Academic Extremism How a Faculty Network Fuels Campus Unrest and Antisemitic Violence

Key Findings:

This report highlights the astonishing role Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP), a nationwide network of over 100 faculty chapters, plays in escalating antisemitic incidents, fomenting chaos and pushing forward the academic boycott of Israel. The report presents data linking the activities of FJP chapters to a significant rise in physical assaults, violent threats and lengthy protest actions that target Jewish students for harm.

Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, antisemitic incidents on U.S. campuses have reached unprecedented levels. Physical assaults on Jewish students have surged by 2500%, while violent threats, including death threats, have risen by 900%. While attention has largely focused on student-led groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), AMCHA’s new report – which examined more than 100 U.S. colleges and universities with large Jewish student populations in its analysis - uncovers the direct influential and dangerous role played by FJP in driving this surge:

(1) 57 FJP Chapters were established on campuses most popular among Jewish students: More than 50% of the 103 schools with the largest Jewish populations established an FJP chapter. The ten schools with the most active FJP chapters were the University of Minnesota, NYU, UC Santa Cruz, The New School, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, Columbia, CUNY, Georgetown and University of Chicago. FJP chapters were established in response to a directive from the U.S. arm of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a self-described founding member of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) which was co-founded by an umbrella group of organizations that reportedly includes Iran-supported Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, both designated by the U.S. State Department as terrorist groups and committed to the destruction of Israel. Nearly 90% of FJP chapters used statements to defend faculty’s right to incorporate pro-Palestinian advocacy and activism into their teaching and research under the mantle of academic freedom. 

(2) Correlation between FJP presence and violence: Schools with FJP chapters saw a significant increase of physical assaults and threats of violence targeting Jewish students. These campuses experienced a 7.3-fold increase in the likelihood of physical assaults on Jewish students and were 3.4 times more likely to witness death threats and other violent threats compared to campuses without such chapters.

(3) Faculty-prolonged protests and encampments: Faculty members affiliated with FJP were implicated in prolonging protests, with such activities lasting 2.5 times longer at schools with an FJP presence. Encampments, when they occurred, were likely to last 4.7 times longer at these campuses. Faculty on campuses with an FJP group were likely to have been involved in 9.5 times more days of anti-Israel protest activities than faculty on campuses with no FJP group.

(4) BDS resolutions and academic boycotts: FJP groups played a pivotal role in advancing the BDS movement. Divestment resolutions at schools with FJP chapters were 4.9 times more likely to pass. Moreover, academic BDS demands were nearly 11 times more likely to be included in student demands when FJP chapters were present, suggesting faculty are the primary drivers of academic BDS, with students playing a supporting role.

AMCHA Initiative’s previous research had shown that the presence of anti-Zionist faculty who publicly support an academic boycott of Israel is strongly associated with anti-Zionist student activism and behavior targeting Jewish students for harm.  The rise of the FJP network now provides a platform for coordinated faculty efforts to normalize antisemitism under the guise of anti-Zionism, institutionalize academic boycotts and target Jewish and pro-Israel campus members for harassment and exclusion.