|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
CAM’s Antisemitism Research Center (ARC) recorded 36 incidents involving calls for “intifada” across 16 countries in three weeks surrounding the recent third anniversary of the October 7th massacre.
A masked protester in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, held a sign reading “Long live the intifada,” as the crowd chanted “Globalize the intifada!” In Frankfurt, Germany, demonstrators carried a banner featuring a rifle silhouette and the words “Intifada bis zum Sieg!,” German for “Intifada until victory!”
In Seattle, Washington, the owners of Aviv Hummus Bar, a kosher restaurant, found “intifada” written over an inverted red triangle, a pro-Hamas symbol.
Between September 29 and October 19, the ARC tracked 36 distinct cases involving explicit calls for “intifada” in 16 countries and more than 20 cities. Fourteen of the incidents occurred on the October 7th anniversary itself.
CAM counted each incident once, regardless of how many posts documented it. The total is a minimum, as additional posts remain unreviewed and monitoring continues.
What “Intifada” Means
“Intifada” is often translated as “uprising.” For Israelis and Jews across the world, the word evokes traumatic memories of waves of Palestinian terrorism — particularly the Second Intifada of the early 2000s in which more than 1,000 Israelis were murdered in Palestinian suicide bombings, shootings, stabbings, and other violent acts.
Some calls for another “intifada” explicitly demand renewed terrorism. On October 6, an X account wrote in Arabic, “The intifada and martyrdom operations must return inside every city of Palestine.”
“Martyrdom operations” is a euphemism for suicide attacks. That same day, the account rejected peace, demanded “the return of the intifada,” and called Jews “killers of the prophets.”
One Slogan, Five Continents
In Sydney, Australia, thousands marched behind banners reading “Globalise the intifada” and “Genocide is a crime, intifada is not.” In Toronto, Canada, a speaker urged the crowd to “strike imperialism,” receiving chants of “Globalize the intifada” in return.
“Intifada until victory” appeared in Arabic in Berlin, Germany, in Spanish beside a masked fighter in Mexico City, and in English in Dublin, Ireland. In Copenhagen, Denmark, “Intifada Revolution” was superimposed above an image of a burning tank. In Malmö, Sweden, “Global Intifada” banners featured red triangles, alongside another banner reading “Leve intifadan,” meaning “Long live the intifada.”
The slogans were also seen on university campuses. At McGill University in Montreal, a law student group posed behind a banner reading “L’Chaim Student Intifada,” pairing the Hebrew toast “to life” with a call for “intifada.” At Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana, students marched behind a banner reading “Intifada revolution,” and an organizer declared, “We support October 7th and Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.” At the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, California, chants included “Long live the intifada” and “Intifada until victory.”
A Threat to Jewish Communities and Wider Society
In New York City, protesters disrupted a Union Square vigil for the victims of October 7th, chanting “Globalize the intifada,” with some carrying Hamas and Hezbollah flags.
In Berlin, protesters chanted “Intifada Revolution” at an October 7th march. Police dispersed the demonstration after officers were kicked and sprayed with an unknown liquid. On October 10, marchers in the government district chanted “Yalla, yalla intifada” and “Palestine may defend itself with stones and rifles.”
In Adana, Turkey, a group shared footage of its rally outside the U.S. consulate, showing Israeli, American, and British flags on the ground. The Turkish caption read “Long live the global intifada!” In Brussels, a demonstration near the Israeli embassy called for “intifada” and “insurrection” in Belgium.
Meanwhile, Samidoun, the global anti-Israel organization that has helped spread “Globalize the intifada” rhetoric internationally, paid homage Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as the architect of the October 7th massacre and urged followers to “build the global intifada.”
Those displaying rifle imagery, calling for “martyrdom operation” and glorifying the October 7th mastermind make the threat explicit. Their calls to “globalize the intifada” encourage terrorist violence against Jewish communities everywhere and endanger societies as a whole.
Confronting Incitement, Protecting Jewish Communities
- Social media platforms must enforce their rules against incitement and the glorification of terrorism.
- Officials and law enforcement must enforce laws against incitement and protect vigils, synagogues and Jewish businesses.
- Universities must apply their codes of conduct consistently and address the threat that calls for “intifada” pose to Jewish students and campus safety.
- You can help. Document calls for intifada at rallies, on campus, or online. Report them to CAM’s Report it app and share them using #NotJustAChant.
It is not just a chant. Let’s make sure no one mistakes it for one.
Read more:
‘Globalize the Intifada’: Meaning, Origins, and Why the Slogan Is a Call for Violence
