Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Tim Walz At CAIR Banquet With Hatem Bazian - Defendant In Oct 7 Survivors' Terror Lawsuit Who Urged Intifada In America Tim Walz At CAIR Banquet With Hatem Bazian - Defendant In Oct 7 Survivors' Terror Lawsuit Who Urged Intifada In AmericaHatem Bazian Heads American Muslims For Palestine-Students For Justice In Palestine & Muslim Legal Fund of America Tim Walz Cozied Up to Anti-Semitic Terror Defender at 2019 CAIR Event, Photos Show Hatem Bazian has for years defended anti-Israel terrorism Tim Walz at CAIR convention (Office of Governor Tim Walz & Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan (Flickr) Chuck Ross The Washington Free Beacon August 7, 2024 Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz spoke at an event for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in 2019, where he rubbed shoulders with an anti-Semitic scholar behind much of the Hamas propaganda on college campuses in the wake of Oct. 7, according to photos from the event. Walz, the governor of Minnesota, appeared at the "Challenging Islamophobia" conference, hosted by CAIR's Minnesota chapter on March 28, 2019, at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul. Walz gave introductory remarks at the event and announced the formation of a civil rights office to address Islamophobia in the state, which has the largest population of Somali Muslims in the country. Photos of the conference show Walz posed with Hatem Bazian, an anti-Semitic scholar who has for years defended anti-Israel terrorist activity. Bazian is the founder of Students for Justice in Palestine, the group behind many of the pro-Hamas and anti-Semitic rallies across college campuses in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks. The group's George Washington University chapter projected the slogan "Glory to Our Martyrs" days after the attack. Bazian also founded Students for Justice in Palestine's parent group American Muslims for Palestine, an influential anti-Israel organization under investigation in Virginia for allegedly financing terrorist activity. Walz's appearance at the event could undercut the image pushed by the Kamala Harris campaign and liberal media outlets of the governor as a folksy Midwestern moderate. He has already faced scrutiny for embellishing his military record and for his handling of violent riots in the wake of the anti-police George Floyd protests in 2020. Harris snubbed Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, a popular Jewish Democrat, in favor of Walz—a pick praised by anti-Israel "Squad" members and anti-Israel groups such as the Democratic Socialists of America. CAIR's and Bazian's views were well known at the time Walz attended the Islamophobia conference. Federal prosecutors labeled CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator of Hamas in a 2008 terrorism finance case. In 2017, Bazian apologized for posting an anti-Semitic meme of a Jewish man with the caption "Mom look! I is chosen! I can now kill, rape, smuggle organs & steal the land of Palestinians Yay #Ashke-Nazi." The anti-Semitism watchdog group Canary Mission named Bazian "The Most Dangerous Professor in America" later that year. Bazian pushed anti-Semitic tropes at a Students for Justice in Palestine rally in 2002, telling the crowd to "look at the type of names on the building around campus—Haas, Zellerbach—and decide who controls this university." In 2004, he called for the eradication of Israel and said that "it's about time we had an intifada in this country." Bazian is considered a leading intellectual of "Islamophobia Studies" industry. He formed the Islamophobia Studies Center at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2009, and started the Islamophobia Studies Journal in 2012. The Harris-Walz campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Tim Walz Cozied Up to Anti-Semitic Terror Defender at 2019 CAIR Event, Photos Show Hatem Bazian has for years defended anti-Israel terrorism ####### Note: Hatem Bazian is named a as a defendent in a lawsuit filed by 10/7 survivors on May 5th 2024. Bazian is the National Chairman of the American Muslims For Palestine https://www.ampalestine.org/about-amp/our-team the Muslim Legal Fund of America https://mlfa.org/teams/dr-hatem-bazian-chairman/ and founder of the Students For Justice In Palestine. https://www.nationalsjp.org/about ##### Note: On July 19th 2024 the AMP appealed against the VA court decision that AMP must disclose the identity of their donors. Excerpt from