Introduction

The new semester began with a renewed round of pro-Hamas protests, partially constrained by new university regulations and by suspensions of anti-Israel groups. Research now shows that faculty have taken the lead attacking Israel as well as pro-Israel students and colleagues. A new front has also opened with legal challenges to those restrictions and to antisemitism training. Islamist legal challenges to any oversight or restrictions on anti-Israel and antisemitic activities now extend from the K-12 through university levels, and from municipalities to the Federal government. Continued targeting of Jewish institutions on campus including Hillels puts the entire participation of Jews in education in question.

Conversely, a new series of lawsuits and investigations has targeted the anti-Israel enterprise in the US has the potential to expose its ‘red-green’ foundations.

Editor’s Note

The enormous growth of BDS-related antisemitism since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack has required the BDS Monitor to be greatly expanded. Readers are reminded that a shortened version appears in The Algemeiner.

Protests

Violent anti-Israel protests continued in September as new FBI statistics show that Jews were the most frequent targets of hate crimes in the US in 2023. In one notable event a protestor in Newton (MA) attacked a group of pro-Israel demonstrators and was then shot by one of them. Despite video evidence and witness testimony showing he was attacked, the individual defending himself was charged by the local District Attorney.

In Australia pro-Hamas demonstrators including Students for Palestine, Extinction Rebellion and Disrupt Wars. fought with police outside a Melbourne arms fair, attacked police horses with acid and rocks, resulting in multiple injuries and arrests.

Thousands of protestors marched through Lower Manhattan in what organizers called “Flood NYC for Gaza,” waving Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian, and Syrian flags. The White House condemned the appearance of Hamas flags. Other anti-Israel protests took place in New York City, in one case in ostensibly in connection with the shooting of a knife wielding criminal on a subway platform, and with the arrival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before his address to the United Nations. In London and Edinburgh Barclays Bank branches were vandalized as was a Berlin Holocaust memorial with the words “Jews are committing genocide.”

In response to an April protest that shut down Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and delayed travelers, a public interest law firm filed a class action lawsuit against a variety of anti-Israel organizations including Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. BDS funders such as the Tides Center, its Community Justice Exchange, National Students for Justice in Palestine, American Muslims for Palestine, AJP Education Foundation, Inc., and the WESPAC Foundation, were included in the lawsuit.

Politics

As the November elections approach Israel remains near or at the center of American politics.

Statements by Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris endorsing the withholding of 2000 pound bombs from Israel continues to raise the specter of a US-arms embargo should she be elected, as do selected leaks regarding targeting of Israeli politicians and companies, and the withdrawal of US political support.

Harris’ digital ads targeting Muslim voters in Michigan also claim that she “will not be silent about human suffering in Gaza.” Despite this outreach the national “Uncommitted” group has recommended that its members vote neither for Harris nor former President Trump.

Unconfirmed reports that Harris has told Muslim organizations that she would consider appointing Muslim Brotherhood connected Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison as US Attorney General is another indication that her policy team would be deeply opposed to Jewish and Israeli interests. The connection between this and the endorsement of Harris by the American Islamist group Emgage Action is unknown. The equally unexpected endorsement of former President Trump by Amer Ghalib, mayor of Hamtramck (MI), reflects the degree to which the American Muslim vote has become a key factor in this electoral cycle.

Congressional responses to antisemitism also continue to be mixed. Rather than focus exclusively on domestic antisemitism Senate Democrats broadened the scope of hearings to include “rise in hate incidents across the country, particularly targeting the Jewish, Arab, and Muslim communities.” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) criticized this saying “The message that’s being sent today at this hearing today is anti-Semitism isn’t enough, the attempts to kill Jews on campuses, that’s not a conversation worthy of discussion… If you want to kill Jews, oh, well, we can’t talk about that unless we also talk about 15 other things.”

