"Time to Escalate": Anti-Israel Activists Intensify Protests with Violent, Direct Actions

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 vandalism or protests at individuals’ homes — are not new. Private corporations including weapons manufacturers as well as other organizations with alleged ties to Israel have been targeted by vandals intent on disrupting operations for years before October 7. Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel, U.S. government buildings and lawmakers’ offices have been vandalized and prominent elected representatives, governors, and presidential cabinet members have also faced protests outside their homes.

However, the scope and scale of these tactics have shifted and expanded in recent months. Particularly notable has been the trend on college campuses, where some anti-Israel student activists escalated from tent encampments on lawns and other spaces to violently seizing and blockading buildings.

One action that gained widespread attention and sparked similar escalations at other schools was the takeover of a building at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt from April 22–30. The student protesters barricaded themselves inside Siemens Hall and caused significant damage, including breaking into the university president’s office and spray-painting messages on the walls.

An anti-Israel protester locks the door with a bike lock during the Hamilton Hall takeover at Columbia University in New York, NY on April 30, 2024. (source: Instagram)

In another high-profile incident, on April 30, protesters at Columbia University in New York escalated their weeks-long encampment by breaking into the university’s Hamilton Hall. They broke windows and barricaded themselves inside using zip-ties and furniture, causing significant property damage and locking a facilities worker inside during the takeover.

Escalating actions continued throughout May and June, including anti-Israel motivated arson attacks in multiple states, the takeover of the Brooklyn Museum, and targeted harassment of Jewish individuals at their homes.

The language used by anti-Israel protesters to promote and endorse these actions has also become more unapologetically extreme. Though many of these actions have been organized by autonomous groups, they are not spontaneous. They reflect increasingly extreme calls by leading anti-Zionist voices urging escalation. 

Escalating Rhetoric

Recent actions reflect the evolving strategy articulated by anti-Zionists in their publications, speeches and social media posts.

Zines, Communiqués and How-To Guides

“Zines” (short for “fanzine” or “magazine”) are short publications created by individuals or groups that are intended to be circulated online or in print among those who share a particular interest. Activists — including those in the anti-Israel movement — regularly use zines to express their views, respond to trends, outline strategies and highlight actions.

Anti-Israel student protest organizers at schools like California Polytechnic State University, Humboldt; Columbia University; Emory University; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and elsewhere published zines or communiqués promoting their direct actions against their universities in April and May. The Columbia students wrote, “Our struggle has only just begun…We chose action, and you must too—again, again, until the weight of our collective action and refusal dismantles the prisons and all our prisoners flood the streets. UNTIL VICTORY!”

The New York University Palestine Solidarity Coalition published a “manifesto” on May 7 that laid out six unifying principles for the “Student Intifada,” with the first principle stating that “now more than ever we must escalate.” The statement further declared: “We will continue to intensify our actions until our demands are met, until the genocide ends, until the zionist [sic] entity crumbles, and until Palestine is free.”

The radical New York-based anti-Zionist group Within Our Lifetime (WOL) published a zine on April 27 titled “To Them, We Are All Outside Agitators: Encampments & Escalation.” The zine encouraged anti-Israel protesters “to prioritize escalation trainings…to learn how to build effective barricades, how to link arms most effectively to resist police attacks, or what type of expanding foam works best on the kind of doorknobs present in our universities.” WOL emphasized that “this is not rhetoric — this is an urgent need” and declared, “no more negotiating the terms of our existence and resistance. There is only an enemy to fight and a struggle that seeks victory.”

Zines published in April by Within Our Lifetime (left) and in May by Palestine Action U.S. (right) encouraging anti-Israel activists to “escalate” their actions. (source: Telegram; Instagram)

On April 28, an autonomous collective referring to itself as the Fire Ant Movement Defense published a zine titled “We Don’t Need ‘Safety’ – We Need To Escalate!” It was circulated by the “Escalate Network,” a collective formed in response to the student encampment efforts in mid-April seeking to help the anti-Israel movement “break out of the confines of universities, to spread throughout society.” It was also published on the website It’s Going Down, a self-described “digital community center for anarchist, anti-fascist, autonomous anti-capitalist and anti-colonial movements.”

