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Orchestrated Protests, Mobilized Masses, Scripted Chants
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Lies about Israel and Jews are nothing new and didn’t begin on Oct. 7, 2023. The inflammatory libels have been repeated so often since the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, 2023, that many people now fully accept them as fact. The most serious accusation is the charge of genocide, repeated by elected officials including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and chanted at protests around the world. Its repetition has convinced many to believe it without question.
Centuries of False Accusations
The blood libel is one of the oldest lies against Jews. The Jewish people have been accused of killing Christian children for rituals and poisoning wells dating back to the 12th Century.
The Big Lie is a propaganda technique that distorts the truth for political gain. Hitler described it in Mein Kampf – a method mastered by Joseph Goebbels and the Nazi propaganda machine during World War II. Hitler blamed the Jewish people for Germany’s defeat in World War I to help justify the Holocaust. He wrote that people are more likely to believe a colossal lie than a small one, because they cannot imagine someone having the audacity to devise something of that magnitude.
Antizionism is yet another iteration of an ancient campaign to vilify Jews and blame them for the ills of the world.
Often overlooked, Hamas controls the messaging inside Gaza – and there is no free press. The terror group’s false claims are part of a broader ideology that systematically vilifies Jews and Israel on the global stage – largely crafted by Iranian propagandists and Islamist radicals. These slanders are then amplified by anti-Israel activists, influencers, politicians, reporters, celebrities, non-profits and organizations, like the UN – across the political spectrum. Lies repeated often enough eventually are accepted as fact.
Big Lies on Oct. 7 Anniversary
The war in Gaza has been tragic. The bombardment from the Israeli military – in its efforts to defeat the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist organization and its partners – has created heartbreaking devastation for many Palestinian civilians. Social media spreads these images to a worldwide audience within minutes. The suffering is real, but the charge that Israel intentionally targets civilians is blatantly false. Hamas fights from inside homes, schools and hospitals, which is why so many civilians have died.
The anniversary of the Hamas massacre became an occasion to accuse Israel. Mayor Mamdani marked Oct. 7 by calling the war in Gaza a genocide. Other politicians also used the day of commemoration to attack Israel, including House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Michigan Senate candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed walked away when asked about his silence on the anniversary.
Some Democrats criticized Mamdani. U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres: “The world demonizes Israel 365 days a year. Perhaps, for just one day, the critics could take a vacation from their hysterical hatred of the world’s only Jewish State.” U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz accused the mayor of “desecrating the memory of murdered, innocent Jews.”
Comedian Bill Maher mocked Mayor Mamdani as tone deaf for criticizing Israel in an Oct. 7 tribute. Israel’s ambassador to the UN accused him of “hijacking” the anniversary, saying his statement is “like turning Sept. 11 into a day of mourning for al-Qaeda.”
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Orchestrated Protests, Mobilized Masses, Scripted Chants
Anti-Israel activists planned at least 262 events in 37 countries in the days around the Hamas Oct. 7 attacks. A Fox News Digital investigation identified the Global Alliance for Palestine – a London-based coalition – as a key ringleader. The reporter’s conclusion: “The global coordination illustrates how contemporary protest movements combine international leadership, local activist networks, standardized visual branding, emotionally charged messaging and traditional news outreach into a single mobilization infrastructure.”
Chants were scripted in advance. A review of the organization’s toolkit by The Jerusalem Post found shared guidelines for “Communications Framing” and “Core Messages” about Israel that encouraged language that was “disciplined, credible, urgent and impossible to ignore.” This is why activists use words with strong negative connotations, like genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, racism, colonialism and imperialism – terms chosen to put Israel’s supporters on the defensive and force them to withdraw their support.
Outside the Univ. of Oregon’s Hillel Jewish student center, masked protesters chanted “we will get Hillel off campus,” “Long live the Intifada” and “Glory to the martyrs of the al-Aqsa flood” – Hamas’s name for the Oct. 7 massacre. One man burned an American flag – what starts with the Jews, does not end with the Jews. In NYC, protesters waved Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad flags.
Thousands marched in London, waving Palestinian, Iranian and Soviet flags. A few protesters desecrated a war memorial dedicated to Brits who defended the country against the Nazi air force and a female protester made a Nazi salute. Britain’s opposition leader, Kemi Badenoch, who grew up under a Nigerian military dictatorship, blamed mob mentality for the rise in attacks against Jews.
Hundreds showed solidarity on Oct. 7 by posting their support for Zionism as non-Jews. Iranian Canadian women’s rights activist Sara Ghorbani: “I’m not Jewish. I’m Iranian. And I am a Zionist.” Unfortunately, even this effort was hijacked by the anti-Israel crowd to declare its opposition to a national Jewish homeland.
Gaza Libels
On Oct. 17, 2023, the Hamas-run Health Ministry announced that an Israeli airstrike had hit the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City and killed about 500 people. Activists, reporters and others quickly repeated the claim without independent verification. Six days later, The New York Times admitted that it “relied too heavily on claims by Hamas that could not immediately be verified.”
The explosion came from a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket that landed in the hospital parking lot. Hamas terrorists confirmed this in an intercepted phone call and an Islamic Jihad spokesman admitted his terror group “fabricated” Israel’s role.
The strongest evidence against the genocide charge comes from Hamas. The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health recently released mortality data for 2025: 50,227 births against 24,650 deaths. By its own count, the population grew. Many anti-Israel activists go further and allege that Israel has committed genocide since 1948, a period in which the Palestinian population increased from about 500,000 to 5.5 million – a 1,000% increase, with an additional 2 million Arab citizens in Israel. In contrast, the worldwide Jewish population still has not returned to its pre-Holocaust level.
