'Allah will burn them': What pro-Palestinian students say when they think no one is watching

In the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, a group of Jewish students at Western University infiltrated two private group chats, belonging to Palestinian students and their allies in the London, Ont., community.

The students’ discoveries shine a light on what some opponents of Israel are saying to one another when they think no one’s watching. What they found in the chat histories is unsettling: a stream of Hitler memes, pro-Hamas videos and antisemitic cartoons. More alarming is the advice group chat members give each other on escaping detection. There are even tips on bringing knives to peaceful protests.

National Post has reviewed the chat histories supplied by the Jewish students. The Post has granted their request for anonymity, given the uptick of violence toward Jews on campuses. Even the principal lawyer advising them did not want to be identified for this story, fearful the publication of his name could provoke retribution.

The Post reached out to the Palestinian Cultural Club (PCC), a university-affiliated group that ran one of the group chats. The Post also reached out to the administrators of the second chat, requesting an interview to discuss the antisemitic nature of many posts.

“The allegations put forward are currently before a rigorous independent process where we are fully cooperating with all legal processes,” a spokesperson for the club responded over Instagram. “We will be fully rebutting the fallacious claims made that the PCC in any way facilitated or was involved in the spreading of hate.”

While the spokesperson declined to comment further on the case, he warned that any “spurious allegations made that the PCC supports hate, or supports anti-Semitism, is false, malicious, and defamatory. We will defend ourselves in court against such spurious allegations if they are made.”

The group instructed the Post to communicate with them via their legal counsel moving forward but declined to provide a lawyer’s contact information after multiple requests.

The group chat for Western’s Palestinian Cultural Club wasn’t always intensely political. In its text history there are innocuous links to Zoom events, reminders to apply for leadership positions and good-hearted Eid Mubarak greetings shared during Ramadan.

But the tenor changed on Oct. 7, 2023, the day thousands of Hamas fighters invaded southern Israel, triggering a war still being fought today that has shaken up the Middle East.

“Everyone this is a time where we all stand united!” was one of the first references to the attack in the group chat, posted in all capital letters. A wave of heart emojis and Palestinian flags followed.

In the coming days, as reports emerged of Israelis being burned alive, beheaded and sexually assaulted, group chat members exchanged messages about attending rallies to support Palestine and protest Israel’s unfolding military response in Gaza.

It didn’t take long for group members to see a risk in discussing these subjects on a channel tied to the university. Several expressed concern for their academic careers if the content became public. A few worried about Canary Mission, a website that identifies and tracks anti-Israel activists.

One of the group’s members acted on these concerns six days later, Oct. 13, with a message to gauge support for starting a new chat on WhatsApp, separate from the university-affiliated club, and using better security features to help ferret out any unwelcome eyes.

The member then sent out a link to the new chat, named “Palestinian safe zone NOT Affiliated with Western.” Immediately, members started joining the new group.

But despite the name change, it’s clear the “safe zone” was comprised of many of the same students. Screenshots indicate at least two of the new chat administrators were also members of the Palestinian Cultural Club. (The new chat itself, however, is not affiliated with the club.)

Once the new chat was created, members started joining faster than administrators could approve. Lost in the chaos of digital migration was a WhatsApp account linked to a group of Jewish students on campus. They observed quietly and hung back in the shadows to document what was said. Later, they scraped the entire chat history of the group.

It was on this new platform that, in the weeks and months ahead, some of the members’ feelings became even clearer.

That chat history suggests the Palestinian students and their local supporters were unwavering in backing the Oct. 7 attacks despite the unfolding devastation in Gaza. “Calling us savages for fighting back after 75 years is insanity,” wrote one student, in response to a video of Israel Defence Force soldier Naama Levy being abducted. Her sweatpants in the infamous video are bloodied, suggesting sexual assault.

Members responded to a photo of the kidnapped Bibas family on the side of a milk carton, saying: “This is a lie.” Another wrote: “They’re probably being treated better than how they were treated in their own homes.”