AMP statement. "…Our attorneys continue to seek clarification on the scope of the court's ruling, and based on that AMP will decide whether it will choose to appeal any court decision through appropriate channels. We want to reassure you that AMP remains steadfast in its commitment to uphold the rights and privacy of its members and donors consistent with all laws. Our legal team continues to vigorously defend these rights as the legal process unfolds…" https://www.ampalestine.org/media/media-room/statements/statement-regarding-recent-va-court-decision ###### On May 29, 2024 The House Committee On Oversight and Accountability sent this official letter to American Muslims For Palestine Executive Director Osama Aburshaid; "seeking documents and information from your organization to facilitate oversight into how pro-Hamas propaganda and illegal encampments are being funded"… Excerpt: National Students for Justice in Palestine c/o Dr. Osama Abuirshaid Executive Director 1 American Muslims for Palestine 6404 Seven Corners Pl., Ste. N Falls Church, VA 22044 Dear Dr. Abuirshaid: May 29, 2024 The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is conducting oversight of the funding sources of groups supporting illegal activities across the country, including at institutions of higher education, by individuals spouting pro-Hamas propaganda and engaged in antisemitic harassment and violations of the civil rights of Jewish students. Since the October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel by Hamas, antisemitic incidences have skyrocketed in the United States.2 At illegal encampments on college campuses, many individuals have championed antisemitic rhetoric calling for the elimination of Jewish people from Israel, employing "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" and "Death to Israel" as rallying cries.3 The Committee is particularly concerned that organizations promulgating pro-Hamas propaganda and engaging in illegal activities at institutions of higher education might be receiving funding or other support from foreign or domestic sources which support the aims of Hamas4 or other foreign terrorist organizations. We therefore seek documents and information from your organization to facilitate oversight into how pro-Hamas propaganda and illegal encampments are being funded. https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Letter-to-National-SJP-5.29.24.pdf ####### IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA ALEXANDRIA DIVISION MAYA PARIZER, ADIN GESS, NOACH ) NEWMAN, NATALIE SANANDAJI, YONI ) DILLER, DAVID BROMBERG, LIOR ) BAR OR, ARIEL EIN-GAL, and HAGAR ) ALMOG, ) v. ) Plaintiffs, ) ) ) Civil No. ) AJP EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION, ) INC. a/k/a AMERICAN MUSLIMS FOR ) PALESTINE and NATIONAL STUDENTS ) FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE, ) ) Defendants. ) COMPLAINT FOR DAMAGES AND JURY TRIAL DEMAND Plaintiffs Maya Parizer, Adin Gess, Noach Newman, Natalie Sanandaji, Yoni Diller, David Bromberg, Lior Bar Or ("U.S. Plaintiffs" and with Israeli Plaintiffs, collectively "Plaintiffs"), Ariel Ein-Gal, and Hagar Almog (collectively, "Israeli Plaintiffs"), sue Defendants AJP Educational Foundation, Inc. a/k/a American Muslims for Palestine and National Students for Justice in Palestine (collectively, "Defendants") and allege as follows: INTRODUCTION When someone tells you they are aiding and abetting terrorists—believe them. Hamas is a United States designated Foreign Terrorist Organization ("FTO") founded in 1987 with the express goal of destroying the State of Israel. To promote that goal, Hamas seeks to prevent Israel from normalizing relationships with its Arab neighbors. On October 7, 2023, largely to derail Israel's normalization talks with Saudi Arabia, Hamas and its affiliates launched a surprise terrorist attack against Israel, murdering over 1,200 civilians in cold blood and taking more than 200 people as hostages. To this day, Hamas continues to hold innocent civilians hostage and launch rockets (more than 6,000 since October 7) at civilian targets. Hamas employs unconventional weapons to continue its terrorist attacks, including taking hostages, using noncombatants as human shields, and spreading lies, propaganda, and chaos around the world. To that end, within hours of its terror attack, Hamas sent out a global call for its allies to mobilize and propagate Hamas's disinformation campaign and instigate chaos through the West, including the United States. Hamas's propaganda directed at