The second slide in Turner’s presentation showed Fuldy’s tweet, which also referenced the march at Schumer’s home. However, that protest occurred nearly a month after the first protest. HPSCI’s claim that Hamas may have incited the demonstrations is based solely on statements by Fordi, who claimed that the protesters were responding to a call issued by the pro-Palestinian group Samidoun.
However, it is not.
The only evidence that Palestinian organizations were involved is that the protest was included in a calendar maintained on the Samitown website. The calendar currently lists more than 5,000 protests taking place around the world, from Australia and the UK to Finland, Nigeria, Iceland and Japan. The website also comes with a disclaimer stating that the list includes protests organized by non-Samidoun and encouraging visitors to submit details about events organized in their respective countries.
Ferdi went on to describe Samitown as “banned from entering Germany and expelled from numerous payment processors for allegedly acting as a Hamas front group.”
A German branch of Samitown was disbanded in November, but not because of evidence linking it to Hamas. Instead, the group, which was formed to protest the imprisonment of Palestinians, has been accused of spreading “anti-Semitic conspiracy theories,” a charge organizers strongly deny while noting that they have many Jewish members within their ranks.
For obvious reasons, Germany has some of the strictest anti-Semitism laws in the world, allowing Berlin to impose a blanket ban on protests aimed at raising awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Such bans are illegal in the United States under the U.S. Constitution.
Samidoun branches also face bans from overseas payment processors. This happens often in the United States as well. The threshold for being barred from the payment process is significantly lower than the threshold for links to terrorism.
Last year, the payment processor severed ties with a French branch of the group, called Collectif Palestine Vaincra, after the French government sought to dissolve the group on the grounds that it was “anti-Semitic.” However, a French court blocked the attempt in May after finding that Macron’s government’s accusations of “anti-Semitism” against the group were “baseless.”
Neither Foldi nor Samidoun immediately responded to requests for comment.
The chairman of the U.S. Intelligence Committee chose such a questionable example in a speech aimed at drumming up support for U.S. surveillance agencies, giving many Republican staffers pause.
None of the House sources who spoke to WIRED work for lawmakers who could credibly be accused of doing anything other than supporting the Israeli government. All agree, however, that the issue of domestic surveillance transcends political ideology—it is one of the purest examples of the “pendulum politics” that defines the American two-party system.
“What we know for sure,” one Republican aide said, “is that regardless of how the administration decides to treat left-wing protesters today, we should expect protesters in our party to be treated in future administrations.”
One House Democratic staffer made a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Cold War-era doctrine of “mutually assured elimination,” saying they agreed “wholeheartedly.” “Our destinies are united,” they said. “This is our best defense.”
“Political protest is literally how America was founded. It’s in our DNA,” said Jason Pye, senior policy analyst at the nonprofit FreedomWorks. “It doesn’t matter whether you agree with these protesters or not.”