The zine instructed: “The Palestinian Resistance — the people who are on the ground fighting and dying — are calling for American students to escalate. It is our duty to heed their call!…To achieve victory we must escalate the struggle and combat all forces — external and internal — which prevent us from doing so.”

On May 1, Palestine Action U.S. — the U.S.-based faction of a global anti-Zionist collective whose stated mission is “disrupting and dismantling zionism [sic] and US imperialism” and which supports “militant direct actions” — created and distributed a guide titled “FLOOD THE GATES: ESCALATE.” The zine called for groups and individuals to “escalate from mass rallies to mass blockades of weapons companies; from encampments to building occupations; from getting kettled by the police to kettling them back…”  

The guide was shared widely by popular accounts like Resistance News Network (RNN), a radical antisemitic Telegram channel that regularly promotes U.S.-recognized terror groups like Hamas. Student groups also took notice. The Columbia University Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) chapter commented on the original Palestine Action U.S. post, writing “IT IS TIME TO ESCALATE,” while the Georgia State University Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter shared the pamphlet on their Instagram story.

Zines with specific instructions about how to establish encampments, confront institutions, and physically resist police also circulated, offering step-by-step guides for engaging in disruptive actions that encompassed potentially violent or illegal activities.

For example, the “De-Arrest Primer” published in April 2024 by the “haters cafe,” a blog run by a collective of self-described anarchists, circulated among anti-Zionist activists and was distributed in person at campus encampments. The zine acknowledged that some of the actions it outlined “could be considered a crime,” but nonetheless encouraged such steps be taken to “free” arrested protesters.

The Escalate Network also circulated an updated version of “The Do-It-Yourself Occupation Guide,” originally published in the early 2010s during the Occupy movement and revised in April 2024 in response to the anti-Israel student encampments. The guide instructed organizers on tactics such as breaking entering into locked buildings using bolt cutters, crowbars or other tools, “barricading doors” and more.

Extreme Rhetoric Online and On-The-Ground

The escalation language promoted in publications was reiterated in various on-the-ground and online spaces.

On May 24–26, hundreds of anti-Israel activists gathered in Detroit, MI for the “People’s Conference for Palestine,” where many of the anti-Zionist movement’s most influential forces gathered to assess their progress to date and strategize their path forward. As noted in ADL experts’ assessment of the conference, a common refrain among the event’s speakers was support for terror and a call for direct actions against Zionism — not just in Israel and Palestine, but around the world.

Similar rhetoric promulgated online, particularly in response to Israel’s military offensive against Hamas in the Gazan city of Rafah in late May. The Wisconsin-based Madison for Palestine, a radical anti-Israel group that has long engaged in “anti-normalization” efforts, shared a post on May 27 that stated: “We are beyond calling for a ceasefire…Resistance is the only way. The Zionist colonial entity must be fought and dismantled at all costs. ABHOLISH [sic] ISRAEL.”

A May 29 social media post shared by multiple Pennsylvania-based anti-Zionist groups declaring “IF WE BURN, YOU BURN WITH US” and “Now is the time to escalate.” (source: Instagram)

A group of Pennsylvania-based anti-Israel groups including Lancaster Palestine Coalition, Pittsburgh Palestine Coalition, and Harrisburg Palestine Coalition shared a social media post referencing Rafah on May 29 with the message “IF WE BURN, YOU BURN WITH US” and a caption that read, in part, “now is the time to escalate…”

Social media influencer account @key48return, which frequently posts false or misleading anti-Israel infographics on Instagram, posted a graphic on May 29 that garnered more than 280K likes. It proclaimed: “Doing the same thing for 8 months and expecting different results is insanity. Stop the one hour protests at the weekend, and make your life a protest…Everything must change & we must be the ones to change it.”

Escalating Actions

In numerous cases, the calls to “escalate” have been answered on the ground. The ADL Center on Extremism examined a sampling of these recent incidents.

Arson

On May 2, anti-Israel activists referring to themselves as Rachel Corrie’s Ghost Brigade (named after the American activist who was accidentally killed in Gaza in 2003 while protesting against Israel) broke into the Portland Police Bureau training facility in Oregon and set multiple fires, causing more than a dozen police cars to burn.

