As Israel-Hamas War Rages, Activist Groups Launch Anti-Israel “Toolkits”

Toolkits are a popular tool for activists to share information and organize around a topic or policy demand, from city hall resolutions to Congressional action. There is nothing inherently nefarious about activists wishing to effect change. However, in the post-October 7 landscape, some anti-Israel activists’ rhetoric include outright support for terrorism.  

In certain cases, the rhetoric in these calls to action crosses the line into support for or minimization of terror. If Hamas’s October 7 murder of Israeli civilians is mentioned at all, it is always “contextualized” and seemingly justified within the broader historical conflict.

Attacks on Zionism or Zionists more broadly  

Some toolkits and resources directly attack Zionism. While criticism of Israeli policies and actions is part of that discourse, certain forms of anti-Israel rhetoric and activism delegitimize Israel and its existence and are antisemitic when they vilify and negate Zionism – the movement for Jewish self-determination and statehood – or utilize anti-Jewish tropes or hold all Jews responsible for Israel’s actions.    

Black Alliance for Peace

• From their statement, linked to in the toolkit, “The Black Alliance for Peace will not abandon the Palestinian people. Solidarity must be reciprocal. Our peoples both suffer the consequences of living in a white supremacist settler-colonial state; we are bound together in that reality and our collective struggles.”

Resistance News Now “Media Guide” 

• “Anti-zionism [all sic] means the dismantlement of the zionist entity. Anti-zionism [sic] does not mean post zionism , or that the “two sides” are “equal.” It is never over until imperialism is over. It is not over until all land, from the river to the sea, has been returned to the indigenous Palestinians and the occupation has been totally dismantled. It is never over until imperialism is over.” 

Within Our Lifetime chants (toolkit written before October 7, but commonly referenced)  

• “Hey hey, ho ho!  
  zionism [sic] has got to go! 
  Hey hey, ho ho! 
  israel has got to go!”  

• ‏بدنا نحكي على المكشوف صهيوني ما بدنا نشوف 
  Bidna nihki al makshouf, sahyouni ma Bidna Nshoof 
  (Say it loud say it clear, we don’t want zionists [sic] here) 

SJP toolkit calling to dismantle Zionism on campus 

• “We must continue to resist directly through dismantling Zionism, and wielding the political power that our organizations hold on our campuses and in our communities.” 

• “In essence, decolonization is a call to action, a commitment to the restoration of Indigenous sovereignty. It calls upon us to engage in meaningful actions that go beyond symbolism and rhetoric. Resistance comes in all forms— armed struggle, general strikes, and popular demonstrations. All of it is legitimate, and all of it is necessary."  

Anti-Normalization

• Some toolkits promote anti-normalization rhetoric -- complete rejection of any cooperation or association with individuals or organizations who accept or support Israel’s existence.  

Palestinian Feminist Collective  

• “If you work in faith and interfaith communities and coalitions: it is critical to challenge the normalization of Zionism in these spaces by centering acknowledgements of unequal power and principles of justice and freedom as core to any meaningful dialogues.” 

• “If you work in the food industry: talk about Palestinian cuisine, the various ways Palestinian culture is appropriated and stolen, and how natural foods indigenous to Palestine are threatened by Israeli attacks on agricultural production and access.” 

Resistance News Network’s Media resource 

• “Normalization means recognizing or engaging with the zionist [sic] entity in any form.” 

• “Normalization is treasonous and any suggestion of engaging with zionists [sic] is considered norming the abuser.”  

• “We are not satisfied with co-existence or ending “apartheid,” a symptom of settler colonialism. Ending apartheid does not mean ending occupation. Liberate the land, from the river to the sea!” 

Support for Terror

• Some toolkit rhetoric justifies, excuses and even venerates the terror group’s actions that day Hamas’s October 7 massacre and kidnapping of Israelis.  The horrific and unspeakable acts of violence that occurred on Oct. 7 are not justifiable nor can these horrific acts be acknowledged as a response to past conflicts. Assigning sole blame for the conflict to Israel or Jewish people, without acknowledging or reporting on the long history of rejecting Israel’s right to exist, decades of security threats including Palestinian terrorism, can feed into anti-Jewish tropes. 

Examples of that rhetoric: 

NSJP Day of Resistance toolkit:  

• “On the 50th anniversary of the 1973 war, the resistance in Gaza launched a surprise operation against the Zionist enemy which disrupted the very foundation of Zionist settler society. On the morning of October 8th,[sic] the Palestinian resistance stormed the illegitimate border fence, gaining control of the Gaza checkpoint at Erez, and re-entering 1948 Palestine. Referred to as Operation Towfan Al-Aqsa (Al-Aqsa Flood), the resistance has taken occupation soldiers hostage, fired thousands of rockets, taken over Israeli military vehicles, and gained control over illegal Israeli settlements. In the West Bank, the Palestinian resistance has called for collective action by the Palestinian masses amidst attempts by the Zionist entity to lock-up the West Bank.” 

• “Today, we witness a historic win for the Palestinian resistance: across land, air, and sea, our people have broken down the artificial barriers of the Zionist entity, taking with it the façade of an impenetrable settler colony and reminding each of us that total return and liberation to Palestine is near.” 

• “Settlers are not “civilians” in the sense of international law, because they are military assets used to ensure continued control over stolen Palestinian land.” 

• “Responsibility for every single death falls solely on the zionist [sic] entity. They don't care one bit for the Geneva Conventions, but demand Palestinians follow them to the letter.” 

• “Liberation is not an abstract concept. It is not a moment circumscribed to a revolutionary past as it is often characterized. Rather, liberating colonized land is a real process that requires confrontation by any means necessary.” 
   

Palestinian Youth Movement Reading Guide:  

• “What the mainstream English-language media refers to as the ‘Gaza-Israel’ war is in reality the struggle of a colonized people for liberation. This struggle did not begin on October 7th, when Palestinians tore down the cement walls caging them in the Gaza strip. In reality it began over 100 years ago.” 

• “The steadfast Palestinian people of Gaza—who have been living under a suffocating and brutal 16-yearlong blockade—are correcting the path of history, and showing the world that, indeed, all the walls will fall.” 

Palestinian American Community Center (Talking points – linked in their tool kit):  

• “When a people are under occupation, resistance (whether in the form of violence or nonviolence) is to be expected and should be justified. After decades of colonialism and injustice, fighting back is the natural human response. Even under International Law, an occupied people have the right to resist their occupier. Israel claiming to defend itself is simply a propaganda tactic often used by Zionists to promote and maintain their image as the innocent victims.”   

Artists Against Apartheid:  

• From a social media graphic + statement: “The armed attacks on October 7 by Palestinian people cannot be de-contextualized from apartheid, extreme oppression, vicious brutality against protests and the open embrace by the Netanyahu government of open and extreme policies that aim to finally liquidate the Palestinian people’s just struggle to reclaim their homes and villages. Despite these facts, the armed resistance which is a direct and natural response to nearly a century of occupation, is characterized by the corporate media and Biden as ‘sheer evil.’” 

• Two of the many signs available from the toolkit: