Sut Jhally

Overview

Sut Jhally has promoted anti-Zionism on campus and is the creator of the anti-Israel films: “The Occupation of the American Mind” and “Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land.” He has also demonized Israel on social media.

Jhally has reportedly claimed that “the narrative surrounding Israel in the United States is overwhelmingly positive because of the influence of a powerful Israeli lobby” and that U.S. media “is influenced strongly by a public relations arm of the Israeli government that is tantamount to a propaganda mill.”  

The stated intention of Jhally’s films is reportedly to “offer a counter-narrative to challenge that of the United States’ media.”

Jhally has presented his films at Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) events, as part of Israel Apartheid Week, on multiple university campuses and at the 2017 Chicago Palestinian Film Festival.


Jhally is the Founder and Executive Director of the Media Education Foundation (MEF), which was created [00:09:20] as a non-profit organization.

According to their website, MEF: “produces and distributes documentary films and other educational resources to inspire critical thinking about the social, political, and cultural impact of American mass media.”

As of 2015, the organization reportedly had a budget of nearly two million dollars, which Jhally has said [00:11:58] is mostly covered from the sales of their films. As of 2012, Jhally said [00:11:00] that much of the organization’s work is done by 16 full-time staff, in addition to 8-12 student interns.

The organization’s stated [00:13:59] aim is to “partner with” thousands of college, high school and middle school teachers across the U.S. to share its anti-Israel messages and media with a [00:40:15] “captive audience” of students.

Jhally is a professor and Chair of the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst).

Promoting Anti-Zionism on Campus

In April 2019, Jhally promoted a controversial panel discussion at UMass Amherst, titled: “Not Backing Down,” featuring fellow anti-Israel activists Roger Waters, David Zirin, Linda Sarsour and Marc Lamont Hill.

Linda Sarsour has frequently used the word “Zionist” as a pejorative and has tweeted that “nothing is creepier than Zionism.” She has aligned with noted anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, dismissed [00:07:45] those who see her alignment with Farrakhan as problematic and slammed the “Jewish Media” for calling attention to it.

In November 2018, Marc Lamont Hill was fired from his position as a contributor to CNN News network following controversial comments he made during a meeting held at the United Nations for an “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.”

In anticipation of the panel discussion, it was reported that numerous organizations voiced their opposition, expressing concern that “the event is a threat to ‘Jewish students’ sense of belonging, as well as their sense of safety and security on campus.’”

In response to the widespread criticism, Jhally was quoted stating: “The vicious smears these four people have been subjected to are part of a systematic effort to change the subject and deflect attention away from the billions of dollars in financial and military aid the U.S. continues to give Israel despite its ongoing violations of international law and Palestinian human rights.”

On April 23, 2019, Jhally appeared on a podcast, defending the event. In the podcast interview, Jhally praised [00:11:11] Roger Waters for being the “centerpiece of the cultural boycott of Israel and making sure that anyone who plays Israel knows that they are engaged, that they are supporting an apartheid state.”

On April 16, 2019, a Jewish student at UMass published an opinion article for the campus newspaper expressing her concerns about the event.

The article stated that the panel: “seems to be designed to influence students into supporting a one-sided message against Israel. The panel lacks a diverse viewpoint, and attendants will only hear arguments against the Israeli government’s policies without any scholar to defend those ideas. It’s propaganda, unworthy of higher education.”

In a lecture, published in 2017, Jhally spoke [00:40:13] about how to use the classroom to force students to watch material they choose, in this case, films demonizing Israel and its supporters. Specifically, Jhally suggested that professors tell students that they will be tested on the materials shown to them, in order to ensure students pay close attention.

Anti-Israel Films

In 2003, Jhally wrote, directed and produced the anti-Israel film: “Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land.” The film claims to expose a conspiracy between American and Israeli political elites that creates and perpetuates false narratives about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  

Jhally expounded upon this idea in an interview, published in March of 2005, in which he described a comprehensive “propaganda system” designed to reinforce a pro-Israel bias in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On April 22, 2015, SJP UMASS hosted a presentation by Jhally to speak about his second anti-Israel film: “The Occupation of the American Mind.”

Building upon the message of his previous film, this one claims to show that Israel controls the American public’s view on Arab-Israeli conflict in the media.

In his presentation, Jhally used a series of widely debunked maps of Israel, known as the “Map That Lies,” to state his claim [00:03:49]that the major undisputed fact characterizing the Arab Israeli conflict is Israel’s progressive theft of land from the Palestinian people.

The maps claim that lands once controlled by Britain, Egypt and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian land” were purportedly stolen by Israel. In February 2016, publisher McGraw-Hill Education recalled copies of a college textbook containing the fraudulent maps. In October 2015, American cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.

The film was narrated by anti-Israel activist, Roger Waters. In a video discussion in 2017, Waters promoted the film, stating [00:02:05] to his listeners: “we need to use every possible opportunity...to reach out to one another across international borders so that we can organize our resistance to the disturbing Orwellian nightmare.”  

On May 9, 2016, Jhally tweeted: “@johnpilger Roger Waters narrates brilliant new film on Israel's propaganda war in the USA http://www.occupationmovie.com.” Jhally’s tweet included a graphic that promoted the film.

On May 7, 2016, Jhally tweeted: “Roger Waters narrates MEF's new film on Israel's propaganda war in the U.S. http://www.occupationmovie.com.” Jhally’s tweet also included a graphic promoting the film.

The same film was presented by Trinity SJP, at their inaugural event, on April 19, 2016.

At the viewing, Jhally reportedly introduced his film by claiming that “Israel was waging ‘the most successful PR campaign ever’” — the response to which was his film, which “argues that the narrative surrounding Israel in the United States is overwhelmingly positive because of the influence of a powerful Israeli lobby that has worked assiduously to cast Israel as a lone underdog democracy and its action as noble self-defense.”

Jhally’s film was presented again at an SJP event at UCLA on November 30, 2016 and again in 2017, as part of Chicago’s Palestinian Film Festival.

A Twitter account for his film, “The Occupation of the American Mind,”  has demonized Israel, promoted anti-Israel agitators and supported BDS. It also endorsed Jhally’s controversial 2019 panel discussion at UMass Amherst and called an April 2017 piece in Mondoweiss that whitewashed Hamas’s “new” charter: “excellent” and “Very clarifying.”

Demonizing Israel

As of May 2019, Jalley’s endorsement of SJP and BDS activist efforts to demonize Israel on campus is cited on the BDS movement’s official website.

In a podcast interview, aired on April 23, 2019, Jhally stated [00:20:15] that “if you wanted to look at the most effective propaganda campaign...in American history, it is the campaign that has been run by the Israel lobby.”

On June 24, 2013, Jhally tweeted a link to a video which he described as a “Fantastic new film on media & Israel's war crimes against the people of Gaza in 2008.”

The film to which Jhally referred was a 2008 documentary titled: “The War Around Us.” According to the film’s website: “The War Around Us captures...one of the most disturbing wars of our time. As missiles shower the Gaza Strip and unspeakable atrocities emerge.”

The war the film discusses is Operation Cast Lead.