Free speech is a right enshrined in the fabric of our country. Just as we must be vigilant in protecting it, we must also be clear-eyed about what it is and what it is not. Where speech is motivated by hate or is intended to support or encourage fear or violence or terrorism, the right of free speech is not absolute. Free-speech protections have never extended to terrorist activity.
Pro-Hamas documents found recently on college campuses and the Internet told people to:
“Build your cell.”
“Pick your target.”
“ … remember that your action is to disrupt [sic], damage or destroy your target.”
“With an efficient sledgehammer in your hand, you can cause quite a bit of damage!”
“ … make sure you have your routes planned for a perfect getaway.”
“Do not have your face on show at any point during the action.”
These are just some of the recommendations made in materials that have been discovered, including propaganda allegedly from Hamas’s media office that surfaced at Barnard College and a digital manual that explicitly promotes violent tactics. These are not handbooks for people on how to exercise their voice. These are guides for how to create a cell, avoid detection, engage in reconnaissance and then how to carry out an attack. The details are frightening to read.
The presence and distribution of these materials on American college campuses underscore a chilling reality: Terror groups are becoming increasingly organized, strategic and emboldened in their attempts to foment outrage and attack Jews.
These materials and their dissemination, at times by third parties who are not students, seem explicitly designed to turn educational spaces into battlegrounds for hatred instead of what they should be—safe spaces for students to learn and grow.
We should not be naive or gullible enough to believe that the tactics some advocate—from using burner phones to recommending not wearing shoes that could identify you—will be limited to mere vandalism and destruction of property.
The discovery of these documents comes in the wake of warnings by the former director of national intelligence that Iran was playing a role in stoking protests on U.S. campuses in the spring of 2024.
This reality must galvanize us into action. Shame on us if we fail to act decisively in this critical moment. History will judge our response.
We have seen the impact in the United States when intelligence and information are not acted on as aggressively as they should be—on Sept. 11, 2001. We must learn by leveraging our lawful tools to counter the forces of terrorism and hate that seek to normalize themselves in our society and undermine our country.
We have Hamas’s playbook in our hands. We need to counter their manual with our own movement.
First, the difference between lawful, protected speech and First Amendment activity and support for designated terrorist organizations must be recognized. Under the law, 8 U.S.C. 2339B(a)(1), anyone who “knowingly provides material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, or attempts or conspires to do so” commits a federal crime. This includes “speech to, under the direction of, or in coordination with foreign groups that the speaker knows to be terrorist organizations,” as ruled in Holder v. Humanitarian L. Project, which also says that our First Amendment and other freedoms do not protect persons who provide material support to these “particularly dangerous and lawless foreign organizations.”
Second, where individuals violate the law regarding support for terrorist organizations, they should be charged and prosecuted. Beyond that, we must pursue entities that are propagating this material and those who fund them, whether they are nongovernmental organizations or foreign state actors. We have seen strong action from law enforcement and prosecutors in this regard; they must be lauded.
Where institutions, including college campuses and universities, fail to support and undermine the enforcement of the law, they must be held accountable. Hamas, Hezbollah and those working on their behalf are not supporters of free speech, they are carrying out the will of foreign terrorist organizations and undermining free speech in the process.
Lastly, none of us must be deluded as to what is going on. The manuals that have been propagated are not designed to advocate for the oppressed or seek justice. They are, in their own words, designed and intended to “disrupt, damage, [and] destroy” their targets. Individuals and organizations have been targeted. Their other target—our democracy and the values upon which it was established.
We know our enemy’s tactical war plan. Having this in our possession gives us the responsibility and advantage to act strategically and decisively. This isn’t about free speech, which must be protected. It is about stopping terrorist organizations from spreading hate and violence against the Jewish community and undermining our country.
Michael Masters serves as the national director and CEO of the Secure Community Network (SCN).
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