Witness included Kenneth Stern, who opposes the Antisemitism Awareness Act, and Maya Berry, director of the Arab American Institute. Berry defended the term ‘intifada’ and deemed praise for ‘martyrs’ as ‘ambiguous’ and ‘not hate speech.’ The hearing was disrupted at one point by Muslim protestors yelling “Jews” at Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), along with shouted denials regarding the 7 October Hamas massacres and “Fucking Jews and the Israelis, talk about the 40,000. Talk about all these people. Why is it about antisemitism?”

The Democratic controlled Congress continues to move slowly on antisemitism issues. The controversial ‘Antisemitism Awareness Act’ also advanced in the US Senate after being stalled. Democrats have been slow to act on the bill and favored another where mention of the IHRA definition of antisemitism is countermanded by reference to the Nexus Document which omits Israel. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has reportedly promised to bring the bill for a vote by the end of the year, possibly as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, since as a standalone bill it faces an uphill challenge within the Democratic Party. I

in addition Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced the Preventing Antisemitic Harassment on Campuses Act, which would extend Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to cover religious discrimination and harassment or discrimination “on the basis of actual or perceived Jewish ancestry or actual or perceived Jewish religion.”

The chair of the House Ways and Means Committee Chairman, Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), has also demanded information from the Internal Revenue Service regarding the tax exempt status of Islamist and other anti-Israel organizations and their funders, alleging they have ties to foreign terrorist organizations. The organizations include Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation, American Muslims for Palestine, Students for Justice in Palestine, Alliance for Justice, Islamic Relief USA, Jewish Voice for Peace, The People’s Forum, the Tides Foundation, Adalah Justice Project, the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, United Hands Relief Inc., WESPAC, Within Our Lifetime, the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, and the Palestinian Youth Movement.

The slow pace of governmental intervention on campus antisemitism was also highlighted in Congressional testimony from Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary of education for civil rights, who noted that defunding institutions for antisemitism is at least a year long litigation process.

In contrast, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has asked the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to investigate the rise of campus antisemitism. Also notable was a call by Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) for universities to follow the lead of New York University and recognize that ‘Zionist’ has become a euphemism for ‘Jew’ which should be incorporated in hate speech policies.

Islamist lawfare against any oversight or restrictions on anti-Israel activities also expanded as part of a greatly enhanced legal strategy that encompasses the K-12 and university levels. CAIR filed a lawsuit against the US Government alleging Federal agencies had created a secret watchlist of ‘pro-Palestine’ individuals. The organization also voiced opposition to a Los Angeles City Council proposal demanding protestors maintain an eight foot distance from synagogues.

Complementing this legal strategy, CAIR and a variety of other anti-Israel organizations including the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, Palestinian Youth Movement, Palestine Legal, Jewish Voice for Peace, the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, and others, are part of a new initiative called the “Right to Reject Zionism,” which targets the IHRA definition and pro-Israel groups such as the ADL. A series of lectures accusing ‘Zionist’ institutions of various perfidious acts and alliances are being presented.

Internationally, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution by the newly seated ‘State of Palestine’ demanding that Israel withdraw to the 1967 boundary and cease all military operations in the West Bank and Gaza. The resolution also calls on member states not to sell military equipment to Israel. It does not mention Hamas, October 7, or Israeli hostages.

Students

The semester opened with a variety of anti-Israel protests and vandalism at campuses across the country. The most serious incident was an assault on a Jewish student at the University of Michigan, who was approached by a group, asked whether he was a Jew, and then beaten. The university president condemned the incident but no suspects have been apprehended. A series of other assaults on Jewish students and a Jewish fraternity occurred but their motives are unclear. Two Jewish students were also attacked near the University of Pittsburgh campus in what authorities denied was a hate crime.

Student anti-Israel protests were also held in at Chicago and Bay Area universities, Columbia University, McGill University, and elsewhere. A number of protestors at the University of Michigan were arrested and will be prosecuted by the state. Rep. Rashida Tlaib accused State Attorney General Dana Nessel of doing so because she is Jewish. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer initially declined to support the Attorney General’s decision but a group of House Democrats did so, apparently without naming Tlaib.

Elsewhere the Drexel University Chabad house was vandalized with ‘free Palestine’ while at Harvard a mezuzah was torn down from the door of a Jewish student. Overall the ADL reports a 2000% increase in antisemitic incidents on California campuses alone.

