Samia Alkam

Ismail Haniyeh served as the senior leader of terror group Hamas for 18 years. During this time, Hamas increased its rocket barrages on southern Israel and built more terror tunnels. Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran on July 31, 2024, during the Swords of Iron war, which Israel launched against Hamas in response to the October 7, 2023, Hamas atrocities.

Yahya (Yehiya) Sinwar masterminded the October 7, 2023 terror attacks on Israel and had been a Hamas leader since the 1980s. Sinwar was nicknamed the “Butcher of Khan Younis” after he admitted to killing 12 suspected Palestinian “collaborators,” and in 1989 was sentenced to four life terms in Israeli prison for crimes including the killing of two Israeli soldiers.

In 2011, Sinwar was released by Israel to Gaza following the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal and resumed his leadership role in Hamas. On October 17, 2024, the Israel Defense Forces eliminated Sinwar in Gaza.

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.

The encampment was one of about 200 anti-Israel college encampments set up in North America, and over 20 globally, in the spring of 2024. The first began on April 17, 2024, at Columbia University. Protesters harassed Jewish students, blocked Jews from campus facilities and used anti-Semitic language in their activism. They also promoted BDS and protested Israel’s war against Hamas, launched after Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023.

SJP is the leading student organization engaged in anti-Israel activity on North American college and university campuses. The first chapter of SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley by Professor Hatem Bazian, who has spread anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group.

SJP organizes anti-Israel campus campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks and pushing the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, and SJP chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for terrorists.

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.