Encampment participants were taught how to violently obstruct an arrest by "pigs" over telegram, a report launched by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA) claims.
One year after the eruption of the campus encampment movements across the US and beyond, the JCFA released a report regarding the usage of the encrypted Telegram app for mobilization and coordination of actions, as well as the dissemination of violent pro-terror material and anti-American incitement.
According to the JCFA report, the Telegram encrypted messaging app, based in Dubai but founded in Russia in 2013, has been used by extremist groups for propaganda dissemination, recruitment, and coordination, while past publications of Wired magazine and US-funded Radio Free Europe and have discussed the app's possible links to the Russian government.
Available data showed that while 50 percent of Russian nationals use Telegram, only 2 percent of Americans do in the US. Yet, the JCFA report claims that in the US, university encampments have been coordinating primarily via Telegram. Among the organizations most heavily using it are National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) and Within Our Lifetime (WOL).
In the context of the campus encampments, the primary Telegram channel serving as a nationwide organizing hub was created on April 23, 2024, and was named "Popular University 4 Gaza" (PU4G).
With almost 9,000 subscribers, the channel is run by an administrator named "Popular University News. " Within the initial ten minutes, the very first messages in the channel were related to New York University, Columbia University, and the University of Southern California (USC), indicating that these are significant hubs for the nationwide encampment organizers and for the group itself.
According to NSJP's official account on X/Twitter, the Telegram channel was created by members of the group, as well as members of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOA). The report stressed that NSJP’s ownership of the channel is evident from its profile picture, where the extremist group's name is adorned atop a university building.
Following the first channel, dozens of other telegram channels and groups were launched on different campuses, including Columbia, MIT, UCLA, NYU, and Northwestern. However, the main PU4G channel was significant in facilitating and coordinating joint action between the various encampments and outside agitators, spearheading information, instructions to demonstrators, and advice on funding, planning, and even bail for detainees.
One especially troubling material shared by NSJP's main channel was a ten-page dossier titled "De-Arrest Primer," written for activists in the "so-called u.s. (sic.)", with instructions on how to unlawfully obstruct police forces to free those who have been arrested.
One tactic involves urging protesters to physically push officers off arrestees and break their grips, as well as opening police car doors to enable detainees to escape, carrying wire cutters and reminding protesters that most arrests are "catch and release" and so demonstrators need not worry. The same dossier appeared on a website named "Haters Café," set up by self-described "anarchists" which also features calls to "decolonize" and "attack" "from Gaza to the Americas".
According to the JCFA report, further inflammatory material spread in the groups included anti-American themes, including calling for the fall of America, deeming the US a "colonial entity", referring to policemen in a degrading manner as "pigs," and publishing names of police officers to shame them publicly.
In this context, only last week, a report published by Capital Research Center showed that anti-American and anti-police sentiment soared by 186% within pro-Palestinian groups since October 7, while the number of posts endorsing or promoting anti-police or anti-American violence increased by 3000%.
The JCFA report stressed that organizations involved in the groups have lauded the October 7 attacks in the past and shown support for other terror groups such as the PFLP. Further evidence shown in the report alludes to the connections between NSJP, SJP, and Hamas-affiliated organizations in the US, including the Islamic Association for Palestine, which was dismantled over a decade and a half ago after being convicted of funding the Holy Land Foundation and Hamas.
Finally, the report also featured several calls to action, including to investigate the mentioned organizations, prevent them from using public facilities, and act to remove any tax exemptions, press charges against those who used Telegram to attack security forces, trespass on public institutions, damage public property, and more.
‘Khamenei’s campus jihad’
Aviram Bellaishe, vice president at JCFA and author of the report, told the Jerusalem Post:
"Since President Trump took office, there has been a significant shift in federal policy toward student protests—and particularly toward pro-Palestinian activity on higher education campuses. It’s not just a change in tone—it’s also a shift in practical measures: visa revocations, in-depth investigations, and budget cuts."
Bellaishe reminded that, as reported in the New York Post, at least three dozen students and graduates from California universities have lost their visas for participating in pro-Palestinian protests, while visa revocations and threats of deportation have also been reported at Harvard and Columbia. At the same time, the Department of Education has launched investigations into more than 60 academic institutions, alleging serious failures in handling incidents of incitement and antisemitism on campuses, according to a WSJ report from Sunday.
"In light of this trend, the opportunity arises to examine not only the nature of the protests – but also the organizational and financial structures behind them," Bellaishe continued. "The findings presented here raise serious concerns: the activities of organizations such as NSJP and WOL are not necessarily spontaneous, but may be part of a coordinated system – ideologically and sometimes even structurally – with extremist entities, and even with those that may have indirect ties to terrorist organizations."
Bellaishe stressed the centrality of the Telegram app for this activity as a key tool for "coordinating encampments on campuses, distributing logistical instructions, and for harsh anti-American rhetoric, messages encouraging clashes with security forces… Some of the content even mentions ideologies, images, and symbols used by organizations that were previously defined – by the US government – as terrorist organizations," he added.
According to Bellaishe, it was also found that organizations such as AMP and WESPAC, which enjoy tax-exempt status, may be exploiting this status for radical activity, with a lack of transparency regarding the sources of funds and the destinations to which they are transferred.
"Documents, testimonies, and reports presented in the investigation indicate the existence of connections, even if indirect, between academic activists, student movements, and organizations that were previously linked to supporting entities that were defined as terrorist organizations by the US government. It must be said that if Khamenei made the context that support for Palestine in student protests is directly related to opposition to the US and even called it 'social and moral jihad,' then we must also make the context and call out the child, 'jihad on campuses,'" he concluded.