In a significant incident, members of the Baruch College Hillel were harassed by SJP members outside a midtown Manhattan restaurant who shouted “Back to Brooklyn, out the Middle East” and “Where’s Hersh you ugly ass bitch?” At Harvard University Jewish and Israel related events are now patrolled frequently by university police.

Vandalism of university property has become routine:

· Pro-Hamas students vandalized a statue of Benjamin Franklin at the University of Pennsylvania, stating it was “a symbol of imperial violence and colonialism.”

· A lawn at McGill University which had been destroyed by anti-Israel protestors in the spring was again torn up.

· The ROTC building at the University of North Carolina was vandalized and a Palestinian flag was raised.

· George Washington University trustees’ homes were vandalized by the ‘Student Coalition for Palestine’

· Various landmarks at Georgetown University were vandalized including with the Hamas triangle symbol.

· A building at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities was vandalized with slogans including “Zionists off campus,” “Intifada is here,” and “glory to the resistance.”

Direct student harassment of Jewish faculty also renewed in September, including at the University of California, Berkeley law school, where students handed out flyers condemning a ‘Zionist’ professor outside of his class. At MIT pro-Hamas students harassed a talk by an Israeli professor and stole food provided for the event.

Students also resumed harassment of administrators, as at Pomona College where dozens of protestors screamed outside the president’s house late at night. Students arrested during a sit-in at Wesleyan University, whose president had written an op-ed praising campus protests, held a protest outside of his house. The Cornell University ‘Coalition for Mutual Liberation’ disrupted a job fair and chanted “We will work, we will fight. No more jobs in genocide” and “Fuck you Boeing.” A foreign student who had been previously suspended for his role organizing campus protests now faces deportation.

Anti-Israel students and faculty at the University of Minnesota marched in protest against that institution’s recently announced neutrality policy. In another case where a university president was targeted, in this case by an antisemitic cartoon, University of Connecticut canceled a planned meeting with the student divestment group.

As has long been the case ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’ is taking the lead in organizing anti-Israel and pro-Hamas protests on campus:

· The National SJP announced a ‘Week of Rage’ would begin on October 7.

· The Rutgers University SJP chapter protested its suspension in front of an administration building, stating menacingly that it was “Strike Three” for the university.

· At William and Mary College the SJP chapter led a walkout and chanted “intifada revolution” and “we don’t want two states, take us back to ‘48.”

· At the University of Minnesota SJP protestors along with students from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), UMN Divest, and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) disrupted the inauguration of the school’s new president.

· The Columbia University ‘Apartheid Divest’ coalition released a statement praising the Houthi missile attack on Israel, noting the support for the attack from Hamas, the PFLP and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and ending with “Glory to the resistance.”

In a sign, however, that the centrality of ‘Palestine’ to left wing campus movements is wearing thin, the Black Student Union at the University of Michigan quit the anti-Israel ‘TAHRIR coalition’ over unspecified “anti-Blackness.” The group continued to maintain that Israel is committing ‘genocide’ against Palestinians.

Student governments also remain at the center of organizing campuses against Israel. At the University of Michigan the student government voted again to hold the budget for various student groups hostage until the administration adopts BDS. The UCLA student government also passed a resolution demanding the administration revoke its ban on encampments. The University of California at Santa Cruz voted to adopt a BDS policy with its own funds but delayed implementation when it discovered the move would violate state and Federal laws. In contrast, the McGill University Student Union revoked the club status of the ‘Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights’ group. The Cornell University SJP chapter was also denied recognition by the administration, as was the University of Illinois SJP chapter.

In a new development, the Islamist group CAIR, the legal arm of the BDS movement Palestine Legal, and allies in the ACLU have begun filing lawsuits against a variety of universities on behalf of Muslim and Palestinian students. The suits against the University of Vermont, the University of Georgia, the University of California at Santa Cruz, and others, allege that disciplinary actions such as suspending SJP branches and students who violate codes of conduct are discriminatory and ‘Islamophobic.’

