“Death to America”: Disavowing Their American Identity

“Death to America”:
250 Anti-Israel Groups Want to Destroy the U.S. (full series)
America Is Evil | Endorsing Anti-American Violence
“American Dream Is a Scam” | Disavow Patriotism
Disavowing Their American Identity | Appendix

Disavowing Their American Identity

Here 4 the Kids, which has 80,000 Instagram followers and claims 18 regional hubs in the United States dedicated to “collective liberation and abolishing oppressive systems,” spent the Fourth of July holiday encouraging its audience to completely shed their identities as Americans and abandon any sense of admiration or loyalty.

In a post titled “Breaking Up with the USA,” it quoted from an article by Dr. Xochiti Vallejos, its education director:

The very virtues I’d once celebrated—freedom, justice, compassion—have been exposed to be mere lip service. The things I once believed could never be true was a façade. This country, built on the genocide of Indigenous people and the genocide and enslavement of Black people, was never about justice or liberty.

Of course a country built on that foundation would prove to be rotten to the core. The reality is that this—genocide and corruption—is who the USA has always been. She didn’t change. I did.

The post was liked by the group’s Mid-Atlantic DC Hub, the Cocktails and Capitalism podcast (76,000 Instagram followers), and Palestine Action SoCal, which uses a logo in the form of the red triangle, which is used to express support for Hamas’s violence.

“Forget the Fourth! Free Palestine!”

A collection of groups in Minnesota made a post that told readers to “Forget the Fourth! Free Palestine!”

At least four of the six authors are part of pro-Hamas groups: Anti-War Committee Minnesota and the Minnesota University chapters of SDS, SJP, and Young Democratic Socialists of America. The remaining ones are University of Minnesota Divest Coalition and the school’s Students for Climate Justice chapter.

The post was liked by at least eight groups (see Appendix), including the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee.

“F—k the 4th”

18 Million Rising, a group with about 27,000 Instagram followers that is focused on organizing Asian-Americans against Zionism and Islamophobia, reacted to the holiday succinctly: “fck the 4th. Free Palestine.”

The post was liked by the Inland Empire chapter of DSA; the DC, Maryland, and Virginia chapter of Dissenters; and the New York City chapter of Asians for Palestine.

“F-ck Your 4th”

A post by Swing States for Peace, one of the groups that is attempting to prevent Biden from being officially nominated as the Democratic Party’s general election candidate, and Fed Up for Palestine has an upside-down American flag with the words, “F-ck your 4th.”

The side text reads, “We will not be celebrating genocidal colonizers. Free Palestine.”

The post is liked by about eight other organizations including Abandon Biden 24, another one of the groups trying to stop President Biden from securing this party’s nomination.

Other Anti-American Messaging

Three groups in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia area—Americans for Liberation, Maryland to Palestine, and the DMV chapter of PYM—announced that’d be sponsoring a Car Rally for Palestine on the Fourth of July, declaring “join us July 4th to tell Americans that there’s no celebration while the US funds genocide!!” Their two posts with their anti-American message were liked by about 15 groups (see the Appendix).

The pro-Hamas Within Our Lifetime held an anti-American rally on July 4 announced in a post with Healthcare Workers for Palestine, the New York City chapter of Healthcare Workers for Palestine, the Bronx Antiwar Coalition (which has endorsed the entire Iran-led Axis of Resistance and not just Hamas), No Tech for Apartheid, and Uptown for Palestine.

The text aligns the coalition with those “resisting” the U.S. in places like Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Kashmir, which means they are in alliance with the theocratic Iranian regime; the Iran-backed Assad dictatorship in Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and Pakistan-backed jihadist terrorists in Kashmir.

It then endorses a quote from so-called “freedom fighter” Leila Khaled, a PFLP terrorist who is best known as being the first woman to oversee the hijacking of an airplane, that calls for “strike[s]” against the U.S anywhere and everywhere:

As Palestine resists the most intense period of the U.S.-backed genocide since 1948, Congo, Syria, Sudan, Lebanon, Yemen, Haiti, Kashmir and countries all across the world continue to resist U.S. imperialism. July 4th is not a day to be celebrated while the U.S. wraps its hands around the necks of the world in the pursuit of hegemony, resources and exploitation. As Palestinian freedom fighter Leila Khaled explains, “Any strike anywhere against US imperialism is a step towards freedom.

The post endorsing anti-American terrorism was liked by about 20 groups (see the Appendix).

Conclusion

The inescapable conclusion of these groups’ statements is that the so-called pro-Palestinian network behind almost all the ongoing anti-Israel protests is an appendage of a broader anti-American movement that sees the destruction of the United States as necessary as the destruction of Israel.

Of course, that doesn’t mean everyone who protests Israel or considers themselves to be a supporter of Palestinians shares this movement’s ideology or is not acting with good faith and well wishes for the United States.

But protests and lobbying we’re seeing does not come out of nowhere. They are the products of this movement’s groups who have operated for years and years, often with well-paid staff to fine tune messaging and set up the infrastructure that can be activated at opportune times.

The health of our civil society, political processes, and national security require us to understand where these influence operations originate and the intentions of those who deploy them.