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1. Attacks against Jews and Israel are carefully orchestrated
False accusations against Jews did not start with Gaza. Today’s hate campaigns take pages from 12th Century blood libels, Nazi Germany and Soviet propaganda campaigns. The terms and techniques are the same, but today’s slander and stereotypes are dressed up to appeal to today’s ideologies and causes.
2. Many protesters do not even know why they are protesting
Ignorance leaves a vacuum easily filled with toxic lies and conspiracy theories. A popular chant at anti-Israel protests is, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” When many protesters are asked, which river and which sea, they are unable to answer. They ignore the question or just say they are there to join the crowd. Others who have voiced support for Hamas change their tune when they learn that the Islamist movement is dedicated to killing all Jews, persecuting gays, repressing women and executing Palestinians who criticize it.
3. Jews are being attacked for a false charge
The genocide charge is being weaponized against Jews to push them out of social and cultural spaces. Comedian Judy Gold was told “You’re a Jew” during two shows in one weekend. None of it had anything to do with Gaza. A new ADL study found that not one of 40 American art museums includes Jewish identity in its diversity commitments – and authors reported being pressed to cut Hebrew words and Jewish-sounding character names from their manuscripts. The accusation is false and the consequences are all too real.
4. Jews are refusing to be pushed out of public life
Activists from two Chicago groups recently interrupted a Jerry Seinfeld show, calling him a genocide apologist. He told the heckler he would send her ticket money to Israel – and the theater applauded. A retired LA teacher whose union voted to throw her out of a meeting for being a Zionist wrote: “We are not going back to being quiet.”
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Ask questions: When someone says Israel is committing genocide, ask for their evidence and the source of it. When a casualty number comes up, ask whether the source separates terrorists from civilians – the Hamas-run Health Ministry does not. When a protester chants about the river and the sea, ask which river and which sea. Be prepared to answer calmly with facts that challenge preconceptions about Israel and prejudices against Jews.
Learn from allies outside the Jewish community: All of these are worth following before your next conversation:
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Bassem Eid, Palestinian human rights activist and harsh critic of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority
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Sarah Idan, former Miss Iraq who faced calls to strip her citizenship after defending Israel
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Asra Nomani, Indian American Muslim investigative reporter who uncovered the playbook behind the 10/7 anniversary protests
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Maj. John Spencer, retired U.S. Army officer who chairs urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point and has written that Israel took more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any military in the history of warfare
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Col. Richard Kemp, retired British Army commander who states the IDF kills fewer civilians per combatant than most other armies
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Elica Le Bon, Iranian American who quit her job as a lawyer to work full time in social media advocacy
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Yoseph Haddad, Israeli Arab Christian and wounded IDF veteran who runs Together – Vouch For Each Other
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VOICE OF CONSCIENCE
Canada is Your Home
Excerpts from the statement by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney marking three years since the Hamas terror attacks against Israel.
“Three years ago, at dawn, the terrorist organization Hamas perpetrated the worst attack against Jewish people since the Holocaust.
“In Israel, nearly 1,200 were murdered – grandmothers and grandfathers, mothers and fathers, children.
“Since Oct. 7, 2023, Jewish communities across our country have faced a devastating resurgence of antisemitism.
“Every Jewish Canadian has the right to be visibly, fully, joyfully Jewish in public life – at school, at work, on the street, in synagogue, in every place that is theirs because Canada is theirs.
“We are renewing our commitment to strengthen public safety and combat hate, with new laws and resources to stop extremism before it takes root, and with new protection for the synagogues, schools, and community centers at the heart of Jewish life.
“To Jewish Canadians, our commitment is unwavering.
“Canada is your home.
“Your country stands with you.”
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Stories of Resilience
Stories Impacting American Jews
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Bomb threat reported at Boca Raton Jewish preschool
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Bomb threats force evacuation of two Orthodox Jewish schools in Brooklyn
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Jewish preschool educators told to condemn Israel withdraw from conference in Italy
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Michigan debate final straw for Jewish Democrats on El-Sayed
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DSA demands Mamdani fire NYPD boss Tisch as socialists turn on mayor
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Columbia University calls Oct. 7 dining menu listing a mistake
Stories Impacting the U.S. and Israel
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NAZA anti-Israel ‘documentary’ surpasses $500,000 in U.S. revenue
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U.S. Rep. Gottheimer announces 10/7 bills including withholding US aid until UN designates Hamas, Hezbollah as terror orgs
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Navi Pillay, UN investigator who accuses Israel of genocide, wins Nobel Peace Prize
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Hamas hails Nobel winner, Israel blasts moral failure
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U.S. sanctions entire International Criminal Court in The Hague
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EU Parliament adopts resolution listing Muslim Brotherhood as terror group
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Lebanon vows thorough investigation after Hezbollah explosives seized at checkpoint
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Palestinian Authority TV columnist: Jews control everything, their prominent trait is usury
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Palestinian Fatah official: two-state proposal is trap set for Israel’s destruction
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Paris urges Abbas to reverse Palestinian election postponement
Stories from Around the World
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The Focus Project develops and distributes news, background, history and weekly talking points on timely issues to inform individuals and organizations about issues affecting the American Jewish community and Israel, and help readers speak with more consistency and clarity. The editions also provide potential responses for addressing incidents of antisemitism and anti-Zionism. With input from a spectrum of major American Jewish organizations, we focus on that which unites us, rising above political and individual agendas.
Recognizing that hatred of Jews comes in many forms and directions, we strive to address all sources as they arise, and educate our growing audience on topics ranging from inter-religious relations to relevant international developments. From week to week, we may focus on issues arising from the political left, university campuses, from the political right and from institutions, government, and corporations. We don’t try to address all issues in each edition. We hope you will find this information useful in your writing and/or speaking. We are always open to your feedback: info@focus-project.org.
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