On January 29, Palestinian organizers in New York City gathered at a park for a vigil to mourn the one-year anniversary of the death of Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old killed last year alongside her family and paramedics by the Israeli military in Gaza. At Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, attendees laid candles, alongside photos and art of Rajab.

That same day, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism” that “demands the removal of resident aliens who violate our laws” and calls on the Department of Justice to “protect law and order, quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, and investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities.” It comes on the heels of an earlier anti-immigration order signed during Trump’s first day in office that called for increased vetting and crackdowns on visa holders and people trying to enter the U.S. based on their political and cultural views.

Emboldened by the pair of orders, Betar U.S., the American branch of an international organization founded by the early Zionist writer and settler colonialist Ze’ev Jabotinsky in 1923, took to social media ahead of the vigil for Rajab, which it derogatorily dismissed as a “Jihad rally.” Betar invited its supporters to show up and “assist @ICEgov⁩ in deportation efforts,” promising to “document all attendees” to submit to the Trump administration as a part of his recent orders.

At the vigil, a small group heckled attendees, yelling, “Show us your faces so we could get you deported” and “We’re with ICE,” then repeatedly chanting, “ICE, ICE, ICE,” according to video posted on the group’s accounts.

“We’re here for a 6-year-old girl,” one vigil attendee pleaded to an NYPD officer, before being drowned out by counter-protesters accusing them of a “fake genocide” and using “human shields.” After the vigil concluded, Betar claimed on social media to have identified the attendee using face-recognition technology and said it had reported him to the Department of Homeland Security.

Free speech experts and Muslim and Palestine solidarity advocates worry that such harassment and discrimination from Betar and other far-right groups will only spread thanks to Trump’s recent orders. Amid growing calls to deport political foes and defenders of human rights, they fear a new climate where political speech is silenced — and those brave enough to speak out risk severe punishment.

“These policies have nothing to do with Jewish safety.”

This conflation of speech critical to Israel with antisemitism or support of Hamas will do little to protect Jews in the United States from hate, said Jonah Rubin, with Jewish Voice for Peace, a progressive Jewish American group that advocates for Palestinian human rights.

“These policies have nothing to do with Jewish safety,” Rubin said. “The idea that these are about Jewish safety rather than about widespread censorship and attempt to shut down any and all dissent — whether it’s about Palestine, whether it’s about human rights, or whether it’s about other movements for social justice — this doesn’t hold up to even the slightest bit of scrutiny.”

The premise behind Trump’s more recent order is rooted in Project Esther: a treatise by the authors of Project 2025. The document was billed as “a blueprint to counter antisemitism” and offered strategies to target and silence critics of Israel, including deportation. A fact sheet about the executive order related by the Trump administration mirrored language from Project Esther and laid bare the order’s intent to “cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses,” vowing to deport “all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests.”

Such ideas are increasingly gaining purchase in conservative discourse. Pledges to deport supporters of Palestinian rights were a key part of the Republican Party’s platform. A congressional bill introduced last May called for similar measures.

Academia is a key focus of Project Esther and Trump’s executive orders. While the most recent order........

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