Over time, sympathy for Hamas grew more explicit: “They don’t know that h4mas is literally OUR military. and they just defend but somehow they are the problem??” a student wrote Oct. 17. Two weeks later, in response to an editorial cartoon depicting a Hamas soldier with blood on his hands and a water faucet turned off by Israel, a student wrote: “The resistance is making decent progress tbh (to be honest).”

At various times during the conflict, members expressed their admiration for the leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis — all designated terror entities by Canadian authorities.

A picture of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin was posted Oct. 16, subtitled with a quote from an interview in which he proclaimed, “Israel will be no more.” Two weeks later, another member shared a message delivered by Hamas spokesman Abu Obaida, with one boasting “he’s such a G,” meaning gangster. Another said: “I love the way he talks.”

Obaida was killed Aug. 30 in an Israeli air strike.

Members grew frustrated that locals in the London, Ont., community did not see the Hamas invasion as a liberating chapter in the story of the Palestinian people.

The “yahood (Jews) own everything,” a student wrote Oct. 15. “That’s how they control everyone. Money.” Later in the month, members discussed which local restaurants support Gaza, prompting users to suggest mostly Middle Eastern places: “London is filled with these yahoodi’s. We have to make a list of where we can and can’t eat,” one suggested.

Some members of the chat continued to express concern about being detected. “If someone sees this gc (group chat) and reports it, we all getting expelled.”

The words “Jews” and “Zionists” are frequently used interchangeably, which, one student warns, must not be repeated publicly.

“The government are slaves to these jews,” one wrote, prompting a fellow student to encourage others to strategically reframe their language. “Guys this is serious. (If) you wanna refer to them as something, refer to them as Zionists. If you get caught referring to them as Jews they’ll get you for antisemitism and ruin ur life. And this isn’t an exaggeration.”

Students aren’t the only targets of the group chat’s ire. Western University president Alan Shepard fell into their verbal crosshairs in mid-October, when a group member suggested “someone kidnap the dog, maybe then he’ll move.” The following week, another described Shepard as “clearly a zionist pig.” Later, a student said of Shepard: “Just out of curiosity, does anyone know Alan (Shepard’s) house location. I heard it’s public information.”

On Oct. 25, a student shared a TikTok video featuring photos of journalists at CNN, NPR, the New York Times, Fox News, CBS and NBC, emblazoned with Jewish stars. Hava Nagila, a celebratory Jewish song traditionally performed at weddings, is playing in the background.

“I know they (Jews) are no shit, it just sucks eno(ugh) they control our education and jobs and everything that matters,” the poster opined. Another steps in to reassure them: “Let them be dogs, be the smarter person.”

By early November, several members began discussing how to rid Jews from the Middle East. “How do i get them out of palestine,” one asked. Comments flooded in with proposals: “I need an area that isnt habitable and give it to them,” Another wrote: “Bro they used to be a diaspora they can return to being a diaspora.”

“lmaooo telling a high jewish population to go to a planet that is a gas giant wont turn out well,” a member replies to the suggestion Jews be relocated to Jupiter. “Mars is suitable for them let them burn a little.”

“But speaking of burning, the suns a pretty good spot,” another chimed in. “We gotta make them hate their life not let them burn.”

“Allah will burn them but we should send em off alone,” yet another replied. “(W)e need them to hate their life while they are living AND hate their afterlife.” Users then began filling the chat with laughing emojis.

References to the Holocaust and Adolf Hitler abound in the group chat. At the suggestion of a “sticker competition” before a protest in late October 2023, one member shared a cartoon of Hitler with a banner proclaiming “#1 Victory Royale!” beneath a skull sign and the number 6 million – a reference to the victims killed in the Holocaust. The same student then posted a doctored image of Hitler, making a heart sign with his hands.

Those administering the WhatsApp chat didn’t intervene. For members, it wasn’t the message, but the fear of its publicization that concerned them.

“I feel like sending hitler stickers is going to leave a horrible horrible mark if someone else sees,” one student wrote. “If we can refrain from using anything hitler related, that would be amazing,” another said.

The sharing of antisemitic, pro-Nazi and pro-terrorist memes did not stop. Even after the winter break, when students returned to campus in the new year, a member shared a Nazi-era cartoon of a hunch-backed, bearded Orthodox Jew with a hooked nose.

