Following Hamas's October 7, 2023, surprise invasion of Israel that has reportedly killed at least 900 Israelis, left thousands injured, and included the kidnapping of more than 100 children and adults, many prominent anti-Israel activists and organizations have expressed their full support for the Hamas actions on social media platforms such as X and Instagram. Anti-Israel campus groups, community organizations and journalists are framing Hamas’s terror attacks as part of an anti-colonial struggle in which any and all forms of “resistance” are justified.
Among those expressing complete support for Hamas’s deadly attacks: The Nation’s Palestine Correspondent Mohammed El-Kurd, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters, popular New York City-based anti-Zionist group Within Our Lifetime and many other anti-Israel groups across the country. In their view, all Israelis are complicit in Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians, and violence is a warranted response.
These reactions from noteworthy anti-Israel activists and organizations are reflected in a broader ecosystem in which many X users are posting similar messaging. Many posts compare Israel to Nazi Germany or state that Israel was deserving of the attack. Others refer to the news as cause for “a day of celebration,” lauding Hamas for their “bravery” and for crossing “into their colonisers’ territory.”
Examples of prominent activists expressing support for Hamas’ terror attack include:
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Swarthmore College’s SJP chapter released a statement on October 10, justifying Hamas’s violence by saying, “Since early Saturday morning, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have valiantly confronted the imperial apparatus that has constricted their livelihoods for the past seventy-five years.” The statement also said that “decolonization is far from a metaphor confined to the classroom” and that “There exists only a colonizer and colonized, an oppressed and an oppressor. To resist is to survive, and it is our right."
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National Students for Justice in Palestine released a toolkit for their "day of action", describing the murders of Israeli civilians as “a historic win for the Palestinian resistance: across land, air, and sea, our people have broken down the artificial barriers of the Zionist entity.” The organization added, “This is what it means to Free Palestine: not just slogans and rallies, but armed confrontation with the oppressors.”
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Anti-Israel activist Nerdeen Kiswani called on people to support the liberation of Palestine “by any means necessary:” “If you support Palestine understand that necessitates supporting our right to defend ourselves and liberate our homeland by any means necessary….Freedom has only ever been achieved through resistance.”
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The ADC, an Arab American organization, claimed that the Hamas’ massacre of Israeli civilians was an expression of Palestinian self-determination efforts: “The unprecedented and ongoing resistance by Palestinians from Gaza, that caught Israel by surprise, did not happen in a vacuum…. Palestinians are asserting their right to self-determination and unequivocally demanding their freedom.”
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Young Democrats of America Black Caucus chair Amber Sherman issued unequivocal support for the Palestinian actions: “As Chair of the Black Caucus I fully support the Palestinian people and the uprising happening in Gaza right now…. I encourage folks to publicly acknowledge the uprising happening in Gaza and stand in support of the Palestinian people.”
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The Boston Mapping Project, an anti-Zionist organization which has called for people to “dismantle” and “disrupt” most of Boston’s Jewish community, posted several times in support of Palestinian resistance, and encouraged its readers to follow the Resistance News Network, an antisemitic encrypted news channel that shares violent anti-Israel imagery and promotes Hamas propaganda.
- The U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) wrote about the Hamas violence: “Our people are waging an anti-colonial, anti-occupation, and anti-Zionist liberation struggle!” In a longer statement, the group said that the violence was a justified response to “over 100 years of zionist [sic] settler-colonialism” and a laundry list of grievances against Israel.
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The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced that it had signed on to the statement of the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations, which ignored Hamas’ violence against Israeli civilians and instead called for the United States and world governments to “exert pressure on Israel” to stop its “atrocities” against the Palestinians.
Several Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters expressed support for the attacks on Instagram. SJP is the most prominent anti-Israel student group in the United States. Examples include:
- Palestine Solidarity Alliance of Hunter College posted: “RESISTANCE IS THE ONLY ANSWER: ... Similar to Dief [Hamas military commander], we demand ALL educational institutions and organizations to stand up against the occupation and actively support the Al-Aqsa Flood initiative... The hour of liberation draws near”
- American University SJP re-posted messages from Within Our Lifetime and Palestinian Youth Movement that read: “The resistance Lives!” and “Support Palestinian resistance from Al-Quds to Gaza.”
- Rutgers SJP posted: “Glory to the resistance”
- SJP at University of California, San Diego re-posted a message from Palestinian Youth Movement: “The resistance lives!”
