A growing wave of campus radicalization is drawing renewed scrutiny after a new Anti-Defamation League report found that American anti-Israel activists are amplifying official propaganda from Hamas and other designated terrorist groups. The findings raise alarms about how extremist messaging is spreading through mainstream platforms under the guise of campus protest.
According to the ADL’s Center on Extremism, “Protestors and activists are not merely praising the activity of terror groups; they are actively sharing their official propaganda, disseminating communiqués, videos, and other materials directly onto mainstream platforms.” The study adds that activists sharing such content “are aware of its violent nature and origins yet exhibit no concern about pushing materials from groups responsible for killing scores of civilians.”
Researchers tracked the trend across Telegram, X, and Instagram following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel. They warned that this activity is accelerating the “normalization of rhetoric and messaging from terror organizations that overtly encourage acts of violence against Israel and Jewish people.” The report ties that trend to record anti-Semitic incidents nationwide and an “unprecedentedly high threat landscape” for American Jews.
The study cites several recent campus incidents. At Columbia University, protesters stormed a classroom and distributed flyers glorifying Hamas. One flyer warned, “THE ENEMY WILL NOT SEE TOMORROW.” At Northwestern University, vandals scrawled “Death to Israel” and Hamas symbols on a building housing the school’s Holocaust center during Passover. At George Mason University, a Students for Justice in Palestine chapter released a recruitment video praising former Hamas commander Mohammed Deif.
The ADL urged social media companies to enforce bans on terrorist content and called on Congress to act. “This propaganda spread functions to normalize the eliminationist goals and terrorist tactics espoused by groups like Hamas,” the study states, warning that campus radicalization now blurs “the line between legitimate political protest and explicit endorsement of terrorism and antisemitic violence.”
