New strategy needed to combat organized anti-Israel violence on US soil

For decades, “Globalize the Intifada” chants have rung throughout Europe and the Middle East, a blatant and unmistakable call for violence and terrorism against Israelis and Jews. But over the past two years, those chants have only intensified and multiplied, now making their way west to our United States. What started with campus protests has now turned to vigilante violence.

This week in Boulder, Colorado, a man yelling “free Palestine” threw Molotov cocktails at peaceful protestors hosting an event to bring home the Israeli hostages, setting them ablaze. Two young staff members of the Israeli Embassy were murdered outside the Jewish museum, after which the shooter said, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza.” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s home was set on fire with his family inside because of “what [Shapiro] wants to do to the Palestinian people,” given that he’s Jewish. 

These are not isolated incidents. They are all organized and linked to one group: Hamas. The same terrorist ideology behind these attacks was on display on college campuses over the past two years in the form of violent anti-Israel and anti-Semitic encampments. Let’s be clear, these are not the protests of the 1960s. Contrary to what the media may have reported, these were not student-driven “protests” at all. New lawsuits, filed by my organization, expose how the violent takeover of Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall and the weeks-long encampments at UCLA were part of an organized, choreographed effort by career professionals to carry out Hamas’ plans of violence, terror, and the eradication of Jews and Israelis. 

ANTISEMITIC VIOLENCE ERUPTS IN AMERICA AS SOME INVOKE INTIFADA AND TARGET JEWS

At UCLA, a rabbi, a doctor, and a law student sued National Students for Justice in Palestine and other anti-Zionist groups over encampments that were manned with a sword and “human phalanxes.” Designated teams of security personnel surrounded the area armed with wooden planks, makeshift shields, pepper spray and tasers. Members of the groups involved in the lawsuit coordinated via social media and Google Docs ways in which to plan, fund, execute, and reinforce the encampment. And just a few days after the first encampment was dispersed by police, more than 40 protestors were found with metal pipes, bolt cutters, chains and padlocks, and manuals for “occupying” campus buildings.

At Columbia University, a highly coordinated mob used violent, masked tactics reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan to storm the campus’ Hamilton Hall. Armed with rope, zip ties, and crow bars, the masked invaders smashed their way through the doors and windows, and when they came across two people in their way – janitors, neither of whom were Jewish – they terrorized them, battered them, and mocked them. These two janitors sued the group behind the occupation, the People’s Forum, for the assault, during which the assailants berated the janitors as “Jew lovers” for their employment.

These aren’t doe-eyed kids with signs calling for a more loving and peaceful world. These protestors are part of an expansive terrorist network taking advantage of those same doe-eyed students, using them to stoke violence and create chaos. This is an attempt to legitimize the terrorization of an entire group of people. This is the use of guerrilla warfare tactics against students and faculty in an environment that is supposed to be safe. 

What we are dealing with now is a highly organized, generously-funded, professionally managed campaign that has all the attributes of a military engagement – from detailed planning to careful mapping to precise logistical elements.

This new realization requires a shift in strategy in how we fight back against these attacks. Up until now, most cases against universities were based on a single strategy: to hold taxpayer-funded colleges accountable for the hate that they allowed to become pervasive at their institutions. The goal of this strategy is two-fold. First, colleges should not be permitted to use taxpayer money to fund discrimination, especially when that discrimination prevents students from attending classes. Second, colleges should be incentivized to deal appropriately with the problems on their own campuses, so that neither the government nor lawyers have to handle them one-by-one. These previous cases that held universities accountable for their deliberate indifference to anti-Semitism have worked when they have forced these schools to admit to and confront the rampant anti-Semitism on their campuses. 

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I developed this strategy during my time as the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Education twenty years ago. It underlies the ongoing congressional investigations and enforcement activities by the Office for Civil Rights, and it’s similar to the strategy used by the Trump Task Force on Anti-Semitism to root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools.

But a lot can change in twenty years, and this is no longer enough. 

To address this current reality, it is necessary to adopt new strategies to deal with it. We must hold perpetrators accountable for their criminal actions on campus, including both criminal prosecution and civil litigation. But that alone won’t be enough. We must also disrupt the perpetrators’ support and resources that are helping them to carry out these calculated, coordinated campaigns. In other words, we were previously addressing the symptoms of anti-Semitism by holding universities accountable. Now, we’re also getting to the root of the problem by addressing those who fund, support, plan, and enable the anti-Semitic activity. Like the Muslim Brotherhood, which the Colorado attacker supported; the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who praised the October 7th attacks; and Students for Justice in Palestine, who continually promote violence on campus and incite “the student intifada.”

Our protests have changed, just as our reality has. We must be ready to change with it.

Kenneth L. Marcus’ organization is representing the Columbia janitors and members of the UCLA Jewish community in both lawsuits.