From COINTELPRO to Project Esther: evolution of domestic counterinsurgency in US
7 days ago
- #COINTELPRO
- #Counterinsurgency
- #Palestine Solidarity
- DHS agents targeted Mahmoud Khalil after a smear campaign by Columbia professor Shai Davidai and online doxxing accounts.
- Project Esther, launched by the Heritage Foundation, frames pro-Palestinian advocacy as 'terrorism' and seeks to dismantle leftist movements.
- COINTELPRO's historical tactics of surveillance and disruption are mirrored in modern counterinsurgency efforts against Palestine solidarity.
- Operation Boulder and other past initiatives surveilled and repressed Arab and Palestinian activists under the guise of national security.
- Post-9/11, universities became formal partners in national security, with programs like the NYPD's infiltration of Muslim Student Associations.
- Project Esther uses digital monitoring, legal repression, and infiltration to disrupt Palestine solidarity movements on campuses.
- Columbia University faced coordinated repression, including digital censorship, federal funding cuts, and targeted investigations against student organizers.
- The anti-antisemitism industry, including groups like Canary Mission, collaborates with law enforcement to surveil and suppress dissent.
- The state's repression reflects fears of anti-imperialist internationalism, linking domestic movements to global resistance against U.S. hegemony.
- Historical movements like SNCC and the Black Panthers faced similar repression for their anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist stances.