donate to them, and urging supporters to plan future actions.

• Serving as the fiscal sponsor of a group in the anti-Israel protest movement. A fiscal sponsor provides administrative and management services to another nonprofit, allowing for donations (frequently tax deductible as charitable contributions) to be directed to the sponsored project. For example, the Alliance for Global Justice fiscally sponsors the Samidoun (Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network). In this classification, the fiscal sponsor is listed as a supporter even when the organizations they sponsor are engaged in militant activities.

• Providing legal support to protesters who are arrested and/or face consequences for their crimes.
• Creating, distributing, and/or promoting activism guides and “toolkits” that give advice and outside resources for committing illegal acts of protest and evading law enforcement and prosecution. The guides sometimes direct readers to read articles on highly militant websites to learn tips for legal or more benign illegal protest-related activities. The authors of the guide clearly made a decision to unnecessarily expose readers to militant websites that offer them repositories of information on committing more egregious crimes and sometimes even violence, such as fighting with police and others, property destruction, rioting and guerilla-style tactics.

There does not seem to be any compelling reason for the groups to choose these militant websites for the protest-related information provided. It seems likely that the organizations’ chose these militant websites to facilitate more extreme protest activities that the organizations while avoiding any direct association with or responsibility for criminal, destructive and violent actions.

Some of these groups do not endorse criminal protests but provide legal assistance to extremists involved in the movement. Groups in this category include the National Lawyers Guild,[1] Center for Constitutional Rights,[2] Muslim Legal Fund of America,[3] Palestine Legal, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)[4]—all of which have expressed support for terrorism. The American Civil Liberties Union[5] is also frequently referenced as a resource for help.

The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights[6] (USCPR), a coalition of over 300 groups, urged[7] supporters to participate in an anarchist group called A15 Action’s international wave of disruptions intended to cause economic damage on April 15, 2024. Actions included obstructing highways, blocking access to ports, causing flight delays by blocking airport entrances, and preventing access to corporate buildings involved with the Israeli military.[8] A15 Action continues[9] to advocate for violent resistance to law enforcement and other actions.

USCPR has also created and distributed several guides that incite illegal acts of protest and point readers to websites that assist more aggressive criminal actions. For example, its “Stop Gaza Genocide” toolkit[10] glorifies disrupting targets’ transportation and “business as usual” and links to guides that help protesters avoid identification. Its “Shut It Down Toolkit” links to pages about implementing disruptive protests like occupations (taking over buildings) and human blockades. Readers are directed toward groups that assist more serious criminality like Beautiful Trouble, Vision Change Win, Ruckus Society,[11] and Mutant Legal.

Another USCPR-associated guide is the “Divest in Militarism, Invest in Life”[12] toolkit from Dissenters—with logos signifying USCPR and various other groups’ involvement in its creation—which targets corporate and weapons manufacturing sites. The guide then links to another Dissenters guide titled “Organizing a Direct Action At Weapons Manufacturing Sites,”[13] which advocates for blocking access to buildings used by defense contractors.

The executive director of USCPR, Ahmad Abuznaid, also co-founded Dream Defenders,[14] which created a “Black and Palestinian Solidarity Organizing Toolkit”[15] in partnership with the Movement for Black Lives,[16] BlackOUT Collective,^[17] Black for Palestine,[18] and Dissenters. The bottom of page 13 contains a glorifying image of a Hamas paraglider associated with the October 7 attacks with the Dream Defenders logo on it and the words “Black Liberation for Palestinian Freedom” above it.

The guide provides links for three guides from the anarchism-associated Ruckus Society[19] that endorse conducting illegal “direct actions,” including property destruction, evading law enforcement, using false IDs, occupations of buildings and land, seizing assets, revealing the identities of government agents, blockades, interfering with governmental or industrial operations, and economic shutdowns.

Another involved entity is the China-linked[20] Shut It Down for Palestine[21] coalition, whose convenors are SJP, Palestinian Youth Movement,[22] the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition,[23] People’s Forum,[24] International Peoples’ Assembly, Al-Awda NY, and the Palestinian American Community Center. also has a huge list of organizational endorsers.

