(The Situation Update Report [SUR] is a near real-time brief of a possible threat or situation being monitored by The Counter Threat Center. The information is accurate at the time of reporting, but may be subject to change.)
Ludovica Leccese, Magdalena Breyer, Gabriel Helupka
Cameron Munoz, Senior Editor
October 11, 2023
Palestinian Flag[1]
Current Situation: The National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) has issued a call for a national “Day of Resistance” on Thursday, October 12, 2023. The call comes amid the escalation of the Israeli-Hamas conflict. SJP hosted a national call-in meeting on October 9th to provide guidance for organizing protests. They also developed a “toolkit” document providing instructions on messaging, framing, infographic templates, and advice on organizing protests.[2] Numerous chapters across US college campuses have publicized their involvement, detailing the schedules and venues of their planned protests.[3] News of this event is widely circulating in conservative media circles, such as Fox News and Breitbart.[4]
Day/Time of event: October 12, 2023
What is the current threat:
"Day of Resistance" protestors will very likely encounter counter-demonstrations or challenges from pro-Israeli students and student groups on campus. The general public will likely travel to the participating campuses to take part in the protests and counter-protests. These opposing demonstrations will very likely lead to violent clashes between the two groups if there is a lack of security.
The "Day of Resistance" will very likely further polarize American public opinions on the ongoing conflict. The protests will very likely increase solidarity amongst Palestinians and Palestine supporters, likely driving further antagonization of Israel. Supporters of Israel are likely to leverage the protests to conflate Hamas' actions with the broader Palestinian cause. This will likely advance a narrative that Palestinians are terrorist sympathizers and are legitimizing Hamas’s actions. Given the protests’ prevalent coverage in conservative and far-right media outlets, the narrative will likely gain traction in conservative circles.
Increased tensions between pro-Israelis and pro-Palestinians in the US will likely heighten national security concerns. The US will very likely increase its security measures and surveillance operations to prevent potential threats and attacks on American soil.
Who will it directly impact:
Palestinians in the US
Israelis in the US
Jewish individuals and communities in the US
US citizens
US Government
Students on US college campuses
College campus security
US colleges and universities
The Counter Threat Center (CTC) is providing regular updates on the evolving situation and war between Israel and Hamas. This report is being provided under our Global Public Good mandate to assist in providing situational awareness and actionable intelligence to protect and save lives. If you or your organization need intelligence reports of this kind and more to protect you, your people, or your organization please subscribe. Try us for 7 days free. We work each day to detect, deter, and defeat terrorism and threats that cause harm through intelligence and other solutions. Click here to learn more: https://www.counterthreatcenter.com/subscriptions
[1] “Protest for standing with Palestine in Tunisia Tunis Kassba” by Brahim Guedich licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International
[2] CTG Threat Hunter via Google Docs
[3] CTG Threat Hunter via Instagram and X
[4] Ibid