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SJP at California State University, Sacramento shared a post that read: “As Muslims we have a religious obligation ordained by Allah SWT to support the liberation of Palestine by any and all means necessary.”
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John Jay SJP shared a message reading, in part: “Do not let Western media call this terrorism. This is DECOLONIZATION.”
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SAFE UMich, an anti-Israel group affiliated with SJP, posted: “Long live the resistance. Power to our Freedom Fighters. Glory to our martyrs.”
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The University of Virginia chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine stated that the Hamas massacres were only the first step: “The events that took place yesterday are a step towards a free Palestine…. freedom is not a matter of it but when. We stand in solidarity with Palestinian resistance fighters….”
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The SJP chapters of California State University of Sacramento claimed that Jewish people who support Israel are not “real true followers of Judaism:” “Real true followers of Judaism (Orthodox Jews) actually support Palestine as Israel’s actions go against their own religion.”
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On his Substack, academic and activist Norman Finkelstein wrote that Hamas’ actions “warms [sic] every fiber of my soul” and compared the attacks to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising:
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“.. if we honor the Jews who revolted in the Warsaw Ghetto—then moral consistency commands that we honor the heroic resistance in Gaza. I, for one, will never begrudge—on the contrary, it warms every fiber of my soul—the scenes of Gaza’s smiling children as their arrogant Jewish supremacist oppressors have, finally, been humbled.”
About 35 student associations at Harvard University signed on to a statement from the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee and Harvard Graduate Students for Palestine which said, "We... hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible" for the violence perpetrated by Hamas.
New York City-based anti-Israel group Within Our Lifetime posted on Instagram:
- “Supporting Palestinian liberation is supporting whatever means necessary it takes to get there.... we must defend the Palestinian right to resist zionist [sic] settler violence and support Palestinian resistance in all its forms. By any means necessary. With no exceptions and no fine print.”
Activist and poet Mohammed El-Kurd,The Nation’s Palestine Correspondent, posted on X:
- “Occupation, colonization, and land-theft are the root cause of the ‘conflict.’ Everything else is retaliation.”
Dylan Saba, an attorney with Palestine Legal, a nonprofit that provides legal aid to anti-Israel activists, posted on X:
- “Glory to the resistance and the people of Palestine....l could not be more proud of my people who continue to demonstrate unthinkable bravery in their struggle for liberation”
Palestinian Youth Movement, an anti-Israel group active on many university campuses (and which frequently partners with SJP and JVP), called Hamas’ terror attacks “legitimate resistance” and posted a photo on Instagram of Palestinians celebrating on top of a captured Israeli vehicle:
- “We continue to stand alongside our people in Gaza and across Occupied Palestine in their legitimate resistance against the occupiers. In our Martyrs’ names, the struggle for liberation and return continues. Palestine will be free.”
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Transnational anti-Zionist group Samidoun posted an image of individuals carrying weapons and added, in part:
- “The resistance is rising throughout occupied Palestine, smashing the siege on Gaza...as Palestinian resistance forces fight to advance return and the liberation of Palestine.”
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Activist group Adalah Justice Project, which frequently partners with JVP and SJP:
- “The natural reaction to colonization and oppression is resistance.”
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Al-Awda NY, a New York City-based anti-Zionist group, and fellow anti-Zionist group Palestinian Assembly for Liberation (PAL), explicitly and effusively expressed their support for Hamas’ actions:
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“The Palestinian Assembly for Liberation and Al-Awda NY send their highest salutations to the Palestinian Resistance, the Freedom Fighters..... Now more than ever is the moment for all Palestinians and allies globally to stand proudly, in full support of the brave Palestinian Freedom Fighters...”
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On Instagram, Nevadans for Palestinian Liberation espoused a historic antisemitic theme about Jewish control over politics in a message supporting the “resistance:”
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“When you see spineless politicians who are bought by Israeli lobbyists flood your timeline today with words of condemnation today ask yourselves where they were for the past 75 years. Long live the resistance!!!!”
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Anti-Israel Jewish group IfNotNow released a statement blaming Israel and the United States for provoking Palestinians into the attacks:
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“Their blood [civilians] is on the hands of the Israeli government, the US government which funds and excuses their recklessness...”
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Jewish anti-Zionist organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) also blamed the terror attack on Israel:
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“Israeli apartheid and occupation — and United States complicity in that oppression — are the source of all this violence.... The bloodshed of today and the past 75 years traces back directly to U.S. complicity in the oppression and horror caused by Israel’s military occupation.”