The ANSWER gave examples[25] of direct actions the coalition hopes to inspire:

Already protesters have shut down highways, train stations, and bridges in the United States; activists have targeted Israeli weapons manufacturers; Belgian dock workers’ unions have refused to handle weapons transports to Israel; Bolivia has cut diplomatic ties with Israel while Jordan, Chile, and Colombia have recalled their Israeli ambassadors. Be part of the change, take action, and make your voice heard as the global struggle for Palestine enters a new phase.

Others in this circle include:

• The Gaza is Palestine campaign, led by Adalah Justice Project[26] and MPower Change, provides resources[27] for avoiding being identified at a protest, as well as other organizations’ guides with disturbing material and a list[28] of educational materials that include advocacy for terrorist groups created by the Palestinian Youth Movement.[29]
• The Palestinian American Community Center, based in New Jersey but active nationwide, has a Palestine Advocacy Action Guide[30] that links to a “Direct Action Guide”[31] on the pro-anarchism website of CrimethInc. The website offers readers a wide selection of guides to committing illegal protest activity, from civil disobedience to defeating law enforcement measures to rioting and arson.
• The Palestinian Feminist Collective has an “All-Out for Palestine – Digital Action Toolkit”[32] with a list of recommended resources that includes a significant number of pro-terrorism materials. Page 23 advises supporters to stick to the talking point that “resistance is justified when people are occupied” and not to discuss the merits of specific methods of resistance. It also links to other activism guides of concern including the “Black and Palestinian Solidarity Organizing Toolkit” created by Dream Defenders.
• Within Our Lifetime (WOL) has a living resource—“The Crackdown on Palestine: Unveiling NYPD’s Repression Tactics”[33]—which is discussed in the section on the fourth circle because of its higher level of extremism.

Circle 3: Inciters. The third circle consists of groups and activists who hope to significantly escalate the severity of criminal protests on campuses and elsewhere. Proposed actions include causing greater property damage, forcibly seizing property, and resisting law enforcement, including through violence.

The activists and chapters belonging to SJP, the most important player in the protest movement, are increasingly moving into this circle.

For example, the UCLA chapter held[34] a “Dealing with Cops” workshop in the UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment ahead of an expected crackdown by police. The session included a “self-defense training”[35] in preparation for the arrival of law enforcement.

Another group in this circle is the People’s Forum,[36] a pro-terrorism China-linked group that gathered over 100 protestors into its Manhattan office and directly incited[37] them to riot at Columbia University only hours later.

Groups also sometimes make frantic calls for supporters to go to campuses to protect the encampments from police crackdowns. Such calls are obvious references to physically resisting law enforcement. The People’s Forum, for example, mobilized[38] supporters to go to CUNY to “ensure that student protestors can hold their ground” against police. Pan-African Community Action pushed[39] its supporters to go to George Washington University to “protect these students” after police threatened to dismantle the school’s encampment.

Circle 4: Domestic Terrorism. The smallest but most militant and dangerous element of the movement is openly urging, planning, and carrying out violence that clearly falls into the category of domestic terrorism.

The unifying theme within this circle is that the movement has become so powerful that it must implement a wider campaign of destruction aimed at imposing its will, instead of trying to produce voluntary change through persuasion and political pressure. The objective is to be achieved by “dismantling” the “infrastructure” involved in the U.S.-Israeli alliance and anything else perpetrators view as sustaining “Zionism,” especially entities related to military and law enforcement cooperation.

The first formal announcement of a nationwide domestic terrorism campaign was published by unnamed protesters who seized Chicago University’s Institute of Politics.[40] The building was renamed in honor of a terrorist and their statement, titled “Bring the Intifada Home”[41] and Statement of Principles[42] were posted and distributed on social media by well-connected anti-Israel extremist accounts. The documents explicitly stated their intentions to violently attack sites and persons they see as benefiting from genocide, profiting from war and associated with the government and law enforcement.

