Pro-Palestinian protests across the world last week were coordinated in advance by an international alliance that prepared campaign slogans, media messaging and protest tactics, including calls to shut down city squares, encircle government buildings and blockade corporate hubs, The Jerusalem Post's review of campaign documents found.
This was first reported on by Fox News Digital, which found that "long before the first demonstrators gathered, the messages for the protest's 'communications framing' and transnational action plan had already been written, the banners designed, the tactics circulated and the media strategy laid out."
Behind the protest preparation and framing is a London-based coalition called Global Alliance for Palestine (GAFP), an international alliance of around 200 organizations that are focused on Palestine advocacy.
Ahead of the week of October 7, which marked the third anniversary of the Hamas attacks, GAFP released press statements and media toolkits encouraging pro-Palestine movements, student groups, trade unions, and civil society organizations worldwide to unite under the banner ‘End the Genocide, Defend the Land’.
GAFP was behind the Global Day of Action on October 10, as well as a direct legislative pressure campaign asking parliamentarians to demand immediate arms embargoes, emergency debates, suspended trade agreements, and binding human rights sanctions against Israel.
In the toolkit for October 10 protests, viewed by the Post, GAFP called for protesters to "shut down city squares, encircle government buildings, and blockade complicit corporate hubs."
Rather than a symbolic march, GAFP said the purpose of the global day of action was to interrupt business-as-usual.
Among the other suggested protest actions were walk-outs, sit-ins, and blockades.
Groups encouraged to use language 'impossible to ignore'
In a GAFP concept paper for the Global Alliance for Palestine, organizers share guidelines for 'Communications Framing' and 'Core Messages' about Israel. The document encourages groups to use language that is "disciplined, credible, urgent and impossible to ignore."
GAFP also published a list of slogans such as "From Every Street, One Demand: End Genocide, End Occupation" and "Israel Kills. The Media Justifies."
The Post identified 181 organizations in the coalition, with the organizations being spread out across the world.
Among the most high-profile participating organizations are CodePink, the Freedom Flotilla, and regional BDS chapters.
Israel's Foreign Ministry called out the "prewritten accusations, coordinated slogans," and "orchestrated disruptions."
"A calculated effort to hijack headlines, dominate the narrative and demonize Israel. The hatred is loud. The coordination is documented," it said.
While many of the hundreds of protests across the world may have appeared to be independent and unconnected, the understanding of GAFP's campaign indicates that this may not have been the case.