Research & Analysis

Videos allegedly recorded by the suspect shortly before the Boulder firebombing assault that targeted the Jewish community and injured 12 on Sunday, began circulating as pro-terror propaganda on Telegram one day later

Reactions to the latest attack targeting the Jewish community followed a familiar pattern to the murder of a couple leaving a Jewish event in D.C. two weeks ago -- celebration, justification, and legitimization.

Since Jan. 2020, the ADL Center on Extremism has documented 22 terrorist plots or attacks targeting Jews, Zionists or Jewish institutions in the U.S. Sixteen of these occurred after October 7, 2023.

Many in anti-Zionist circles are celebrating and justifying the murders of two Israeli embassy staffers, and in some cases, even encouraging further violence.

In the wake of the murder of two people at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., conspiracy theories about the shooting quickly circulated on social media from users across the political spectrum. The most prevalent of these conspiratorial posts alleged that the shooting was a purposeful and coordinated “false flag” attack carried out by the Israeli or U.S. government to make Jews and Israel look sympathetic, tighten relations between the two countries or rationalize going…

The ADL Center on Extremism has been able to connect the alleged suspect, with a high degree of certainty, to the manifesto, titled “Escalate For Gaza, Bring The War Home.”

1. The Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism is a non-profit organization seeking to dismantle Zionism. The Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism (ICSZ) is a far-left, explicitly anti-Zionist non-profit organization founded in 2023 by prominent anti-Zionist activists and academics who seek the villainization and wholesale rejection of Zionism—the movement for the self-determination and statehood of the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland, Israel—from academia…

In 2024, the ADL Center on Extremism (COE) documented white supremacist propaganda distributions in every U.S. state and the District of Columbia, except Hawaii. Our 2024 assessment focuses on messaging-- the common themes behind the thousands upon thousands of propaganda incidents that have plagued American cities across the nation. White supremacist groups chose to respond to current events and the elevation of certain narratives in the media by tailoring their propaganda accordingly. In…

Throughout 2024, the ADL Center on Extremism documented the tactics deployed by extremists and purveyors of hate to promote false narratives, as well as the harmful impact of conspiracy theories, misinformation and disinformation on communities including Jews, immigrants and other marginalized groups. Predicting how extremists may weaponize false narratives requires an understanding of the strategies that allow them to spread most effectively. Here, we highlight three key mis-…

While much of the world welcomed the prospect of a pause in hostilities and the release of hostages following news of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in mid-January, leading voices in the U.S. anti-Zionist movement responded by doubling down on extreme and inflammatory positions and support for violent action. In online statements and at on-the-ground rallies in the days following the deal — which was announced on January 15, 2025, and officially began with a multiphase…

On January 13, 2025, the United States Department of State designated the Terrorgram Collective and three of its foreign leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs), formally including Terrorgram among other international terrorist groups.   Terrorgram is a decentralized network of white supremacist, neo-Nazi and accelerationist groups and individuals connected primarily through the encrypted social networking app Telegram, with the collective goal of promoting stochastic…

As devastating wildfires continue to decimate sections of Los Angeles, California, extremists and conspiracy theorists are spreading familiar falsehoods, blaming the blaze on common scapegoats such as diversity initiatives, Jews and nefarious government “false flags.” Fires that began in the Pacific Palisades area on January 7, 2025, are now part of a broader set of blazes across the city. Officials believe the fires were caused primarily by drought conditions, high winds and the…

The deadly New Year’s attack in New Orleans, Louisiana, left a city reeling and social media awash in hateful lies and conspiracy theories about immigrants, Israel and a government cover-up.   In the early morning of January 1, 2025, 42-year-old Houston, Texas resident Shamsud-Din Jabbar, drove his car into a crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street, killing at least fourteen people and injuring dozens more before he was shot and killed by police. While law enforcement is still…

January 2, 2025, Update: In the month since this article was originally published, at least two more Islamist-related terror incidents have occurred in the United States, including the deadly vehicular attack in New Orleans, Louisiana, on New Year’s Day 2025, which killed 14 people and wounded dozens more. The New Orleans incident was the deadliest Islamist terror attack in the United States since the 2016 shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, which killed 49 people. Islamist…

Anti-Zionist group Samidoun, sanctioned by the U.S. in October 2024 for its role as a “sham charity” operating as an international fundraising arm of the U.S. government-designated terror organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), has long played a role in the anti-Israel movement on U.S. campuses. The group, which the U.S. considers to be a front for the PFLP in countries where it is declared a terrorist organization, has been featured as a “pro…

False and misleading narratives about the upcoming 2024 U.S. presidential election are spreading widely among extremists and purveyors of hate and conspiracy theories. While some of the most common mis- and disinformation narratives circulating today were also prominent during the 2020 election and the 2022 midterms, others are newer — inspired by current events in America and around the world. These narratives are also being deployed using a range of strategies and tactics…

After Israeli military forces killed Hamas leader and October 7 architect Yahya Sinwar in Gaza on October 16, 2024, U.S. anti-Israel activists quickly responded with praise and veneration for the terrorist who masterminded the deaths of approximately 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and the abduction of some 250 people just over one year ago. Student groups, including numerous chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), were among the loudest voices memorializing Sinwar with…