The wave of pro-Hamas protests on college campuses in the US seemed to occur suddenly, shocking US citizens. But according to a Wall Street Journal report published on Friday, the political tactics behind some of the protests were the result of “months of training, planning and encouragement by longtime activists and left-wing groups.”

Student organizers at Columbia University received advice from the National Students for Justice in Palestine, veterans of campus protests, and former Black Panthers.

“We took notes from our elders, engaged in dialogue with them and analyzed how the university responded to previous protests,” said Sueda Polat, a graduate student and organizer in the pro-Hamas encampment.

According to the report, the National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), which has over 300 chapters across the US, helped organize many of the college encampments and building occupations.

NSJP already began promoting demonstrations at colleges in October, shortly after Hamas’s brutal massacre of over 1,200 Jews – calling for a “day of resistance” on college campuses. Its rhetoric escalated over time – on April 25th, NSJP wrote on social media: “The Student Movement for Palestinian Liberation will not be silenced; we will escalate until our demands are met.”

The same day, NSJP referred to US police as “pigs,” on social media, advising students: “If someone is arrested, don’t linger too long or pigs will kettle the march.”

Four days later, as university administrators began expressing concerns that the protests could interfere with graduation ceremonies, the NSJP announced a new chant on social media: “No divestment, no commencement.”

Some students attended a “Resistance 101” with guest speakers that included activists with Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based group that celebrated the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and is linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Samidoun has been banned in Germany and was deemed a terror organization by Israel in 2021.

During the training, Samidoun coordinator Charlotte Kates told students: “There is nothing wrong with being a member of Hamas, being a leader of Hamas, being a fighter in Hamas. These are the people that are on the front lines defending Palestine.”

The report quoted one Jewish student, Jacob Schmeltz, a senior political-science major at Columbia, who went home to Montclair, N.J., for Pesach and said he felt so uncomfortable with the antisemitic rhetoric on campus, he hasn’t come back.

“This should be the time I should be able to enjoy my senior year,” he said. “But instead I have felt so rejected by much of the Columbia community that have refused to call out the incidents of antisemitism on campus.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)