During a discussion about anti-Israel protests, some warned chat members to stay safe . “The Zionists are now recruiting volunteers to infiltrate our protests disguised in kuffiyehs. We have nothing to hide or fear but still important to be safe. These lunatics are unpredictable and insane.”

One offered a solution to root them out: “Drop a loonie and see who picks it up.” Another’s response to the suggestion of Jews infiltrating protests: “Let them try, they’re going to come and realize we’re actually peaceful people, not animals like them.”

The threat of violence and attacks on Jewish students were a consistent theme in the group chat throughout the 2023-24 academic year. Just days after the Oct. 7 attacks, some began asking how to carry weapons at protests.

“I got a knife but it doesn’t sound like a good idea to carry it around,” one wrote. A couple of chat participants pushed back on the idea. “Definitely doesn’t sound like a good idea,” one responds with a crying laughing emoji. “(I)t can be used against you so I would say don’t wallah.”

The student responds, “I won’t, I won’t. I don’t really do weapons,” with a skull emoji.

The exchange prompts another to jump in and underscore the importance of not bringing any weapons to demonstrations. “Be careful because carrying this/pepper spray/ self defence stuff is illegal here,” they write.

Another responds, “(J)ust be careful if you guys want to carry that stuff. lol have oranges in your bag so your excuse for the knife is to cut oranges.”

Two days later, following discussions about Islamophobic incidents locally and elsewhere, the chat group began posting about a female Jewish business student’s social media account that condemned Hamas terrorist sympathizers. One threatened, “I’m a geology major, I got some pretty rocks that I can use to ‘fix’ her brains. Just gotta work on my aim.” A computer science major liked the idea: “Get me a bow and an arrow shaped rock. I gotchu.”

Some students push back on talk of violence: “Any physical violence from our side is going to give people a “valid” reason to continue to call arabs violent and terrorists,” one wrote. “I want a jew to approach us tomorrow,” another student said. “Violence was never the answer (but) with them maybe.”

A student wrote he wished he could “pop some Israelis,” adding shortly after: “I’ll (actually) pop them if I see them in person.” A couple of weeks later, the same student openly asked another chat member “did you get the shipment of rifles and shotguns and rocks.” Members of the group then began discussing how to take over different campus buildings.

“This turned from places to take over to smuggling weapons,” a fellow member responded, prompting a slew of laughing emojis. Talk of weaponization led another member to post a picture of a Nazi officer carrying a machine gun.

“Ya we’re getting flagged 100%,” a poster said.

It was specifically the comments promoting antisemitic violence that led the Jewish students and their lawyer to insist on anonymity for this story. Were it not for this factor, one told the Post, “I would have said to you: ‘Put my name on the front cover of it in the title.’”

An expert on policing and security says the Jewish students’ fears are not misplaced.

“It sounds like there’s enough here certainly to start a security intelligence investigation, possibly to start a criminal intelligence investigation,” Christian Leuprecht, professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, told the Post.

“It’s complex and interesting,” he said after hearing several of the above quotations. “The knife is sort of a whole separate tactical question because it suggests deliberate obfuscation for a tool that’s intended to be used as a weapon.” Leuprecht elaborated that such advice could count as a “counselling offence under the Criminal Code,” but cautioned that a police officer would need to make that determination.

Another aspect that caught Leuprecht’s attention was the question of balancing freedom of expression and Charter rights when weighed against potential support for designated terror entities.

“The key thing about the chat here is we live in a democracy, so the state can’t simply go in and monitor people’s chats even if they wanted to,” he said. Obtaining warrants for such chats requires what he called a high “evidentiary threshold.”

Leuprecht added that WhatsApp’s robust encryption further complicates the matter, explaining that the evidence is “unlikely to be admissible in a court of law” because of how it was obtained.

He sympathized with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who he said have been overwhelmed with similar complaints since the Oct. 7 attacks, describing the organization as having “the largest span of control of any police force in the democratic world.”

