Research & Analysis

Throughout 2024, the ADL Center on Extremism documented the tactics deployed by extremists and purveyors of hate to promote false narratives, as well as the harmful impact of conspiracy theories, misinformation and disinformation on communities including Jews, immigrants and other marginalized groups. Predicting how extremists may weaponize false narratives requires an understanding of the strategies that allow them to spread most effectively. Here, we highlight three key mis-…

While much of the world welcomed the prospect of a pause in hostilities and the release of hostages following news of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in mid-January, leading voices in the U.S. anti-Zionist movement responded by doubling down on extreme and inflammatory positions and support for violent action. In online statements and at on-the-ground rallies in the days following the deal — which was announced on January 15, 2025, and officially began with a multiphase…

On January 13, 2025, the United States Department of State designated the Terrorgram Collective and three of its foreign leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs), formally including Terrorgram among other international terrorist groups.   Terrorgram is a decentralized network of white supremacist, neo-Nazi and accelerationist groups and individuals connected primarily through the encrypted social networking app Telegram, with the collective goal of promoting stochastic…

As devastating wildfires continue to decimate sections of Los Angeles, California, extremists and conspiracy theorists are spreading familiar falsehoods, blaming the blaze on common scapegoats such as diversity initiatives, Jews and nefarious government “false flags.” Fires that began in the Pacific Palisades area on January 7, 2025, are now part of a broader set of blazes across the city. Officials believe the fires were caused primarily by drought conditions, high winds and the…

The deadly New Year’s attack in New Orleans, Louisiana, left a city reeling and social media awash in hateful lies and conspiracy theories about immigrants, Israel and a government cover-up.   In the early morning of January 1, 2025, 42-year-old Houston, Texas resident Shamsud-Din Jabbar, drove his car into a crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street, killing at least fourteen people and injuring dozens more before he was shot and killed by police. While law enforcement is still…

January 2, 2025, Update: In the month since this article was originally published, at least two more Islamist-related terror incidents have occurred in the United States, including the deadly vehicular attack in New Orleans, Louisiana, on New Year’s Day 2025, which killed 14 people and wounded dozens more. The New Orleans incident was the deadliest Islamist terror attack in the United States since the 2016 shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, which killed 49 people. Islamist…

Anti-Zionist group Samidoun, sanctioned by the U.S. in October 2024 for its role as a “sham charity” operating as an international fundraising arm of the U.S. government-designated terror organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), has long played a role in the anti-Israel movement on U.S. campuses. The group, which the U.S. considers to be a front for the PFLP in countries where it is declared a terrorist organization, has been featured as a “pro…

False and misleading narratives about the upcoming 2024 U.S. presidential election are spreading widely among extremists and purveyors of hate and conspiracy theories. While some of the most common mis- and disinformation narratives circulating today were also prominent during the 2020 election and the 2022 midterms, others are newer — inspired by current events in America and around the world. These narratives are also being deployed using a range of strategies and tactics…

After Israeli military forces killed Hamas leader and October 7 architect Yahya Sinwar in Gaza on October 16, 2024, U.S. anti-Israel activists quickly responded with praise and veneration for the terrorist who masterminded the deaths of approximately 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and the abduction of some 250 people just over one year ago. Student groups, including numerous chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), were among the loudest voices memorializing Sinwar with…

Right-wing extremists have been exploiting the devastation surrounding Hurricane Helene — a storm that has so far claimed the lives of at least 230 people in the southeast U.S. — and now Hurricane Milton, to advance antisemitic or anti-Israel conspiracy theories that federal disaster assistance has been slow or inadequate because they believe the U.S. is sending funds and personnel to Israel instead. Extremist groups have a history of participating in disaster relief efforts to…

On the grim anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 terror massacre in southern Israel, when thousands of terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages, anti-Israel student group demonstrations on U.S. campuses again featured extreme pro-terror messages that glorified the attack and sought to disrupt campus life. Some events were marked by vandalism, intimidation and harassment. On a day when Jewish people around the world were mourning the deadliest day for Jews since…

From Memorial Day through Labor Day 2024, the ADL Center on Extremism (COE) tracked a sustained, high level of white supremacist activity that included paramilitary-style marches, demonstrations, “fight nights,” propaganda drives, and disruption of public forums across the country. COE documented 64 white supremacist events across 25 states between May 27 and September 2, 2024. A majority of these events were small, with just five to 12 participants, but there were also larger…

As the “People’s Conference for Palestine” got underway in Detroit, MI on May 24, the packed audience cheered as Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) organizer and conference MC Mohammed Nabulsi opened by offering “salutations to our people in Palestine and to our noble, steadfast Resistance.” Nabulsi garnered further enthusiastic applause when he urged “eternal glory to our martyrs” and called to “liberate every inch of Palestine, from the Jordan…

Nakba Day commemorations across the United States, already charged events, were compounded this year by a sharp rise in anti-Israel activity tied to the Israel-Hamas war that was triggered by the October 7 mass terror attacks. Nakba Day (“catastrophe” in Arabic) is commemorated annually on May 15 by Palestinians and their supporters worldwide to mourn the events related to the creation of the State of Israel, including its impact on Palestinians, and to advocate for the…

Anti-Zionist student groups on more than 100 U.S. college and university campuses have established “encampments” in recent days to ostensibly protest Israel’s actions in Gaza and their academic institutions’ alleged “complicity” in those actions. College campuses have been the site of many tense anti-Israel protests and antisemitic incidents since the start of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war that began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terrorist attack. These…

Preliminary research by the ADL Center on Extremism (COE) shows Genesse Moreno, who opened fire at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, on February 11, 2024, before being killed by off-duty officers, expressed support for a range of antisemitic, anti-Zionist and extremist beliefs and praised U.S.-designated terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah. Moreno’s mother reportedly attended the church, but it is unclear why Moreno targeted Lakewood in the attack that…

The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism (FCAS), a non-profit organization founded by Robert Kraft, aired multiple advertisements during the Super Bowl on February 11, 2024, urging people to #StandUpToJewishHate. Notably, a new ad premiered during the game, featuring Dr. Clarence B. Jones, former advisor to and speech writer for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Although online reactions to the campaign were largely positive, many users on X (formerly Twitter) were quick to criticize the…

Since the Hamas-led terror massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaigns directly targeting “Zionist” institutions, businesses or individuals, have persisted in response to Israel’s operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. BDS is a component of a long history of campaigns and efforts to delegitimize and isolate Israel. In recent years, this has explicitly focused on the rejection, isolation and marginalization of&nbsp…