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Nov. 9, 2018 - Know More News - Adam Green
09:14
Undercover Footage of Anti-BDS Astroturfing
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Time Text
Tony was told of a demonstration that Noah Pollock was organizing.
A bus took protesters to an event organized by the pro-BDS movement.
Students for justice in Palestine.
Hey man.
I'm Tony Marshall.
This is one of those things where either it's gonna be amazing and wanting to do GDS.
Or we're gonna beat him, join them.
Obsessed with winning, you know, so I just want to win.
The protesters are on a fellowship program run by a conservative think tank called the Hoover Institution.
The whole fellowship is trapped.
This is actually the first foot soldier activity that I think we work to do.
Tony, what's your connection to conspiracy to Row Park?
Yeah.
So you can't not come.
Their plan is to disrupt the National Conference of Students for Justice in Palestine.
Marshall said that the pro-Israel protest had been poorly planned.
Very fly-by-the-pants procedure.
There's basically just like Noah Paul coming in the earthwork.
There are these jihadis who basically suicide bombing and they're at a campus and you have to stop them.
As we're leaving, we mentioned to our boss yesterday that we're going.
She's like, oh yeah, that's Benit's court.
You need to go.
While they've been told they have to take part in the protest, not everyone on the bus is convinced it's good for their reputation.
Do you know what my worst nightmare is?
I'm actually not kidding.
It's a photo of Dion and I together.
And we're just like clearly identifiable, and they're like, oh, who are these like traitors who sold out to the Jewish conspiracy for money?
I'm like, we did.
We cost 50,000 dollars for benefits.
As the bus leaves, they discuss whether there's any point in staging the protest.
I'm just skeptical of using the protesting tactic against them.
That's not us not our demographic.
The reason protests work is when the people involved really care about it and want to be there.
But then what are we supposed to do?
Because they keep existing and they keep expanding.
And no matter how many lawmakers come out against BDS, they keep growing.
Well no, you're right, like we should do something, but at the end of the day, like the notion that the right is ever gonna dominate any sort of campus protest is ridiculous.
I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying that's what happened.
If I were a high-level Jewish killer, I would be like a little more realistic about documentations.
So what would you do if you were a high-level Jewish?
I can't believe what you what what you're doing, which is focusing on the actual power structures if these power structures in themselves.
Like the reality is there's not a single college president in this country that would actually sign BDS.
There is not a all allow SGP to exist in their campus.
Because of free speech, they cannot let them.
So what are they supposed to do about it?
When a protest is sponsored and organized by outsiders, but made to appear like a popular grassroots movement.
It's known as astroturfing.
So they did a really job of getting me excited to show up in prototype.
It's kinda kind of the way you're putting it kind of sounds a bit like AstroTuff, eh?
No, no, no, no, no.
This is actually the definition.
What is that?
So it's when you've set up things.
It's the difference between grassroots.
You're taking corporate money and you're manufacturing the image of a grassroots movement with corporate money by basically paying people to appear as activists.
It just shows how little actual grassroots power they have and how all of their power is at the top.
It's not that Astro Turfing is wrong.
It's just like your astro turf has to be like committed.
You shouldn't have fellows saying, like, honestly, this is bad my political career.
The bus arrives at George Mason University, where students for justice in Palestine is holding its national conference.
But the protesters can't find the conference hall.
Hey, where are all the jihadis?
The driver sees two students and stops to ask directions.
One is wearing a headscarf.
Wait.
Oh no.
Come on.
What?
That was really good.
We're like, back to DC, back to DC.
I believe the time is.
Um, excuse me.
Do you know what a Johnson Center is?
Or just back down the st okay.
Okay, thank you.
That was problematic.
So this is off to a good start.
Students for Justice in Palestine really is a student-led type of organization.
Focused around promoting the BDS cause.
We have workshops on how to run our divestment campaign, finding intersections on campus, building alliances.
Right now, Palestine has been essentially normalized.
on campuses the bus finally arrives noah pollack's protest is not a student event to avoid breaking university regulations he's arranged a legal briefing The SGP conference is on the third floor, and we're gonna go up and in a respectful and quiet way.
Um protest them.
Gail uh is a legal expert and it's gonna talk a little bit about that.
We are here, of course, as guests at the university.
So um we don't want to be accused of disrupting uh school sponsored activity.
It is against the law to use abusive or violent language.
So we're gonna use peaceful good language.
If we see that they're doing anything that is bad behavior, don't engage, remain calm.
If you do happen to speak with any reporters, just stay on message.
And what is that message?
SJP is a hate group.
BDS is a hate hate movement.
The only other thing you probably want to mention is that SJP endorses violence, terrorism.
And you guys are gonna be great.
We're not there to promote, we're not there to have any sort of incident at all.
Tony's group of protesters then faced another obstacle.
Wow, my guard stuck in an elevator.
They shot us in an elevator.
They had someone on the inside.
That's epic summits.
*Musik *
We start seeing groups of people coming towards us who don't seem familiar.
And then brandishing Israel flags and then posters and signs.
We have our people freed from the elevator, Tony joined the demonstration.
No, no, no.
Support democratic society.
But if you don't want to be able to do this, we denounce extremist groups.
You agree?
Resistance?
Yes.
Child suicide bombers.
How do you respond to such a wild accusation that's not grounded in anything and that's just designed to to shift attention?
Oh wait, we support suicide bombers.
That's ridiculous.
Social justice left supports radical terrorists.
You don't want dialogue?
We're here to talk to you.
Turn your back.
You'd think with like they were gonna do they'd try to shake it up and mix it up with new accusations.
We don't support radical Islamic terrorism in this country.
We don't support suicide bombers.
Cowards are killing children and women.
They leave orphans.
We don't support that.
Kill babies in strollers, that'll bring peace.
Yeah, Palestinian terrorists all over Israel.
That would be it.
Real baby killers, these terrorists.
They kill women, they kill children, they don't care about anything.
It takes a lot to hear this and not respond.
And to turn your back to them and to not look back at them.
They were very frustrated.
The fact that we weren't responding.
They're saying they're not even responding.
They're not even responding.
Look at how they wave a Palestinian flag in our country.
Look at this.
These are the real basket of deplorables.
These are the deplorables people.
They cower behind radical Islamism.
They don't engage in dialogue because they can't win the war of ideas.
There's no responding to our content.
Because there is no refuting our content is grounded in human rights, morality, ethics, international law.
The stage protest had minimal impact on the students at George Mason University.
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