Maura Finkelstein

The terms "empire" and "belly of the beast" are both euphemisms that anti-American activists use to describe the U.S. To learn more, see Canary Mission's campaign Bringing the War Home.

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 that has been described as a "battle cry for the death of Jews.” In May 2025, two Israeli diplomats in Washington, D.C., were murdered by a gunman shouting “Free Palestine!” In June 2025, one pro-Israel activist was killed and over 25 were injured in Boulder, Colorado, when a man yelling “Free Palestine!” firebombed them.

The phrase “Turtle Island” or “occupied Turtle Island” is a name that some indigenous peoples use for North America. The call to “decolonize” Turtle Island, shouted at anti-Israel rallies and backed by major anti-Israel activist groups, is a call for the destruction of the United States of America and Canada. Similarly, the call to “decolonize” Palestine is a call for Israel’s destruction.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis, kidnapped hundreds and wounded thousands. War crimes included mass rape and torture. Many Palestinian civilians participated in and supported the attacks, and Gazans working in the targeted Israeli communities gave intelligence to Hamas on where to strike.

For more information, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.

Among Palestinians and anti-Israel activists, the term “resistance” is a euphemism for nationalistic terror and is used to glorify and encourage anti-Israel and antisemitic violence.

Anti-Israel activists use the phrase “By any means necessary” as one of multiple euphemisms for terrorist violence, of which another is “resistance.”

The watermelon has been appropriated by terrorists and anti-Israel activists as a symbol of Palestinian "resistance" to "Israeli occupation," as it shares the Pan-Arab colors. It gained widespread popularity and usage following the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023.

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free!” is a chant used [00:02:47] to call for the elimination of the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state. In April 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the chant as antisemitic.

The term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” carries the connotation of violence. Palestinian intifadas waged against Israel have been marked since 1987 by hundreds of hijackings, shootings, stabbings, bombings and suicide missions.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as one possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Over 40 countries have adopted the definition as well.

Anti-Israel activists compare Israel to Nazi Germany to insinuate that the plight of Palestinians has eclipsed Jewish suffering during the Holocaust.

The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by drawing a comparison to the Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, meaning “catastrophe.”

On May 3, 2026, pro-BDS advocates signed an anti-Israel letter demanding that The New School defund the school's chapter of the Jewish student group Hillel, known as Hillel at TNS, due to its support for Israel and the IDF.

The letter claimed multiple times that Israel committed a "genocide" in Gaza during its war against Hamas, following the October 7, 2023 terror attacks against Israel. It also accused Israel of "apartheid" and Hillel International of promoting "pro-genocide propaganda on U.S. campuses."

The letter alleged that Hillel at TNS and Hillel International ran "three different programs that send students to volunteer in Israel on military bases to provide logistical support for the Israeli Occupation Forces as it wages a genocide in Gaza." The letter further said that Hillel at TNS members volunteered at an IDF base and "supported four IOF named units as recently as July 2024, nine months into the Israeli military’s genocide in Gaza."

Signatories joined the letter after The New School administration refused to defund Hillel at TNS, following a May 1, 2026 vote in The New School's University Student Senate (USS) to pull school funding for Hillel at TNS. Administrators said that USS was "distorting a qualified student organization” and that USS “is using its platform to target fellow students in a misguided attempt to hold those students responsible for the acts of governments.”

There were 44 anti-Israel activist groups and 336 individuals who signed the letter, including chapters and leaders of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

“IOF” means “Israeli Occupation Forces,” a term used by anti-Israel activists to demonize Israel’s army in place of its real name, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). "IOF" is used to allege that Israel’s existence is illegitimate by accusing Israeli Jews of illegitimately occupying the entire land.

On Saturday, October 7, 2023, thousands of heavily armed Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza. They executed numerous war crimes on civilians, including mass murder, beheadings of children, rape of men and women, torture, kidnappings and mutilation.

Hamas broadcast videos of their butchery on social media, often to victims’ accounts for families to see. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”

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.