American audiences is instrumental to its strategy. Defendant AJP Educational Foundation, Inc. a/k/a American Muslims for Palestine ("AMP") serves as Hamas's propaganda division in the United States. AMP was founded from the ashes of disbanded organizations created by senior Hamas officials after those organizations and related individuals were found criminally and civilly liable for providing material support to Hamas and other affiliated terrorist groups. In 2010, AMP expanded its operation to American college campuses when it founded Defendant National Students for Justice in Palestine ("NSJP") to control hundreds of Students for Justice in Palestine ("SJP") chapters across the country. Through NSJP, AMP uses propaganda to intimidate, convince, and recruit uninformed, misguided, and impressionable college students to serve as foot soldiers for Hamas on campus and beyond… Case 1:24-cv-00724-RDA-IDD Document 1 Filed 05/01/24 Page 1 of 49 PageID Excerpt: 28. There is "significant overlap between AMP and people who worked for or on behalf of organizations that were designated, dissolved, or held civilly liable by federal authorities for supporting Hamas."17 Indeed, six members of AMP's core leadership were IAP board members or active in HLF and/or IAP, two are family members of IAP board members, and one was a frequent collaborator and fundraiser for IAP and KindHearts.18 Many of its staff are similarly "leftovers" from that enterprise. 29. AMP's founding and current chairman is Hatem Bazian ("Bazian"). As an undergraduate, Mr. Bazian was a member of two Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organizations, the General Union of Palestine Studies ("GUPS") and the Muslim Students Association ("MSA"). Then, as a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, he founded the first chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine ("SJP").19 Mr. Bazian created SJP in the image of GUPS and and the Muslim Students Association ("MSA"). Then, as a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, he founded the first chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine ("SJP").19 Mr. Bazian created SJP in the image of GUPS and MSA. Mr. Bazian frequently collaborated with IAP and fundraised for KindHearts. In some ways, AMP, unlike the prior iteration of the material support enterprise, is more careful when following the corporate form and attempting to evade legal guardrails. For example, at its 2014 annual conference, AMP hosted a discussion on "navigat[ing] the fine line between legal activism and material support for terrorism."20 But whatever attempts AMP made in the past to hide its actions have, as described below, been abandoned and replaced with openly providing propaganda services for Hamas. 31. Simply put, AMP is a reincarnation of IAP and AMS and continues to operate with the same core people and endeavors to achieve the same goal: acting as Hamas's propaganda division in the United States. 32. As indicated above, there is a difference between independent advocacy and providing substantial assistance to a foreign terrorist organization. "[A] person of ordinary intelligence would understand that independently advocating for a cause is different from providing a service to a group that is advocating for that cause."21 AMP and its various brands fall squarely on the wrong side of that distinction…" Full lawsuit here: https://www.carolinajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/palestine-1-050124.pdf ######################## MIM: Sele full article above. Tim Walz Cozied Up to Anti-Semitic Terror Defender at 2019 CAIR Event, Photos Show Hatem Bazian has for years defended anti-Israel terrorism ####### MIM: Hatem Bazian is named a as a defendent in a lawsuit filed by 10/7 survivors on May 5th 2024. Bazian is the National Chairman of the American Muslims For Palestine https://www.ampalestine.org/about-amp/our-team The Muslim Legal Fund of America https://mlfa.org/teams/dr-hatem-bazian-chairman/ Founder of the Students For Justice In Palestine https://www.nationalsjp.org/about ##### Note: On July 19th 2024 the AMP appealed against the VA court decision that AMP must disclose the identity of their donors. Excerpt from AMP statement. "…Our attorneys continue to seek clarification on the scope of the court's ruling, and based on that AMP will decide whether it will choose to appeal any court decision through appropriate channels. We want to reassure you that AMP remains steadfast in its commitment to uphold the rights and privacy of its