This strategy imitates that of Jewish students subjected to antisemitism by Arab, Muslim, Palestinian and communist protestors on campus, and appears intended to both subvert the legal momentum in defense of Jewish students and bog down the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights with lawsuits and investigations.

Administrations

Time, place and manner restrictions on protests have now become widespread at universities. More universities have also announced that they will not consider divestment. These include George Washington University, Wesleyan University, the University of Virginia, Chapman University, and Oberlin College.

In other cases, however, universities continued appeasement and discuss divestment with student groups, including at George Washington University. A Brown University trustee resigned his position in protest against the board’s October vote on divestment, stating it is “morally reprehensible that holding a divestment vote was even considered, much less that it will be held—especially in the wake of the deadliest assault on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.” Some 100 Brown faculty members, however, signed a letter favoring divestment.

Elsewhere, however, New Zealand Victoria University announced that it would appease student protestors and sell the small amount of Israel Bonds that it held, while McGill University stated it would “explore” divesting from ‘weapons manufacturers.’ SJP protestors also disrupted a Board of Regents meeting at the University of Washington to demand divestment as was a University of California Board of Regents meeting.

In a similar vein, more universities have announced institutional neutrality policies. These include UCLA, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Alabama, Indiana University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Columbia University also announced that it would form a committee to investigate the issue. The creation of a Title VI office by the University of Pennsylvania was seen as an effort appear pro-active regarding antisemitism and ‘Islamophobia’ complaints. In a surprising move Columbia University also announced updated guidelines that included ‘Zionist’ as a form of ‘coded harassment.’

These positive steps were counterbalanced, however, by the restoration of the University of Wisconsin’s and Harvard’s pro-Hamas student groups, the latter’s refusal to aid local the District Attorney in prosecuting an assault on a Jewish student, and the University of California at Berkeley’s much vaunted creation of a ‘Palestine studies’ program complete with faculty lines. Documents reluctantly provided by Harvard University to the House Education and the Workforce Committee revealed that no students involved in spring semester disruptions were suspended and none of the promised disciplinary actions have been taken.

Columbia University’s new president, Katrina Armstrong, also apologized to anti-Israel students who were “hurt” after New York police were forced to clear spaces they occupied during the spring semester. The refusal of New York University’s anti-Israel groups to participate in anti-discrimination and anti-harassment training sets up a confrontation with the administration. In an especially perverse development, Yale University’s planned commemoration of October 7 purports to honor both Israeli victims and Palestinian perpetrators.

Universities reluctantly reigned in anti-Israel protestors:

· After protests aimed against the Hillel by SJP members, Baruch College attempted to block a campus Rosh Hashanah celebration. The Hillel director stated “We were told by the administration that the campus can’t guarantee the safety of Jewish students because of other agitators who want to hurt, intimidate or harass them.” The decision was reversed only after political pressure including from Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY). The university denied the allegation.

· After criticism, University of Maryland administrators denied the school’s SJP permission to erect an October 7th ‘commemoration of martyrs’ on the school’s main plaza. CAIR and Palestine Legal have sued the university claiming First Amendment rights have been violated.

The publication of a report on antisemitism at City University of New York commissioned by Gov. Kathy Hochul found that a “small, vocal minority of individuals” including professors were responsible for problems. While few incidents and no individuals were cited the report recommended the university overhaul its reporting process, bias training for “diversity officers,” and other administrative procedures.

University presidents continue to resign in response to the decaying campus situation and the intractable hostility of pro-Hamas faculty and students. Jonathan Holloway, president of Rutgers University, announced his retirement at the end of the school year noting that protestors had come to his house and “I don’t want to be in an environment where I need, where my family needs, protection. That’s the part I didn’t bargain for.”

Overall the pushback against divestment and toward institutional neutrality policies should be seen in part as a reaction against the excesses of the anti-Israel movement on campus but also in the context of the slow motion collapse of the current university model. As more states approach the demographic cliff and face dramatically smaller enrollments and larger deficits, buyouts, layoffs of faculty and staff, union strikes, state system consolidations, closing branch campuses, and the closing of smaller institutions have become common.

