Major US law firm sues Students for Justice in Palestine for alleged support of Hamas 'terrorist activities'
Nine survivors of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on southern Israel brought a federal lawsuit pointing to the escalating nationwide college protests broiling with antisemitism, arguing that National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) and its parent organization are working in the United States "as collaborators and propagandists for Hamas."
Through NSJP, AJP Educational Foundation Inc. – also known as American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) – allegedly "uses propaganda to intimidate, convince, and recruit uninformed, misguided, and impressionable college students to serve as foot soldiers for Hamas on campus and beyond," according to the lawsuit filed on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of Virginia, Alexandria Division.
The litigation, brought by major U.S. and global law firm Greenberg Traurig, alleges AMP "serves as Hamas’s propaganda division in the United States" and "was founded from the ashes of disbanded organizations created by senior Hamas officials after those organizations and related individuals were found criminally and civilly liable for providing material support to Hamas and other affiliated terrorist groups."
In 2010, AMP expanded its operation to American college campuses when it founded NSJP "to control hundreds of Students for Justice in Palestine ('SJP') chapters across the country," the lawsuit says.
"This case is not about independent political advocacy. It is about organizations whose very creation was intended to provide continuous, systematic, and substantial assistance to a Foreign Terrorist Organization and its allies," the complaint states.
The filing alleges that by using "threats, violence, and vocal support for ‘globalizing’ attacks against Jews and anyone who dares to support them," the organizations "have intentionally instigated a mass culture of fear, threats, violence, and overt hatred to intimidate politicians and institutions for Hamas’s substantial benefit."
The complaint also alleges that at the time it was filed, "AMP and NSJP are – among other things – coordinating the occupation of dozens of college campuses across the country to ‘force’ the American government and academia to bend to Hamas’s will."
Fox News Digital reached out to AMP and NSJP for comment on Thursday but did not immediately hear back.
The plaintiffs in the case are U.S. citizens Maya Parizer, Adin Gess, Noach Newman, Natalie Sanandaji, Yoni Diller, David Bromberg and Lior Bar, and Israelis Ariel Ein-Gal and Hagar Almog.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE COMPLAINT
The lawsuit brought on their behalf accuses the organizations of violating the Antiterrorism Act and the Alien Tort Statute and seeks compensatory damages for the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
"It is time that Hamas and all of its agents, like AMP and NSJP, be held responsible for their horrific actions," the plaintiffs said in a joint statement. "We want to go on record to expose these groups for the terrorists they are and make certain that they are stopped from operating in the United States and other countries they infiltrate."
"Since Oct. 7, our country has witnessed a shocking rise in antisemitism, verbal and physical threats against Jews on our campuses and in our streets, vandalism, blockades, economic disruption, illegal encampments, and hostile takeovers of academic buildings – largely and concertedly directed by Hamas and its collaborators, American Muslims for Palestine and National Students for Justice in Palestine," Scott J. Bornstein, senior vice president of Greenberg Traurig, said. "Until now, they have seemingly operated in a world without consequence. With this lawsuit, we will hold Hamas's collaborators accountable for their actions and show them and those in sympathy with them that no one is above, or beyond, the rule of law. As the son of one of the youngest survivors of Auschwitz, I am proud to be part of the team seeking vindication for our clients."
The complaint states that the day after Hamas slaughtered 1,200 people and took 240 others hostage, NSJP and AMP were "prepared and responded to Hamas’s ‘call for mass mobilization’ by disseminating a manifesto and plan of attack ('NSJP Toolkit') which includes materials that appear to have been created before the attack."
"In the NSJP Toolkit, AMP and NSJP identify themselves as ‘PART of’ a ‘Unity Intifada,’ governed by Hamas’s ‘unified command’ of terrorist operations in Gaza. As part of Hamas’s movement, AMP and NSJP state that they seek ‘liberation,’ which they describe as a ‘real process that requires confrontation by any means necessary,’ including ‘armed struggle’ and other acts of violence," the lawsuit says. "The plain text of the NSJP Toolkit confirms that AMP and NSJP do not merely assist Hamas’s ongoing terror campaign abroad – they perpetuate it in the United States."
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Within hours of the attack, the lawsuit alleges "the language of the Hamas-authored disinformation campaign appeared in NSJP propaganda across social media and on college campuses. Exactly as AMP intended, NSJP acted as Hamas’s loyal foot soldiers for Hamas’s propaganda battle on university campuses across the United States."
"The next day, NSJP released its Day of Resistance Toolkit ('NSJP Toolkit') across more than 300 American college campuses and on the internet," the complaint says.
The toolkit, filed as an exhibit accompanying the complaint, promotes a "national call-in meeting" on Oct. 9 that is advertised as including a "how to organize a protest" session that includes "roles, security, media training, and more." It also seeks to recategorize the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks as "a historic win for the Palestinian resistance" and says "across land, air and sea, our people have broken down the artificial barriers of the Zionist entity, taking with it the façade of an impenetrable settler colony and reminding each of us that the total return and liberation to Palestine is near."
The toolkit also advertises a "National Day of Resistance" on Oct. 12 and encourages campus organizers to orchestrate teach-ins, create tables of fliers "challenging Zionist hegemony and popularizing our resistance," and provides further instructions for "messaging and framing" supporting anti-Israel agitators' argument that "when people are occupied, resistance is justified."
The toolkit says campus organizers should not use the terms "war" or "conflict" – and instead say it is a "struggle for national liberation."
Also included are colorful, customizable graphics to use when making social media posts advertising anti-Israel events on campus.
The lawsuit alleges that the organizations "are not innocent advocacy groups, but rather the propaganda arm of a terrorist organization operating in plain sight" and "provide ongoing, continuous, systematic, and material support for Hamas and its affiliates" by "operating and managing Hamas’s mouthpiece for North America, dedicated to sanitizing Hamas’s atrocities and normalizing its terrorism."
"Plaintiffs – survivors of Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack, family members of those murdered by Hamas, civilians still under fire from Hamas’s ongoing terrorism, and persons displaced by Hamas’s ongoing terrorism – have been, and continue to be, injured because AMP and NSJP knowingly provide continuous, systematic, and substantial assistance to Hamas and its affiliates’ acts of international terrorism," the lawsuit says. "AMP and NSJP are thus liable to Plaintiffs for the damages they incurred because AMP and NSJP aid and abet Hamas’s terrorism."