Perhaps the most vivid illustrations of the anti-Israel extremist movement’s maturation into a pro-terrorism insurgency is a disturbing photo posted by Houston for Palestinian Liberation in June. It shows a protester simulating the bloody beheading of President Biden by a Hamas member.[43] The co-authors of the Instagram post were the Houston chapter of Healthcare Workers for Palestine and the Houston chapter of Al-Awda.

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In the next installment, the anti-Israel movement had formed a strategic alliance with anti-police bigots and other extremists.

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[1] InfluenceWatch, “National Lawyers Guild,” December 15, 2023, https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/national-lawyers-guild/.

[2] InfluenceWatch, “Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR),” March 19, 2024, https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/center-for-constitutional-rights/.

[3] InfluenceWatch, “Muslim Legal Fund of America,” April 9, 2024, https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/muslim-legal-fund-of-america/.

[4] InfluenceWatch, “Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR),” June 7, 2024, https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/council-on-american-islamic-relations-cair/.

[5] InfluenceWatch, “American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU),” August 13, 2024, https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/american-civil-liberties-union-aclu/.

[6] InfluenceWatch, “United States Campaign for Palestinian Rights,” https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/united-states-campaign-for-palestinian-rights/.

[7] Ahmad Abuznaid, “Stop Arming Israel: 5 Ways to Take Action for Tax Day,” US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, April 5, 2024, https://uscpr.org/stop-arming-israel-5-ways-to-take-action-for-tax-day/.

[8] a15actions and stopcopcity, “Protesters Carried out Economic Blockades in over 50 Cities Across the World,” Instagram, April 15, 2024, https://www.instagram .com/p/C5zcE_Atbrd/.

[9] A15 Economic Blockade, “Bring the War Home,” Facebook, May 6, 2024, https://www.facebook .com/photo/?fbid=122125534910253250&set=pcb.122125534976253250.

[10] US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, “Stop Gaza Genocide Action Toolkit,” Google Docs, 2024, https://docs .google.com/document/d/1hpHkM9KlH5Yn3xq7nk9xfPtIkWZDblWnCKD8xt5DBx0/edit#heading=h.c7jue75eincx.

[11] InfluenceWatch, “Ruckus Society,” November 29, 2023, https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/ruckus-society/.

[12] Dissenters, “Week of Action Toolkit – Divest in Militarism, Invest in Life,” Google Docs, accessed September 25, 2024, https://docs .google.com/document/d/1lGv8CzPEuWEvYG_j8Gmf3-se0p9uCo3kwa6v3wtUNbs/edit.

[13] Dissenters, “Organizing a Direct Action at Weapons Manufacturing Sites,” Google Docs, accessed September 25, 2024, https://docs .google.com/document/d/18ryriy6Me4A7I56uu1AaOlamOC0UiTo7myO8ErwuAMI/edit.

[14] InfluenceWatch, “Dream Defenders,” December 9, 2022, https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/dream-defenders/.

[15] USCPR, “Black Palestinian Solidarity Organizing Toolkit.Pdf,” Google Drive, accessed September 25, 2024, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KYcgfszZIkWTK2jn8L1uRq8FQZH0g1_N/view.

[16] InfluenceWatch, “Movement for Black Lives,” June 7, 2023, https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/movement-for-black-lives/.

[17] InfluenceWatch, “Blackout Collective.”

[18] InfluenceWatch, “Black for Palestine,” https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/black-for-palestine/.

[19] InfluenceWatch, “Ruckus Society.”

[20] Network Contagion Research Institute, “Contagious Disruption,” NCRI, accessed September 25, 2024, https://networkcontagion.us/wp-content/uploads/SID4P-Report_May-2024.pdf.

[21] Shut It Down for Palestine, “About Shut It Down for Palestine,” accessed September 25, 2024, https://www.shutitdown4palestine.org/about.

[22] InfluenceWatch, “Palestinian Youth Movement USA,” April 14, 2020, https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/palestinian-youth-movement-usa/.

[23] InfluenceWatch, “Answer Coalition,” October 5, 2022, https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/answer-coalition/.

[24] InfluenceWatch, “The People’s Forum,” June 7, 2024, https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/the-peoples-forum/.

[25] Answer Coalition, “November 9: Global Shutdown for Palestine!,” accessed September 25, 2024, https://www.answercoalition.org/nov_9_palestine.

