PIs: Gunther Jikeli and Daniel Miehling, Research Analysts: Shreya Yogaraj Gajbhiye, Lucas Hibner, Prajwal Kaushal, and Anirudh Suresh Iyer.

Beyond Protest: How Anti-Israel Groups Amplify Pro-Hamas Narratives on U.S. Campuses

Anti-Zionist campus groups in the United States were active well before the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023, and the ensuing war in Gaza. However, they have increasingly moved to the center of public debate over the boundaries between pro-Palestinian activism, support for Hamas, and antisemitism.

Drawing on data from the AMCHA Initiative on antisemitic incidents and anti-Israel groups on U.S. campuses, along with a comprehensive collection of 76,000 Instagram posts from these groups, we analyze common narrative themes, campaign strategies, and networks. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods—including topic modeling, word heatmaps, network analysis, and discourse analysis—we provide a detailed examination of their activities.

Our preliminary analysis shows:

• While most anti-Israel groups are student-run, faculty groups and off-campus organizations also play influential roles (see Images 1, 6, and 7).
• Antisemitic incidents rise during the semester. The highest monthly number of antisemitic incidents occurred in October 2023, directly following 10/7, with another peak in November 2023. Other spikes were observed during the Gaza war in May 2021 and the campus encampment wave in April and May 2024 (see Image 2).
• Antisemitic incidents correlate with the number of anti-Israel groups active on campuses (see Image 3).
• Most anti-Israel campus groups are active on Instagram, using it as a primary tool for outreach, mobilization, and collaboration. Their online activity increased significantly just days after 10/ 7 and peaked during the spring 2024 encampments (see Image 4).
• Radicalized rhetoric invoking “resistance” and “martyrdom,” along with accusations of genocide against Israel, was already present before 10/ 7 but became far more widespread afterward (see Image 5).
• Instagram’s collaboration features enable anti-Israel groups to amplify their reach through shared content. Analysis shows that the most important collaborators are Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and their local chapters, followed by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), a non-campus-based group (see Image 6). Both organizations have disseminated radical rhetoric that closely mirrors Hamas propaganda. PYM reportedly has ties to the U.S.-designated terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The non-campus group “DISSENTERS,” a group from the radical political left, and “Jewish Voice for Peace at the University of Michigan” are also among the top 10 collaborators of anti-Israel groups active on U.S. campuses.
• A closer look at the National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) reveals strong cooperation not only with local chapters but also with PYM and radical leftist groups such as DISSENTERS and The People’s Forum (see Image 7).

These early findings highlight the urgent need to understand and confront rising antisemitism and radicalization on U.S. campuses. Stay tuned—our preliminary report with in-depth insights will be released in early June.

This research benefited from data collection resources provided by the Bright Initiative powered by Bright Data, as well as data from the AMCHA Initiative, which has been documenting antisemitic incidents and anti-Israel groups on U.S. campuses since 2015. Computational resources were provided by Jetstream2 at Indiana University through allocation HUM200003 from the Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support (ACCESS) program, supported by National Science Foundation grants #2138259, #2138286, #2138307, #2137603, and #2138296.