members and donors consistent with all laws. Our legal team continues to vigorously defend these rights as the legal process unfolds…" https://www.ampalestine.org/media/media-room/statements/statement-regarding-recent-va-court-decision ###### On May 29, 2024 The House Committee On Oversight and Accountability sent this official letter to American Muslims For Palestine Executive Director Osama Aburshaid; "seeking documents and information from your organization to facilitate oversight into how pro-Hamas propaganda and illegal encampments are being funded"… Excerpt: National Students for Justice in Palestine c/o Dr. Osama Abuirshaid Executive Director 1 American Muslims for Palestine 6404 Seven Corners Pl., Ste. N Falls Church, VA 22044 Dear Dr. Abuirshaid: May 29, 2024 The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is conducting oversight of the funding sources of groups supporting illegal activities across the country, including at institutions of higher education, by individuals spouting pro-Hamas propaganda and engaged in antisemitic harassment and violations of the civil rights of Jewish students. Since the October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel by Hamas, antisemitic incidences have skyrocketed in the United States.2 At illegal encampments on college campuses, many individuals have championed antisemitic rhetoric calling for the elimination of Jewish people from Israel, employing "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" and "Death to Israel" as rallying cries.3 The Committee is particularly concerned that organizations promulgating pro-Hamas propaganda and engaging in illegal activities at institutions of higher education might be receiving funding or other support from foreign or domestic sources which support the aims of Hamas4 or other foreign terrorist organizations. We therefore seek documents and information from your organization to facilitate oversight into how pro-Hamas propaganda and illegal encampments are being funded. https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Letter-to-National-SJP-5.29.24.pdf ####### MIM:Excerpts from the 49 page lawsuit filed by 9 survivors of the October 7th jihad massacre in Israel which names Hatem Bazian National Chairman of American Muslims For Palestine and Students For Justice In Palestine which he founded as an offshoot of the MSA. ################# IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA ALEXANDRIA DIVISION MAYA PARIZER, ADIN GESS, NOACH ) NEWMAN, NATALIE SANANDAJI, YONI ) DILLER, DAVID BROMBERG, LIOR ) BAR OR, ARIEL EIN-GAL, and HAGAR ) ALMOG, ) v. ) Plaintiffs, ) ) ) Civil No. ) AJP EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION, ) INC. a/k/a AMERICAN MUSLIMS FOR ) PALESTINE and NATIONAL STUDENTS ) FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE, ) ) Defendants. ) COMPLAINT FOR DAMAGES AND JURY TRIAL DEMAND Plaintiffs Maya Parizer, Adin Gess, Noach Newman, Natalie Sanandaji, Yoni Diller, David Bromberg, Lior Bar Or ("U.S. Plaintiffs" and with Israeli Plaintiffs, collectively "Plaintiffs"), Ariel Ein-Gal, and Hagar Almog (collectively, "Israeli Plaintiffs"), sue Defendants AJP Educational Foundation, Inc. a/k/a American Muslims for Palestine and National Students for Justice in Palestine (collectively, "Defendants") and allege as follows: INTRODUCTION When someone tells you they are aiding and abetting terrorists—believe them. Hamas is a United States designated Foreign Terrorist Organization ("FTO") founded in 1987 with the express goal of destroying the State of Israel. To promote that goal, Hamas seeks to prevent Israel from normalizing relationships with its Arab neighbors. On October 7, 2023, largely to derail Israel's normalization talks with Saudi Arabia, Hamas and its affiliates launched a surprise terrorist attack against Israel, murdering over 1,200 civilians in cold blood and taking more than 200 people as hostages. To this day, Hamas continues to hold innocent civilians hostage and launch rockets (more than 6,000 since October 7) at civilian targets. Hamas employs unconventional weapons to continue its terrorist attacks, including taking hostages, using noncombatants as human shields, and spreading lies, propaganda, and chaos around the world. To that end, within hours of its terror attack, Hamas sent out a global call for its allies to mobilize and propagate Hamas's disinformation campaign and instigate chaos through the West, including the United States. Hamas's propaganda directed at American audiences is instrumental to its