Faculty

Faculty members continue to take leading roles in anti-Israel protests, typically claiming they are there to ‘protect their students’ and ‘defend free speech,’ stances that frequently appear egotistical and passive-aggressive, but also out of outward ideological alignment.

A new report highlights the growing role of ‘Faculty for Justice in Palestine’ chapters in organizing campus protests. It notes that campuses with chapters were far more likely to have faculty helping students write statements and cosponsor events, in addition to producing anti-Israel and pro-Hamas statements from academic departments. Protests also lasted longer and were more violent. It also notes that no other issue has ever produced this level of faculty engagement “with the single political goal of bringing down a sovereign nation, and harming its inhabitants and those who support them on U.S. campuses, including their own students and colleagues.”

The reaction of pro-Hamas faculty to expressive activities policies has been predictably negative. Efforts to reign in political expressions in departmental statements in particular have been met with sweeping scorn from individual faculty members. There have also been legal responses from faculty. The Council of University of California Faculty Associations, and faculty organizations from University of California and California State systems, filed an unfair labor practice charge with the California Public Employment Relations Board against the University of California regents. The complaint charges that the regents interfered with academic instruction and academic promotions, and interfered with faculty access to workplaces by placing restrictions on protests and dismantling encampments.

At Columbia, the second investigative report on antisemitism detailing incidents on campus was also met with hostility by faculty who claimed it was poorly researched and, more importantly, that the effort was in ‘bad faith’ and ‘conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism.’ For their part University of Pennsylvania faculty joined anti-Israel students protesting outside the presidential debate held in Philadelphia. The Memorial University Faculty Association (Newfoundland) also passed a resolution demanding the university adopt BDS and an immediate ceasefire.

The deep embedding of anti-Israel bias by faculty into courses through the selection of topics or readings remains difficult to perceive or counter. Challenges to overtly political and one-sided courses are invariably met with charges of censorship and that ‘academic freedom’ is being defied, as in the case of a proposed MIT linguistics course entitled “Language and linguistics for decolonization and liberation and for peace and community building from the river to the sea in Palestine and Israel to the mountaintops in Haiti and beyond.” A report regarding Harvard Divinity School also notes the deep embedding of anti-Israel and antisemitic bias within the curriculum which then has downstream effects on American religious life.

The participation of faculty in straightforward indoctrination sessions held outside the classroom was exemplified by the “The People’s Conference For Palestinian Solidarity” at the University of Geulph, which included sessions aimed at high schoolers. In another example a faculty member at Wilfred Laurier University offered students extra credit for attending a pro-Hamas protest and drove students to the rally.

The sheer loathing for Israel embodied by some faculty was reflected in the appearance at Brown University’s Center for Middle East Studies of United Nations special rapporteur and global antisemite Francesca Albanese. She reiterated her stance that the October 7 massacre was ‘legitimate resistance,’ that Gazan society is not extremist, that Israel is a “military dictatorship,” and that Israeli operations are ‘genocidal.’ The hosting of Hamas and PFLP officials along with notable BDS supporters at an event at the Qatar campus of Georgetown University reinforced the point.

The loathing is also complemented in fear of being canceled by students. One recent example at Sarah Lawrence College, which is the subject of a Title VI complaint to the Department of Education, occurred when a faculty member was isolated as a “Zionst” by pro-Hamas students and then received no support from fellow faculty or the administration.

The uncompromising fixation on Israel exhibited by a growing portion of faculty has been noted inside and outside academia and is part of the industry’s declining status with the American public.

K-12

One of the most notable developments in the new school year is lawfare from CAIR and its partners directed against antisemitism training. The San Francisco Unified School District was forced to reschedule antisemitism training for teachers after leading anti-Israel groups including CAIR, the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC), and Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area (JVP), as well as the BDS supporting union, United Educators of San Francisco, objected to the involvement of the ADL, American Jewish Committee, and the local Jewish community.

Evidence also continues to emerge of teachers conspiring to evade oversight and directly indoctrinate students against Israel. Video of Los Angeles teachers discussing methods to bring pro-Palestine content into lessons, transport students to rallies, and avoid getting fired.