Leuprecht said the London Palestinian group chat is a rare window into the minds and methods of anti-Israel activists in Canada. The persistent concern, for him, is whether Hamas is supporting or leveraging such students and activists.

“Is there the long arm of some terrorist organization or someone affiliated with that organization behind this, trying to generate some cohesion around these sorts of issues? At that point, of course, it becomes clearly within the terrorist realm,” he said.

“What you and I don’t know is whether anybody behind this chat, themselves — for instance, someone here on a student visa — who through their family or by other means is linked to one of the organizations. That’s why it’s important to investigate these things,” he continued.

“This is a really important story because I think people completely underestimate what goes on in our university campuses.”

Before bringing their trove of information to the Post, the Jewish students tried to go through university channels to address the concerning rhetoric shared in the group chats.

On Aug. 9, 2024, one of their lawyers, Jonathan Rosenthal, filed on their behalf a 17-page complaint to the university, distilling the nature of the comments on the group chat.

Yet there was never a formal investigation because the Jewish students were unwilling to identify themselves as complainants.

Western’s associate vice president of human resources, Jane O’Brien, confirmed receipt of the complaint. In a response several days days later she requested Rosenthal “identify the students involved” and outline any incident alleged to be “a breach of the Code of Student Conduct,” according to an email thread shared with the Post.

O’Brien also informed Rosenthal that concerns about the Palestinian student club’s campus status should be directed to the student union, the University Students’ Council.

“I will NOT be disclosing the names of the complainants,” Rosenthal replied Sept. 3, citing “safety concerns.” The lawyer said providing their names “is simply irrelevant” and requested the university investigate the matter promptly. Rosenthal emailed O’Brien the following week, but didn’t hear back until Sept. 13, when Western’s legal counsel, David Foster, rehashed much of O’Brien’s initial message.

“Though your email indicates that the complaint provides student names and phone numbers, no such information appears to be included. Furthermore, the supporting documentation is comprised solely of what appears to be copied text, the origins of which are not demonstrated,” Foster replied.

Foster underscored that the university prioritizes the safety of complainants and “until such time as you provide the requested information, Western will not be able to proceed with your complaint.”

Rosenthal tried to meet Foster in the middle.

He shared a dossier with a trove of time-stamped data — WhatsApp messages, pictures, videos, phone numbers, screenshots and names — from the group chat but reaffirmed his clients would not publicly identify themselves.

“The chats speak for themselves,” Rosenthal answered Foster on Sept. 17.

Despite trading emails with the university for more than a month, Western wouldn’t budge.

The university defended its handling of the situation in a written statement to the Post. Western spokesman Stephen Ledgley said the complaint, “lacked sufficient information to proceed with an  investigation, such as identifying any student connected to the alleged conduct.”

He added that the “complaint and supporting documentation submitted were reviewed in detail to determine if an investigation could be pursued based on the information provided alone,” however, “there was insufficient information to proceed.”

Rosenthal’s dealings with the University Students’ Council, the student union, followed a similar pattern. His unwillingness to name the complainants remained the key sticking point. In his email exchanges with both groups, each pointed him to the other, rather than deal with the substance of the complaint.

He eventually shared the same dossier of information with Shari Bumpus, the union manager overseeing the student community, outlining several specific alleged violations of union policy dealing with fostering “an inclusive and welcoming environment” and anti-discrimination, but did not hear back.

It’s a response the union defends.

“The USC and Western University are two distinct entities with distinct jurisdictions,” spokeswoman Rebecca Rebeiro wrote the Post in a statement. “The USC was made aware of the anonymous complaint and conducted an investigation to determine if it fell within its jurisdiction. When it was determined this complaint was outside its scope, the USC referred the complaint over to Western University’s Student Code of Conduct Office.”

It’s an approach one Jewish advocacy group says is unconscionable.

“The content of the chats was shown to us. Based on what we’ve seen, we believe that the content is dangerous,” Richard Marceau, general counsel for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA), wrote to the Post.

“The individuals involved shared violent threats, antisemitic slurs, and grotesque conspiracy theories, all while joking about how to evade university accountability using disappearing messages,” he added, imploring Western to investigate the matter.

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