The various anti-Israel demonstrations occurring in the West display one major key common denominator and that is the bond connecting Islamists and pro-Palestinian groups with far left movements.
The pro-Pal activists would have unlikely achieved such visibility and diffusion inside college campuses, nor would they have achieved the number of demonstrators they did, without the help of the far left, indeed, in the name of a common enemy and that is “Western imperialism”. It is not by coincidence that during demonstrations in various US cities, Israeli flags were not the only ones being set on fire, but American ones were as well, while protesters invoked “death to America”.
It is not just Israel to be targeted, but it’s the whole Western civilization, and these demonstrations cannot be indicated as peaceful if they display Hamas and Khomeinist banners, if they invoke more acts like October 7th 2023, intifada, if they chant “Houthi Houthi make us proud, turn another ship around”, if they verbally and physically attack Jews and if they display swastikas, as it occurred in the UK a few weeks ago.
These are not peaceful events, they are calls for war, they are hate marches with a very clear ideological message that targets the whole Western civilization.
Senator Ted Cruz and Prof. Alain Dershowitz both denounced the role of far left groups such as PSL (Party for Social Liberation), Revcom, and DEI in the US campuses turmoil and anti-Israel activity.
In Europe, far left formations have been demonstrating side to side with anti-Israel protesters, sharing the propaganda on the streets and on their websites. For instance, the International Revolutionary Communist website “Marxist.com”, just four days after the October 7th massacre, posted a long statement entitled “Down with hypocrisy! Defend Gaza!”, justifying the attack and stating: “Freedom for Palestine can only be achieved through revolutionary means and the overthrow of capitalism in the whole region” and lamenting that “…The attack (October 7th) was instantly presented in the most harrowing terms by the media”.
In April 2024, the same website complained about the arrest of three demonstrators in London for carrying a placard with the slogan “Intifada til victory”.
The website “The Communist” indicated on several occasions initiatives in support of the Palestinian cause in different British cities such as Cardiff, Kent, Brighton, Goldsmiths, and Downing Street, just to cite a few.
On April 23rd, the same website attacked the NYPD intervention to clear out Ivy League campuses from anti-Israel demonstrators, comparing the action to the 1968 police intervention against anti-Vietnam war demonstrations. Unfortunately, the Marxists seem to forget that those demonstrations, unlike the ones occurring today, were not antisemitic calls for war.
In Italy, far left parties, trade unions and university movements such as “Power to the People” (Potere al Popolo), “Communist Refoundation”, COBAS (Confederation of Basic Committees) and Collective Coordination Sapienza University (Coordinamento Collettivi Sapienza-CCS) sided with Palestinian groups such as API (Association of Palestinians in Italy), UDAP (Arab-Palestinian Democratic Union), and MSP (Palestinian Students Movement).
As explained by Francesca Musacchio, director of the Italian security and intelligence website “OFCS Report”, during a protest that took place in Rome on April 16th, organized by the CCS and MSP, demonstrators attempted to attack the Academic Senate. Additionally, some members of the last Red Brigates-BR (the ones active until the 1990s) were also indicated as present. Musacchio added that these BR members, who are all known to the police for their past activity, prefer to remain active in the background and use young recruits to “do the job”.
In mid-March 2024, Italian media outlets revealed information coming from the General Prosecutor’s Office in Florence indicating a resurgence of former Red Brigade members, signaling the possibility that they could influence actions and protests against Israel organized by student collectives and social centers. Additionally, a dangerous convergence between old militants of the Red Brigades and the pro-Palestinian movements was also indicated.
It is also important to recall how far left groups such as Anarchist Revolution (Rivoluzione Anarchica), COBAS, Power to the People and Communist Refoundation mobilized, together with the Palestinian groups, in support of Yaeesh Anan, the leader of the al-Aqsa “Tulkarem Brigade” cell arrested in late January 2024, together with two other individuals. Anan was planning terrorist attacks in Israel from Italian territory and was constantly in touch with Mounir al-Maqdah, chief commander of the al-Aqsa Brigades in Lebanon.
In France, in late April 2024, the head of the lower house of the parliament faction of the France Unbowed (LFI) far left party, Mathilde Panot, was summoned for questioning by police in an investigation into suspected justification of “terrorism” over comments on the October 7th attack.
The same thing goes for Franco-Palestinian activist and LFI member Rima Hassan, who was also summoned by the police the day after the double cancellation of a conference she was to hold alongside Jean-Luc Melenchon on the Middle East in Lille. According to the newspaper “Le Monde”, Hassan was summoned “in order to be heard freely on facts of public apology for an act of terrorism, committed using ‘an online public communication service”. The acts with which she is accused were allegedly committed between November 5th and December 1st .
The overall picture that is emerging regarding the support provided to Palestinian and Islamist movements by the far left in Europe and the United States is worrying. The facts listed above are only a partial slice of a much more extensive and deep-rooted problem. The pro-Palestinian formations can count on a historical and widespread presence of the radical left, both in the political sphere and in the university and extra-parliamentary spheres, especially in Europe, thus giving rise to an extremely dangerous infiltration on multiple levels.