[26] InfluenceWatch, “Adalah Justice Project,” June 24, 2024, https://www.influencewatch.org/organization/adalah-justice-project/.

[27] Gaza Is Palestine, “Resources,” accessed September 25, 2024, https://www.gazaispalestine.com/resources.

[28] Palestine Liberation, “All the Walls Will Fall: 2023 Palestine Liberation Resource List,” Google Docs, 2023, https://docs .google.com/document/d/1ol9GjNwTo99mPzXnRgL0ZLvs-fw0vc6MEPBJhuJHtbo/edit.

[29] InfluenceWatch, “Palestinian Youth Movement USA,” April 14, 2020, https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/palestinian-youth-movement-usa/.

[30] Palestinian American Community Center, “Palestine Advocacy Action Guide,” Google Docs, accessed September 25, 2024, https://docs .google.com/document/d/1rx2cUeCiIfwwScfUiSzT53KKQqtGftQmoM5TRzhHa_4/edit.

[31] CrimethInc, “A Step-by-Step Guide to Direct Action,” CrimethInc, March 14, 2017, https://crimethinc.com/2017/03/14/direct-action-guide.

[32] Palestinian Feminist Collective, “All Out for Palestine – Digital Action Toolkit,” Palestinian Feminist Collective, November 27, 2023, https://palestinianfeministcollective.org/all-out-for-palestine/.

[33] Within Our Lifetime, “The Crackdown on Palestine: Unveiling NYPD’s Repression Tactics,” April 6, 2024, https://wolpalestine.com/resistrepression/.

[34] Ronny Reyes, “UCLA Anti-Israel Protesters Took Hand-to-Hand Combat Classes Ahead of Bloody Clash,” New York Post, May 1, 2024, https://nypost.com/2024/05/01/us-news/ucla-anti-israel-protesters-took-hand-to-hand-classes-ahead-of-bloody-clash/.

[35] Cam Higby, (@camhigby),“X.Com,” X, April 30, 2024, 10:09 PM, https://x.com/camhigby/status/1785491645787787270.

[36] InfluenceWatch, “The People’s Forum,” June 7, 2024, https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/the-peoples-forum/.

[37] Joseph Simonson, “Anti-Israel Group Encouraged Columbia Protesters to Re-Create ‘the Summer of 2020’ Hours before Students Stormed a Building,” Washington Free Beacon, May 1, 2024, https://freebeacon.com/campus/anti-israel-group-encouraged-columbia-protesters-to-recreate-the-summer-of-2020-hours-before-students-stormed-a-building/.

[38] The People’s Forum (@PeoplesForumNYC) “X.Com,” X, April 25, 2024, 3:33 PM, https://x.com/PeoplesForumNYC/status/1783580220253171835.

[39] PACADMV, “‘urgent: MPD Is Threatening to Break up the Encampment This Evening and Is Not Clearing Out Media and Reporters,’” Instagram, April 25, 2024, https://www.instagram .com/p/C6MFIw3uXkb/?img_index=1.

[40] Ryan Mauro, “Chicago Campus Protesters Announce Terror Campaign against the U.S.,” Capital Research Center, May 23, 2024, https://capitalresearch.org/article/chicago-campus-protestors-announce-terror-campain-against-the-us/.

[41] “Bring the Intifada Home,” April 2024. https://capitalresearch.org/app/uploads/Bring-the-Intifada-Home.jpg.

[42] “Statement of Principles from the Liberated Casbah of Basel Al-Araj,” April 2024. https://capitalresearch.org/app/uploads/Statement-of-Principles.jpg.

[43] Ryan Mauro, “A Snapshot of Hate: Pro-Hamas Group Protesting ‘Killer Kamala’ Also Posted Pic Simulating Biden Beheading,” Capital Research Center, August 1, 2024, https://capitalresearch.org/article/a-snapshot-of-hate-pro-hamas-group-protesting-killer-kamala-also-posted-pic-simulating-biden-beheading/.

Source: https://capitalresearch.org/article/marching-toward-violence-part-3/