strategy. Defendant AJP Educational Foundation, Inc. a/k/a American Muslims for Palestine ("AMP") serves as Hamas's propaganda division in the United States. AMP was founded from the ashes of disbanded organizations created by senior Hamas officials after those organizations and related individuals were found criminally and civilly liable for providing material support to Hamas and other affiliated terrorist groups. In 2010, AMP expanded its operation to American college campuses when it founded Defendant National Students for Justice in Palestine ("NSJP") to control hundreds of Students for Justice in Palestine ("SJP") chapters across the country. Through NSJP, AMP uses propaganda to intimidate, convince, and recruit uninformed, misguided, and impressionable college students to serve as foot soldiers for Hamas on campus and beyond… Case 1:24-cv-00724-RDA-IDD Document 1 Filed 05/01/24 Page 1 of 49 PageID Excerpt: 28. There is "significant overlap between AMP and people who worked for or on behalf of organizations that were designated, dissolved, or held civilly liable by federal authorities for supporting Hamas."17 Indeed, six members of AMP's core leadership were IAP board members or active in HLF and/or IAP, two are family members of IAP board members, and one was a frequent collaborator and fundraiser for IAP and KindHearts.18 Many of its staff are similarly "leftovers" from that enterprise. 29. AMP's founding and current chairman is Hatem Bazian ("Bazian"). As an undergraduate, Mr. Bazian was a member of two Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organizations, the General Union of Palestine Studies ("GUPS") and the Muslim Students Association ("MSA"). Then, as a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, he founded the first chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine ("SJP").19 Mr. Bazian created SJP in the image of GUPS and and the Muslim Students Association ("MSA"). Then, as a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, he founded the first chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine ("SJP").19 Mr. Bazian created SJP in the image of GUPS and MSA. Mr. Bazian frequently collaborated with IAP and fundraised for KindHearts. In some ways, AMP, unlike the prior iteration of the material support enterprise, is more careful when following the corporate form and attempting to evade legal guardrails. For example, at its 2014 annual conference, AMP hosted a discussion on "navigat[ing] the fine line between legal activism and material support for terrorism."20 But whatever attempts AMP made in the past to hide its actions have, as described below, been abandoned and replaced with openly providing propaganda services for Hamas. 31. Simply put, AMP is a reincarnation of IAP and AMS and continues to operate with the same core people and endeavors to achieve the same goal: acting as Hamas's propaganda division in the United States. 32. As indicated above, there is a difference between independent advocacy and providing substantial assistance to a foreign terrorist organization. "[A] person of ordinary intelligence would understand that independently advocating for a cause is different from providing a service to a group that is advocating for that cause."21 AMP and its various brands fall squarely on the wrong side of that distinction…" Full lawsuit here: https://www.carolinajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/palestine-1-050124.pdf Tue, Oct 1 at 6:46 PM Update: Tim Walz Cozied Up to Anti-Semitic Terror Defender Bazian Washington Free Beacon By Paul Sperry, RealClearInvestigations
Echoing the Muslim prophet Muhammad, Professor Hatem Bazian, a University of California, Berkeley lecturer, told his fellow Muslims: "The Day of Judgment will never happen until you fight the Jews." At the Santa Clara conference sponsored by the American Muslim Alliance, Bazian exhorted the crowd: "They are on the west side of the river, which is the Jordan River, and you're on the east side until the trees and the stones will say, 'Oh Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me. Come and kill him!' And that's in the Hadith [the sayings and deeds of Muhammad] about this. This is a future battle before the Day of Judgment." Bazian's threatening prophecy from 1999 might be lost to history but for the central role he has been playing in the anti-Israel protests that have erupted at college campuses. Two groups he helped create, Students for Justice in Palestine and American Muslims for Palestine, have been instrumental in