In a statement claiming responsibility published on the anarchist website Rose City Counter-Info, the group wrote: “We call for more actions to avenge Palestinians and the brutalized students at PSU [Portland State University] and beyond! Let ten million cop cars burn!” The statement also addressed anti-Israel student protesters, telling them: “FIGHT! Defend your camps! If the frat bros come, smash their frat house windows! If the Zionist settlers come, throw fireworks at them! If the cops come don’t just resist arrest, fight them! They will hate you and beat you if you’re peaceful or violent, and it is time to be violent.”

Arson committed by anti-Israel activists at the Portland Police Bureau training facility in Oregon on May 2, 2024. (source: Portland Police Bureau)

In June, Palestine Action U.S. posted about a series of arson incidents at the University of California, Berkeley. On June 1, a UC Berkeley police car was set on fire while parked on campus. Palestine Action U.S. wrote on social media that the action was done “in solidarity with the resistance axis for Palestinian life, liberation, and total decolonization of the zionist [sic] occupied lands.”

The group declared: “Blessed is the flame that burns down the settler-plantation. Blessed are the rockets that will free thousands of prisoners held captive by the zionist settler entity and US colonizer police state…Knife to the throat of zionism. Death to amerikkka. Glory to the martyrs.”

On June 13, Palestine Action U.S. commented on a “firebomb” at the university, writing that “EVERY SINGLE BUILDING ON THE UC BERKELEY CAMPUS DESERVES TO BE INCINERATED” and that “UC SYSTEM MUST DIVEST FROM ISRAEL OR FACE OUR WRATH OF REVENGE.” A few days later, on June 16, Palestine Action U.S. posted about another arson incident at a construction site at UC Berkeley. They wrote: “phase two of the #Escalate movement heats up.”

On June 17, Casey Robert Goonan, a 34-year-old Oakland resident was arrested for his alleged connection to the series of UC Berkeley arsons.

Meanwhile, in Oakland, CA on June 11, protesters attempted to break the windows of the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building with rocks and throw a firebomb inside. However, their plans were partially thwarted when the windows apparently didn’t fully shatter and a security guard appeared, so they instead lit the firebomb outside. Palestine Action U.S. and Indybay, the San Francisco Bay Area branch of the Independent Media Center, released a statement that the action was done “in unity with the global axis of resistance” and in “retaliation” for the alleged crackdown on anti-Israel student encampment protesters.

Occupying Buildings and Vandalizing Property

Since the high-profile building takeovers at Cal Poly Humboldt and Columbia, students at many other schools have followed suit with destructive actions.

On May 14, the Oakland, CA office of University of California president Michael V. Drake was vandalized by an anonymous group of anti-Israel activists who claimed that their actions were done “…in solidarity with the Palestinian Resistance.” They detailed their actions: “Using a fire extinguisher filled with red paint we covered the facade and smashed seven windows. Then, with access to the building, we released 500 cockroaches inside and emptied a second fire extinguisher onto the interior.”

At the University of California, Berkeley, students occupied Anna Head Alumnae Hall from May 15–16, using “sticks, pry bars and bolt cutters” and breaking windows to enter the condemned property. They also spray painted antisemitic and violent messages on the walls, including equating a Star of David with a swastika alongside phrases like “ZIONISM = NAZISM,” “MARTYRS NEVER DIE,” “A GOOD SOLDIER IS A DEAD ONE,” “KILL COPS” and “ESCALATE IN THIS BITCH.” 12 protesters were arrested after police cleared the building.

Graffiti spray-painted inside a building occupied by anti-Israel protesters at UC Berkeley in May 2024, including equating a Star of David with a swastika and messages like “ESCALATE IN THIS BITCH,” “A GOOD SOLDIER IS A DEAD ONE,” “FOR THE MARTRYS” and “AVENGE AL SHIFA.” (source: Instagram)

On June 5, the last day of classes of the spring semester at Stanford University in California, a group of anti-Israel student protesters barricaded themselves inside the president’s office. They caused “extensive damage” according to a campus spokesperson, including spray-painting messages like “death 2 Israhell” on the walls.

