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11 August 2024

Campus Protests Embolden Terrorist Groups

David Fridovich & Kim Cole , Jacob Olidort

The aftermath of the burning of an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and also an Israeli flag as protestors look on, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, in Washington near Union Station and the U.S. Capitol. 

Although colleges are closed for the summer, the anti-Israel demonstrators continue to provide fodder to terrorist groups and leaders, including Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who praised the protesters as a “branch of the Resistance Front” who are “on the right side of history.”

The encampments – which mushroomed to over 40 campuses in less than a week in late April and whose stated goal is divesting U.S. universities from Israel – have been a key propaganda tool for global jihadists’ radicalization campaign since their emergence.

In early May, U.K.-based al-Qaeda preacher Hani al-Siba’i lauded university protests as “the university intifada” – referencing Palestinian terrorist waves in the late 1990s and early 2000s – and called on followers to support their efforts against the United States, which he described as “based on terrorism” and “founded on murder and blood.”

Hezbollah’s deputy head Naim Qassam similarly praised the protesters in an early May interview, noting not only how they help change U.S. policy but can help drive terrorist recruitment. “The Israelis and the Americans will discover that with this type of aggression, they have laid the foundation for perpetual resistance of children and fetuses at an earlier age than the age fighters become qualified in the past,” he explained. “They will have an impact on the American position,” he noted, “Even if Biden says that he will not be influenced by this, he will whether he likes it or not.”

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