Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University in Somerville, Massachusetts, poses in an undated photograph provided by her family and obtained by Reuters on March 29, 2025. Photo: Courtesy of the Ozturk family/Handout via REUTERS

A US group advocating pro-Israel policies within the Democratic Party has lambasted the Washington Post for promoting what it described as “antisemitic tropes” in a front-page news story published on Saturday.

The article — headlined “A militant Zionist group threatens activists online with a ‘deport list'” — profiled the resurgence of Betar, an organization with roots going back a century which has chosen to embrace a hardball style in confronting — critics say threatening — anti-Israel protesters.

Betar, a right-wing Jewish group, says that it has assembled a list of foreign students who have engaged in pro-Hamas advocacy, calling on the Trump administration to deport them for supporting a US-designated terrorist organization. The Post noted that there is no evidence that Betar’s research has contributed to any deportations.

Another controversial tactic Betar employs is advocating for pro-Israel supporters to hand pagers to pro-Hamas activists, a move some regard as a threat of violence given its reference to a successful Israeli operation to explode the pagers used by members of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon.

The group Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) took issue with the Post‘s coverage of Betar, saying it pushed “antisemitic tropes” by suggesting, without concrete evidence, that the small Jewish organization has had significant influence on the Trump administration pursuing its policy of deporting non-citizen students who allegedly support Hamas and other terrorist groups.

Beginning with clarification that “Betar does not speak for us,” DFMI President and CEO Mark Mellman then ran down a list of values DMFI supports including the US constitution, freedom of speech, the presumption of innocence, holding accountable those who harass Jewish students, and that “convicted criminals who are not citizens can be returned to their home countries and that our country is stronger when this process demonstrates adherence to the law.”

Mellman said that DMFI was “taken aback that, at a time of rising antisemitism, the Washington Post would echo antisemitic tropes by publishing a front-page story suggesting a small, extremist group is responsible for Donald Trump’s deportation policy. The decision is especially troubling when the Post admits, in the story’s fifth paragraph, that it ‘couldn’t determine whether the group played a role in the Trump administration’s decision to target deportees.'”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) includes Betar in its “Glossary of Extremism and Hate.” The entry describes how the organization “adopts the far-right Kahanist slogan calling for Jewish armament, ‘Every Jew, a .22,’ openly embraces Islamophobia and harasses Muslims online and in person. The group has indicated that they would like to work with the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group with a history of antisemitism and Islamophobia, to ‘counter Islamic jihadis.'”

The ADL also notes that Betar “posted a video of an individual shouting Islamophobic slurs outside of a mosque with the caption, ‘We protest mosques.'”

Betar rejects accusations of extremism.

“This claim that Betar, the youth movement associated with the Revisionist Zionist movement, is extremist is a mischaracterization that overlooks its historical context and ideological evolution,” the organization said in a Monday statement on X. “Founded in 1923 by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Betar was originally conceived as a Zionist organization aimed at fostering Jewish nationalism and preparing Jews for the defense of the Jewish homeland. However, labeling Betar as ‘extremist’ in the modern context fails to recognize its integral role in shaping mainstream Zionism and its evolution into a broad-based ideological movement.”

Betar described how its “core ideology” had “always focused on Jewish self-defense, the establishment of a Jewish state in the historical land of Israel, and the revival of Hebrew culture. These principles align with the broader goals of Zionism, which advocated for the return of Jews to their ancestral homeland and the establishment of a sovereign Jewish state.”

Betar said that to call the group extremist “is to misunderstand the historical trajectory of Zionism itself. The movement has always been dedicated to the vision of a Jewish homeland, and its advocacy for this cause, far from being an extremist position, is one shared by the majority of Israeli society and is enshrined in the foundational principles of the modern State of Israel. To call Betar extremist is to call Zionism extremist.”

Following the arrest of Tufts graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk, Betar wrote Wednesday on X accompanied by an American flag emoji that “she was on our list. Many more jihadis are. We will be making a new submission Monday with approximately 1800 more jihadis. Submit to us candidates with proof for @ICEgov to consider!”

On Friday, US District Judge Denise Casper in Boston halted Ozturk’s deportation, requesting a response by Tuesday from the Trump administration to a complaint by the Turkish student. As of Monday, Ozturk remains in custody at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana and she reportedly suffered an asthma attack while in transit to the facility.