organizing the demonstrations. In recent months he has visited the encampments from coast to coast, exhorting students to condemn Israel for launching counterstrikes in Gaza after marauding Hamas terrorists attacked and slaughtered more than 1,200 Israelis in October and took hundreds of others captive, including several Americans. Bazian has urged students to call on administrators and national leaders to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza, whom he claims are victims of a "genocide" carried out by the Israeli government. Although many opponents of Israel's war against Hamas deny that their movement is tied to antisemitism, critics say Bazian's deep involvement in the protests and his long history of inflammatory rhetoric against the Jewish people puts that claim in doubt. "The campus unrest is being driven by people with a very troubling past," said Jon Schanzer, a former U.S. Treasury counterterrorism official. "They're trying to legitimize Hamas." Drawing on a wide array of public records, RealClearInvestigations found that Bazian has been agitating against Jews and Israel on college campuses for decades. His 1999 exhortation of Holy War between Muslims and Jews was part of a larger pattern of words and deeds in which he sought to radicalize young Americans against the Jewish people. Bazian's history – and the top place he holds in the ongoing turmoil – also reveal the key role he's long planned for America's institutions of higher learning to play in mainstreaming and spreading ideas that many people consider hateful. As AMP's chairman, Bazian has visited several encampments, including at the University of Pennsylvania, San Diego State University, UC-San Diego, University of San Francisco and UC-Berkeley, where his acolytes have set up a "Gaza Solidarity Camp." RCI's review of videos posted on social media of his encampment talks reveals he's instructed students not to be "nice" while protesting, because he said being polite won't get the attention of college administrators or President Biden, whom he demands divest from Israel and pressure Israel to withdraw from Gaza. Meanwhile, his organization, which employs a full-time campus outreach coordinator, is under both federal and state investigation for ties to Hamas, and is also a defendant in a major new lawsuit brought by survivors of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack. A Richardson, Texas-based lawyer representing Bazian and AMP did not reply to requests for comment. After also reaching out to Bazian directly, RCI's messages went unanswered. Bazian has a history of seeming to endorse, or even call for, violence, and then denying doing so. In 2004, while Hamas was leading a deadly resistance, or "intifada," in Israel that included suicide bombers, Bazian reportedly called for an "intifada" inside America while addressing a largely Muslim crowd at an anti-Iraq war rally. "Are you angry? Are you angry?! Well, we've been watching intifada in Palestine," Bazian shouted. "How come we don't have an intifada in this country?" "They're going to say [I'm] some Palestinian being radical – well, you haven't seen radicalism yet," he added. "It's about time we have an intifada in this country!" He later claimed his remarks were meant to incite only a "political intifada" inside this country, not violent revolt. Last month, while rallying protestors at a University of San Francisco encampment, Bazian again called for "intifada," asking students, "Can you all say intifada?" "Intifada!" protesters shouted back. Speaking to students gathered outside tents at the same USF rally, Bazian encouraged the forceful taking and "holding" of campus buildings as protesters did at Columbia University before New York police stormed the facility and removed them. Recruiting new protesters, he bellowed, "Let me say we welcome agitators for justice. We celebrate courage and continue to make changes because a free Palestine is a reality that is waiting to be actualized. Free Palestine! Don't let anyone stop you from making history!" Student protesters have echoed his rhetoric that Hamas has the right to "resist" Israel by resorting to violence. On Oct. 7 – the same day as the horrific attacks on Israel which included the murder of hundreds of innocent youths attending a music festival – the flagship Berkeley chapter of Students for Justice In Palestine released a statement with SJP chapters at dozens of other colleges pledging their "unwavering support of the resistance in Gaza … We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Palestine." Bazian's