Ghadeer Elghafri

Abu Obeida was the official spokesman for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, which is the armed wing of Hamas. He died in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in 2025.

In May 2021, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists fired over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at major population centers in Israel. Israel responded by launching “Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW),” carrying out targeted military strikes in Gaza.

Anti-Israel activists use the term “resistance” to refer to violence and terror perpetrated against Israeli civilians and their allies. It is used to glorify and encourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence. Anti-Israel activists chant slogans such as: “Resistance by any means necessary!” and “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!” in response to terror attacks.

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, European Union, Israel and other countries. It is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, has promoted antisemitism on religious grounds, and has called for a global caliphate and the destruction of the State of Israel.

Founded in 1987, it has killed thousands of Israeli civilians in mass shootings and suicide bombings. Hamas has kidnapped children, families and the elderly, holding them hostage in Gaza. It has desecrated [slide 7] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.

Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture. Zionism is a core part of the identity of most Jews.

“Free Palestine!” is a chant used to call for Israel's destruction, acting as a shorter version of "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!" It was shouted during multiple deadly attacks on pro-Israel activists in 2025 in America. It has been used to vandalize synagogues and other Jewish buildings, and has been described as a "battle cry for the death of Jews.”

The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been a pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before the existence of the modern Jewish state. Such propaganda has led to multiple periods of violence against Israeli civilians.

In December 2017, former U.S. president Donald Trump announced that he would formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and relocate the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Hamas uses hospitals, universities and mosques in Gaza to hide their military command centers, store weapons and launch rockets at Israel. According to international law, such sites are no longer deemed “civilian objects,” and lose their right of protection against attack.

Anti-Israel activists and Palestinians commemorate what they call “Nakba Day” on May 15, corresponding to the day following Israel’s declaration of statehood in 1948. Palestinians coined the term "nakba," Arabic for "catastrophe,” to draw a comparison with the Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, meaning “catastrophe.”

The May 2024 and August 2025 People's Conference for Palestine (PCP) brought together several convicted terrorists or their spouses, dozens of anti-American and anti-Israel organizations and agitators, and thousands of activists in Detroit, Michigan.

They gathered under the backdrop of Israel's war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza, which Israel launched after 1,200 Israelis were murdered during the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023.

They also gathered under the banner: "Gaza is the compass!...Zionism and imperialism [the U.S.] are waging a continuous genocide on Gaza, and we, the people of the world, will fight at every turn to reject it."

The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) was the driver behind both conferences. PYM declared regarding the 2024 conference that "Palestinian prisoners are the compass of our struggle," a show of support for terrorists in Israeli jail. PYM's 2025 conference theme: “Gaza is the Compass.”

Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) sent a contingent to the 2024 conference, and they formally endorsed the 2025 conference.

The 2024 The People's Conference openly declared its goal to dismantle American and Israeli power structures, using the event as "an opportunity for us as a movement to develop...our people's right to resist the relationship between U.S. imperialism and Zionism...allow[ing] us to chart a path forward of resistance and struggle within the belly of the beast...to consolidate and concretize what our resistance will look like." Speeches and workshops also focused on tactics for mass mobilization to dismantle of the pro-Israel network.

The terms "empire" and "belly of the beast" are both euphemisms that anti-American activists use to describe the U.S. The term “resistance” is used as a euphemism for nationalistic terror.

The keynote speaker at the 2024 conference was the wife of Walid Daqqah, a terrorist with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He was convicted of kidnapping and killing an Israeli soldier four decades earlier and the PFLP is a communist terror group designated by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terror organization.

Other speakers at the 2024 conference included U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) executive Taher Herzallah, and Mohammed Nabulsi, 2024 conference co-organizer and PYM activist.

The 2025 People’s Conference for Palestine also united participants with U.S.-based extremist organizations, designated terrorist affiliates and communist groups, all with the goal of coordinating strategies for confronting Zionism and U.S. “imperialism.” The event was co-organized by several anti-American and anti-Israel organizations in addition to PYM.

Speakers for the 2025 conference included two terrorists released from Israeli prisons, as well as anti-Israel political figures Linda Sarsour and pro-Hamas activist Mahmoud Khalil, and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.

Both conferences were held in support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis, kidnapped 251 and wounded thousands. War crimes included various systematic sexual crimes like gang rape and genital mutilation. Men and women were violated, even after being murdered. Victims who survived that day, including hostages, endured forms of humiliation and torture.

Gazans working in the targeted Israeli villages provided intelligence to Hamas on which families to kill and torture, including long-time employers. Many Palestinian civilians joined in and celebrated the attacks. Hamas livestreamed their crimes on social media, including to victims’ accounts for families to see. To learn more, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by pro-terror activist Omar Barghouti in 2005 to turn “Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.” Barghouti has also called for Israel's destruction and the BDS movement demands would result in that same goal.

BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.

The movement’s most notable achievement has been infiltrating university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments propose resolutions to boycott or divestment from Israel or Israeli-affiliated entities. BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents and pro-terror activism on campus.