Campus activism surrounding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict often presents a skewed narrative, painting Israel as the sole aggressor and magnifying its flaws beyond those of any other nation. While all countries have their shortcomings and deserve scrutiny, Israel stands out as a unique target of widespread university divestment campaigns, suggesting a disproportionate focus on its actions and policies. Through their rhetoric and demands, anti-Israel divestment campaigns can feed into the…
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September 5, 2024 Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO Meta 1 Hacker Way Menlo Park, CA 94025 Dear Mr. Zuckerberg, We write to you as leaders of seven of the largest Jewish Diaspora communities representing over 90% of Jews globally outside of Israel. As Jews, our communities continue to feel the impact of the brutal Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, with its death toll of over 1200 Israelis, over 4000 wounded, and over 250 taken hostage, and over a hundred still held captive in Gaza. Our Jewish…
Dear Mr. Zuckerberg, We write to you as leaders of seven of the largest Jewish Diaspora communities representing over 90% of Jews globally outside of Israel. As Jews, our communities continue to feel the impact of the brutal Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, with its death toll of over 1200 Israelis, over 4000 wounded, and over 250 taken hostage, and over a hundred still held captive in Gaza. Our Jewish communities continue to bear the brunt of dramatic increases of…
There are many reasons why it’s a bad idea for university endowments to divest from Israel. Divestment serves to delegitimize Israel and puts the onus for solving the longstanding Palestinian-Israeli conflict on only one side. It could also likely lead to economic ramifications, such as reduced alumni giving and lower returns, as well as open up the potential for heavier taxation of endowment income. Beyond all of these arguments, universities that decide to divest…
Even as we pause and mourn those we have lost, we cannot rest. Read more.
As encampment protests riled college campuses throughout the Spring 2024 semester, some universities agreed to formally consider protestors’ demands that their endowments divest from companies with business interests in Israel. It is the latest iteration of the years-long Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign that seeks to isolate Israel economically. Brown University reached an agreement for student protestors to take down their encampment and refrain from…
As students start returning to campuses with expected continuation of anti-Israel protests, JLens unpacks the demands and consequences of divestment campaigns.
An 18-year-old suspect who livestreamed himself stabbing multiple people near a mosque in the Turkish city of Eskişehir on August 12, 2024, was fueled by the extremist belief in accelerationism and motivated by past mass killers including white supremacists, an analysis by the ADL Center on Extremism has shown. Wearing a skull mask and a tactical vest with a sonnenrad patch — both common symbols utilized by white supremacists and accelerationists — and armed with…
JLens ran three successful proxy season campaigns with ADL that aimed to combat anti-Israel shareholder proposals and support efforts to protect kids online.
Riots across the United Kingdom involving far-right elements broke out after the murder of three young girls at a dance class in the Southport knife attack was falsely attributed to a recently arrived Muslim migrant. It is predictable but still problematic to see Israel scapegoated as the cause of the riots raging across the United Kingdom involving far-right elements. This is happening across social media. The claims have no basis and contribute to the increasing anxiety among the Jews in the…
Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed on July 31, 2024 in Tehran, led the so-called politburo of Hamas, a US-designated Islamist terror organization dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Hamas’ founding covenant issued in 1988, which echoes the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion charging Jews with an international conspiracy to gain control of the world, is…
Hillel International, the premier Jewish on-campus organization that supports Jewish life at hundreds of colleges across the United States and abroad, has been one of the most frequent targets of anti-Israel activists and other antisemites in recent months, totaling more than a hundred incidents in the U.S. since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Jewish students and Hillel staff members have received threatening emails and phone calls; Hillel buildings have been vandalized and…
July 30, 2024 H.E. Mr. Volker Türk United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Palais Wilson 52 rue des Pâquis CH-1201 Geneva, Switzerland veronica.birga@un.org Dear High Commissioner Türk, We, the undersigned, representing the largest Jewish communities outside of Israel, write to you today regarding United Nations Special…
Antisemites across the political spectrum gathered in Somerset, KY on June 30, 2024 for a “JP” (Jewish Problem) Conference that promoted anti-Jewish hate.
Introduction Anti-Zionist group Samidoun (derived from the Arabic word for “steadfast”) is a self-described solidarity network for Palestinian inmates in Israeli prisons. In October 2024, the U.S. and Canadian governments sanctioned Samidoun as a "sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for The Popular Front for The Liberation of Palestine" (PFLP), a designated terror group in the U.S., Canada, the European Union, Israel, and Japan. On October 15, 2024, the U.S…
An analysis by the ADL Center on Extremism identified five influencers on X whose engagement spiked in the days and weeks after Hamas’s attack on Israel, with content that included virulent anti-Zionism alongside antisemitic tropes, disinformation and other forms of hateful or harmful rhetoric. In the six months following October 7, 2023, the combined audience engagement on X for these five influencers—Jackson Hinkle, Lucas Gage, Jake Shields, Sam Parker and CensoredMen&mdash…
Across the country in recent months, many anti-Israel activists have been engaged in strategic “escalation” to further their cause. These actions have included increasingly aggressive and targeted protests, property destruction and defacement, physical takeovers of institutions deemed to be “complicit” in alleged Israeli military actions, and even multiple cases of ideologically motivated arson attacks. For the most part, the tactics themselves — such as…
While the anti-Israel encampments have largely been dismantled, their architects appear determined to capitalize on what they see as their most successful organizing tactic in a decade. “Summer school” is now in session, led locally and nationally by pro-Palestinian individuals and groups. These ”schools” — currently scheduled to run from June through August — are designed to educate and train student and community activists. Some are only open to…
Since October 7, extremists and conspiracy theorists have promoted mis- and disinformation narratives about the reality of Hamas’s unprecedented, multi-pronged attack on Israel, attempting to deny or minimize the tragedy and shift the blame towards victims, a majority of whom were innocent civilians. These misleading or false claims — many of which have proliferated on mainstream social media platforms — manipulate and distort the facts of the mass assault, invalidate the…
Extremists and online trolls are using Suno, an increasingly influential Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) music creation tool, to make songs promoting hate speech, racist stereotypes, calls for violence and extremist rhetoric. The tool, created by Suno AI, became popular in 2023 after the company announced a partnership with Microsoft. Today, many users employ the tool for innocuous purposes. However, the ADL Center on Extremism has discovered a vast library of disturbing songs…