flagship group made it clear it was honoring "our comrades in blood and arms" fighting on the ground in Gaza – that is, Hamas – and warned that "what is coming is greater. Victory or martyrdom." Parroting Hamas' rhetoric for annihilating Israel, they then pronounced: "From River to Sea, glory to the Palestinian resistance and glory to our martyrs." Berkeley's SJP chapter later held a vigil for "martyrs in Palestine" killed during and after the bloody anti-Israel incursion. According to an FBI memo, one of the founders of Hamas has stated, "Hamas is a Palestinian Jihad movement that strives for the liberation of all Palestine, from the [Mediterranean] sea to the river [Jordan], from the north to the south," a goal that would erase Israel from the map. An NPR report earlier this month on the meaning of intifada – an Arabic word that can mean to "shake off" or "uprising" – quoted people who say it is inextricably related to violence and those who say it is not. Basil Rodriguez, whom NPR identified as a Palestinian American graduate student at Columbia, told the network: "For me, it just speaks to liberation. To free Palestine from the [Israeli] apartheid regime, and the military occupation. For me it calls for freedom and for change." Eliana Goldin, whom NPR identified as a Jewish undergraduate and leader of a pro-Israel group at Columbia, said "The word 'intifada' was only associated with death and terrorism and destruction. So 'intifada' still feels just as charged as if someone were to say Holocaust. Or if someone were to mention any sort of catastrophe that happened against a people that you consider yourself a part of." Schanzer, the former Treasury official, agreed. "When they're calling for an 'intifada,' they're calling for a violent uprising," he said. "These are things we commonly associate with Hamas rhetoric." The next day, Oct. 8, while pockets of Hamas terrorists inside Israel's borders were still killing, raping, and kidnapping civilians, the National Students for Justice in Palestine, which is controlled by the AMP, distributed a "Resistance Toolkit" that celebrated Hamas' war crimes as "a historic win for the Palestinian resistance: Across land, air and sea, our people have broken down the artificial barriers" separating Gaza from Israel. Adopting Bazian's language about "actualiz[ing]" the creation of a Palestinian state, the toolkit continued to exalt Hamas: "Our people are actualizing revolution. Palestine will be liberated from the river to the sea." By our people, it meant "our people back home" in Gaza. Then the toolkit rationalized Hamas' brutal terrorist tactics, arguing "there is no 'right' way for Palestinians to fight." It added that the Israelis who were murdered were not "civilians" and that their "death falls solely on the zionist entity." The toolkit went on to praise the "ingenuity" of Hamas terrorists for capturing an Israeli bulldozer and using it "to breach the illegitimate border fence" and for "neutraliz[ing]" the barrier "in hours." "This action of resistance shatters the illusion of Israel as an impenetrable, indestructible entity," the five-page document gushed while marveling at the "large-scale" battle marshaled by Hamas, which it noted was ongoing. "The resistance fighters are still launching new attacks into [Israel]." Advocating further violence, the NSJP toolkit advised students that liberating Palestine "requires confrontation by any means necessary" — including "armed struggle," not just slogans and rallies, which it asserted is "legitimate." It provided templates of pro-Hamas graphics for student protesters to use for campus posters and other propaganda, including one depicting the Hamas terrorists paragliding into Israel to carry out their mass slaughter. "We will also be having a 'how to organize a protest,' including roles, security, media training, and more, on the national call-in meeting on Oct. 9," it advised. In a chilling closing remark, NSJP confirmed it wasn't just supporting from afar the Oct. 7 actions of Hamas – a specially designated terrorist organization – but was actually a "part" of its movement. "We as Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not [just] in solidarity with this movement," NSJP averred. The group's toolkit spread through dorm rooms across the country thanks to social media, and soon anti-Israel protests broke out at major universities using the tactics and propaganda suggested by NSJP. For example:
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