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In snapshot study last week, the Antisemitism Research Center (ARC) by CAM identified multiple cases of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters on North American college campuses using Instagram to glorify terrorism.
A review of SJP-affiliated Instagram accounts revealed an underlying pattern of content normalizing violence against civilians.
Michigan SJP Rebrands Terrorists as ‘Freedom Fighters’
The University of Michigan’s SJP chapter — operating under the handle “safexmich” — published a post tied to Women’s History Month presenting Palestinian terrorists Leila Khaled, Fatima Bernawi, and Shadia Abu Ghazaleh as “female freedom fighters.”
The post’s caption stated Khaled, Bernawi, and Abu Ghazaleh “contributed significantly to global resistance movements” and encouraged readers to learn about women who “shaped the Palestinian resistance movement.”
The post described Bernawi, who planted a bomb at a movie theater in Jerusalem in 1967, as a “pioneering female militant,” noting she was among the first Palestinian women to undertake “armed self-sacrifice operations.”
The post went on to call Abu Ghazaleh a “leading figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine,” while omitting that the PFLP is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. It also fails to mention that Abu Ghazaleh died when a bomb she was preparing for an attack in Tel Aviv in 1968 detonated prematurely.
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SJP Chapters Spread Terrorist Imagery and ‘Resistance’ Messaging
At the University of Louisville, the SJP chapter documented an organized “Apartheid Walls Art Build” initiative, where students produced large-scale visual displays for public viewing. The panels featured images of Khaled, an infamous PFLP terrorist involved in airplane hijackings five decades ago and hateful slogans such as “Zionism is demonic.”
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At Toronto Metropolitan University, the SJP chapter used its Instagram Story to promote the distribution of stickers bearing Khaled’s image.
At Cleveland State University, the SJP chapter shared images depicting armed individuals carrying rifles, paired with the words “Glory to Palestine and “Resistance,” a common euphemism for Palestinian terrorist actions.
The Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy at Meta, Instagram’s parent company, prohibits glorification, support, or representation of terrorism.
Some of the posts detailed above were deemed by Meta to violate that policy and were removed after CAM drew attention to them.
Read more:
Instagram’s Algorithm Feeds Antisemitic Content to Millions, New CAM Research Finds
New CAM Study Reveals SJP’s Rampant Support for Terror Groups on Instagram
