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Since last summer, the Antisemitism Research Center (ARC) by CAM has rigorously monitored Instagram content promoted by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and similar groups that glorifies, or presents sympathetically, U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Houthis.
Extolling terrorism contravenes Meta’s community standards, and the ARC has reported the posts in question to Meta, urging the social media giant to examine and take down the problematic content, and Meta has been responsive in some cases.
Recently, in the time period of March 14-21, the ARC documented a series of posts violating Meta’s community standards, including several praising the Houthis, an Iranian proxy group that currently controls large swaths of Yemen amid the ongoing civil war in the country. Some of these posts refer to the Houthis as “Yemen” — in line with a common SJP tactic using euphemisms to express support for terrorist organizations while maintaining plausible deniability.
Meta must exercise vigilance to ensure SJP does not create de-facto loopholes in the “Dangerous Organizations and Individuals” policy by simply not naming the groups whose actions they back.
A selection of these recent posts are highlighted below, and they are indicative of the disturbing extent of such content disseminated online by SJP and its ilk, raising serious concerns about radicalization and the spread of extremist ideologies in higher education.
CAM calls on Meta to continue enforcing its own Community Standards by removing such content, and also permanently ban SJP chapters that regularly peddle pro-terror sentiments and antisemitic hatred.
Glorifying the Houthis and Whitewashing Terrorism
On March 17, SJP chapters at Cal Poly Pomona, Salem State University, Loyola Marymount University, and The New School shared a post referring to the Houthis as “Yemen” and celebrating their attacks on international shipping lanes in the Red Sea. This language seeks to normalize and justify the terrorist activities of the Houthis while conflating the entire nation and people of Yemen with the Houthis.
The post read: “We stand with the people of Yemen, and we salute their deep sacrifice for our cause.”
Similarly, SJP at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) highlighted a direct public statement from a Houthi spokesman who openly touted a strike on a U.S. aircraft carrier. This post directly violated Meta’s policy against “channeling information or resources, including official communications, on behalf of a designated entity.”
SJP at The New School also shared a post celebrating the Houthis’ attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, framing this aggression as “enforcing international law.”
The post declared: “If the world won’t hold Israel accountable, Yemen will.”
Defending Convicted Terrorists
SJP at The New School further demonstrated its alignment with radical ideologies by sharing a post that defended convicted terrorists. The post described Sami Al-Arian, who was sentenced in 2006 to 57 months in prison for supporting Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as a “political prisoner.” It also defended the “Holy Land Five,” a group convicted of funneling money to Hamas through the now-defunct Holy Land Foundation.
Other SJP chapters have used Instagram to promote the PFLP, another U.S.-designated FTO. SJP at the University of Wisconsin-Madison advertised a reading group dedicated to Ghassan Kanafani, a PFLP leader killed in Beirut in 1972, branding it as a “fundraiser for Palestinians.”
This suggests the event was not a legitimate academic discussion, but rather a thinly-disguised effort to legitimize a terrorist figure and raise funds potentially linked to extremist activities.
Misrepresenting Security Concerns and US Actions
On March 14, CUNY Law School’s SJP chapter promoted a deceptive narrative regarding the suspension of Helyeh Doutaghi, a scholar who was suspended from Yale Law School. Its post shared an excerpt from a public statement by Doutaghi, framing her suspension as a “relentless campaign to crush Palestinian solidarity.”
However, in explaining the suspension, Yale officials cited concerns over Doutaghi’s alleged ties to entities subject to American sanctions, specifically the Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, which was designated by the U.S. Treasury Department as a “sham charity” raising funds for the PFLP.
Amplifying Terrorist Threats
On March 21, Huskies for Palestine at Northeastern University shared an official statement from the PFLP, calling on “all free forces in America to escalate the confrontation against the American participation in the genocide war.”
Meta forbids “channeling information or resources, including official communications, on behalf of a designated entity or event, e.g., directly quoting a designated entity without caption that condemns, neutrally discusses, or is a part of news reporting.”
Read more on CAM’s monitoring of SJP’s online activities:
New CAM Study Reveals SJP’s Rampant Support for Terror Groups on Instagram
CAM Monitoring Detects Early March Surge of Pro-Terror Instagram Content Spread by SJP