A group of anti-Israel protesters had previously tried to occupy a different building on Stanford’s campus on May 20, but that group was quickly broken up by campus police. The June takeover was more coordinated, with students inside and outside the building working together to prevent law enforcement from entering for many hours and barricading doors “with bike locks, chains, ladders and chairs and [covering] security cameras with tin foil,” according to a report in The Stanford Daily. Thirteen students were arrested for their alleged participation.

On June 12, a few dozen students barricaded themselves inside a California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) student services building. They displayed a banner renaming the building “Leila Khaled Hall” — named in honor of the notorious Popular Front for the Liberation (PFLP)-affiliated terrorist who is infamous for hijacking two civilian airliners in 1969 and 1970 — and vandalized and stole property. University staff who were inside at the time were forced to shelter in place for two hours before security officers were able to establish “a safe exit.”

Anti-Israel building occupation at CSULA, including a banner displayed by protesters renaming the building after Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist Leila Khaled and vandalism featuring messages like “FREE GAZA BY ANY MEANS,” “ESCALATE 4 GAZA” and “END TIES W/ ZIONISTS.” (source: X)

These tactics have not been limited to college campuses. On May 31, Within Our Lifetime led a large crowd of protesters in an attempt to occupy the Brooklyn Museum in New York. Dozens of individuals overwhelmed security to force their way into the museum, while hundreds more gathered outside cheering them on. Protesters used spray paint and markers to write messages like “Zionism is terrorism” and “Zionism: your day is coming” on museum windows and art installations. 34 people were arrested in connection with the protest.

Targeting Individuals

Anti-Israel protesters have regularly targeted the homes of high-profile individuals like governors and U.S. representatives, university presidents, and others since October 7. Escalating actions have expanded the targets of these types of protests.

University of Michigan regent Jordan Acker, who is Jewish, has been targeted on multiple occasions. On May 15, around 4:40 AM, an individual covering their face with a keffiyeh walked up to Acker’s house while his family was asleep inside and attached a list of demands on the front door attributed to the “UMich Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” On June 3, multiple masked individuals vandalized Acker’s law offices by splashing red paint on the front of the building and spray-painting anti-Israel slogans around the property.

From late May through June, anti-Israel activists affiliated with anti-Zionist group Code Pink and others have repeatedly confronted individuals and their families at their homes in Washington, D.C. This includes harassing U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller as well as CNN journalist and anchor Jake Tapper, who is Jewish. The protesters also targeted members of their families, including shouting “shame on you” at Miller’s wife and telling Tapper’s children “your dad is lying and killing.”

In New York on June 12, the houses of Anne Pasternak, the Jewish director of the Brooklyn Museum, and multiple members of the museum’s board were vandalized with red paint and inverted red triangles — symbols that are often used to indicate a Hamas target. The anonymous group that vandalized the director’s house stated it was inspired by a call from Within Our Lifetime “for sustained action against cultural institutions that materially and rhetorically support genocide.”

Vandalism at the home of Brooklyn Museum president Anne Pasternak, who is Jewish, on June 12, 2024. (source: X)

Anti-Israel protesters affiliated with Shut Down Elbit South Florida, Code Pink South Florida, and other local groups protested outside the home of two mid-level employees of Real-Time Laboratories in Boca Raton, FL on June 16. The protest was an escalation from the demonstrators’ routine actions outside the Real-Time Laboratories offices.

Jewish and Israeli business owners and patrons have also been targeted. In Houston, TX, multiple businesses owned by Jewish restaurateur Ben Berg were vandalized in mid-May with red paint and antisemitic fliers. Palestine Action U.S. celebrated the vandalism, highlighting Berg’s November 2023 participation in a fundraiser organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston to benefit nonprofits in supporting Israelis displaced by the October 7 terrorist attack and war with Hamas.

On June 2, an unknown perpetrator or perpetrators poured a bucket of red paint onto patrons waiting to enter an Israeli-owned jazz club in Brooklyn, NY. Messages calling for the boycott of Zionist businesses and stating “Zionists can’t make jazz” were also left outside the club.