Teachers also continue to manipulate students into participating in anti-Israel activities. In Toronto middle school students were forced to participate in a march for ‘Palestine’ after being told they were going to ‘observe’ an event having to do with Canada’s First Nations. Jewish students were also told to wear blue in order to identify themselves as “colonizers.” A Jewish student who expressed discomfort was told “You’ll get over it” by a teacher.

The reigning attitude of DEI controlled policy was reflected in comments by Lower Merion (PA) school board members who stated that Jews were not “historically marginalized” since “Jewish people decided that they were going to join the group of white people.”

In response to exposure, some school districts are adopting policies regarding politics in the classroom. The Portland (OR) School District adopted a new policy barring teachers from displaying personal views “on a political or personal issue” in the classroom. Pro-LGBTQ and ‘black lives matter’ expressions were excepted. The local teachers union has filed a grievance over the policy.

Economics/Professions

In the economic sphere, the problem of arms embargoes against Israel continues to escalate. Reports now indicate that Germany has joined a quiet European-wide boycott of Israeli requests for defense items while at the same time continuing exports to countries including Qatar. This followed the British decision to suspend export licenses for several dozen items with the exception of the centered F-35 program where British participation is subject to US regulations.

The British move was allegedly met with consternation from the Biden Administration although observers note the decision had been made with prior coordination. Officials close to the Trump campaign complained about the move and suggested it put the ‘special relationship’ between Britain and the US is jeopardy.

Equally serious was the decision by the Canadian government to first suspend export licenses of defense items to Israel and then suspend ammunition exports to the US on the basis of those materiel being reexported to Israel.

The continuing refusal of US airlines to resume flights to Israel has become a major political and economic issue. Citing safety, American, United, and Delta have refused to resume flights despite the fact that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has not issued any formal warnings for travel to Israel.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) had complained about the problem over the summer but new research indicates that the de facto travel ban follows calls by pilot and flight attendant union leaders to boycott Israel. This effectively plays into the BDS movement’s stated goals of economically isolating Israel. The FAA has also refused to respond to requests for information from Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY) regarding its instructions to airlines, raising the possibility that the agency is exerting pressure as part of a quiet administration policy.

While outside investment in Israel appears mostly steady, reports indicate that Israeli institutions such as pension funds have shifted some $40 billion in assets to outside of the country. Continuing political and economic instability and lack of confidence in the current government to manage the wartime economy are blamed. Reports regarding an ongoing brain drain also continue to appear

The increasing animosity towards Israel within the medical profession was seen in a long letter of denunciation from personnel associated with Stanford University condemning Israeli ‘genocide’ and demanding BDS. A similar letter from medical trainees at the University of California at San Francisco accused the university of repression and supporting genocide. The problem within the medicine and counseling has escalated to the point where a delegation of Jewish professionals met with Congressional representatives to raise awareness.

Arts and Culture

In the world of arts and culture efforts to shoehorn ‘Palestine’ into all settings continued in September, consistent with the institutionalization of litmus tests on ‘Israel/Palestine,’ transgender, and BLM into the progressive arts scenes. For example, at the Royal Exchange Theater in Manchester (UK) a staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was canceled after the theater management objected to a song about ‘trans rights’ and ‘free Palestine’ was somehow inserted by the director.

The deep bias against Israel in the literary industry was illustrated when a panel organized by the New York State Writers Institute to be held at SUNY Albany was canceled when two writers refused to appear with a ‘Zionist.’ The incident prompted a rare rebuke from SUNY Chancellor John King and the revoking of a fellowship for one of the writers who refused to participate in the event.

The near complete domination of arts and culture spaces by anti-Israel forces has contributed to plummeting public engagement. Elite celebration of anti-Israel propaganda in the guise of art of culture continues, for example in the nomination for an Emmy of a short video It’s Bisan from Gaza and I’m Still Alive. The nomination and eventual win came in spite of the video’s blatant falsehoods and the fact that its creator is a member of the PFLP.