Jacob Baime, of the Israel on Campus Coalition, told JNS that the number of protests has “already exceeded what we anticipated, and the number is still growing.”
That number has “already exceeded what we anticipated,” Jacob Baime, CEO of the group, told JNS on Friday, before a “national day of action” was planned to protest the strikes on Saturday.
“What’s striking is how quickly our adversaries mobilized,” Baime said on Friday. “Groups like the Answer Coalition, Students for Justice in Palestine and the Party for Socialism and Liberation activated the same infrastructure they used after Oct. 7 within hours of the strikes.”
The group shared a copy of its list of protests with JNS. Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Baltimore, Cincinnati and Washington, D.C., appeared on the list. Dearborn, Mich., did not appear, and there were only two protests listed in New York City. (JNS asked the Israel on Campus Coalition why there didn’t seem to be pro-regime protests in Dearborn.)
Protests were called “hands off Iran,” “stop the war on Iran” and “no war on Iran.” Some occurred on college campuses, including Columbia University, Stanford University, New York University and Pennsylvania State University.
“We’re also seeing pro-Iranian regime protest activity spread to campuses that were quiet during the 2024 encampment cycle, which shows our adversaries’ organizing infrastructure has expanded well beyond elite universities,” Baime told JNS.
“Anti-Israel activism on campus has escalated dramatically, and the climate for Jewish students today is rapidly worsening,” he said.
