Factsheet: Canary Mission

IMPACT: Canary Mission is an organization that aims to document “individuals and organizations that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses and beyond.” Its website smears Muslim, Arab, and pro-Palestinian students, academics, and organizations by conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism. The organization publishes detailed online profiles accusing individuals—often with little or no evidence—of supporting terrorism or promoting antisemitism, simply for expressing pro-Palestinian views or criticizing Zionism. Experts and organizations like the ACLU and the Middle East Studies Association have condemned Canary Mission for chilling free speech, threatening academic freedom, and facilitating harassment. 

Canary Mission first appeared online in the spring of 2015 and claims to investigate individuals across the political spectrum who are affiliated with movements that engage in antisemitic actions, promote hatred of Jews, and seek the destruction of Israel. It states that it is motivated by a “desire to combat the rise in anti-Semitism on college campuses.” To guide its actions, the organization uses the Department of State’s definition of antisemitism. This definition, shaped largely according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition, has been criticized for its conflation of antisemitism with political criticism of the state of Israel. Critics have argued that the definition politicizes the struggle against antisemitism and uses it as a tool to suppress dissent.

Listed on Canary Mission’s website are profiles of students, professors, professionals, and organizations who Canary Mission alleges engage in antisemitic actions. The website claims individuals with profiles are either antisemitic, terrorist supporters, threats to Jewish safety, or incite hate against Jews or supporters of Israel. Canary Mission also targets individuals accused of “disrupting Jewish or pro-Israel speakers or events.” However, as explained by the ACLU, counter-demonstrators have the right to be present at events and voice their displeasure, so long as they are not physically disrupting an event.

Some organizations listed on Canary Mission include Al Jazeera, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Muslim Student Association (MSA), and Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP). Another set of profiles on the website is listed as “Ex-Canary,” which features individuals who were “formerly investigated and featured on Canary Mission but have since rejected the latent anti-Semitism on the far-right, far-left and among anti-Israel organizations and activists.” The only way for an individual on the website to have their profile removed and archived on the Ex-Canary page is to send a written apology for their actions to Canary Mission. The website mentions that due to a fear of harassment, the identities of people featured on the Ex-Canary page may be removed, but provides no guarantee of anonymity. This language indicates Canary Mission’s awareness that its output could be used as grounds for harassment targeting individuals on their website. 

Experts have concluded that the Canary Mission is a threat to academic freedom and free speech on American college campuses. In 2018, the Middle East Studies Association of North America’s Committee on Academic Freedom published a report on Canary Mission, explaining that the organization threatens “students’ right to pursue an education without harassment as well as the employment prospects of those whom the website targets by name.” The report also found that profiles on the website are riddled with falsehoods, errors, and misrepresentations, despite Canary Mission claiming that “before publication, all content is verified, meeting our high standards of accuracy and authenticity.” The report explained that Canary Mission equates any criticism of Israel or Zionism, and any support for Palestinian human rights or the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, as antisemitic and support for terrorism. 

Canary Mission effectively creates a blacklist of students and scholars, which many have compared to McCarthyism during the Red Scare. A December 2023 piece in The Nation stated that the goal of this blacklist is to “dox those named, encourage their harassment, and limit their future employment prospects.” Canary Mission curates its profiles not just based on the involvement or actions of individuals, but also by association. In the December 2023 Nation piece, students at Harvard explained how they ended up on Canary Mission after the university’s Palestine Solidarity Committee published a letter addressing the October 7, 2023, attack. Some students were blacklisted simply for their membership in organizations that sponsored the letter, despite having no direct involvement with the letter’s drafting or publication.

The Committee on Academic Freedom also identified a three-phase attack utilized by Canary Mission. First, it creates profiles on its website with personal information, quotes, and photos. Then, it engages in Twitter trolling campaigns. Third, it continues to retweet these attacks. In 2018, Canary Mission had its account on X (then known as Twitter) suspended for two days. Palestine Legal noted that despite Canary Mission violating Twitter rules on numerous occasions, this was the first visible enforcement of action. Palestine Legal also provided three ways in which Canary Mission violates Twitter rules. First, it targets users on the basis of race, religion, and ethnicity. Canary Mission disproportionately profiles individuals with Arab and Muslim backgrounds, although many advocates for Palestine are white, Jewish, and Christian. Canary Mission also targets users to intimidate and silence their pro-Palestinian advocacy. Furthermore, Canary Mission’s targeting has led to violent threats against student and faculty activists. Palestine Legal provides the example of Canary Mission followers posting a threat to “pay [name of student leader] a visit.”

Canary Mission has also taken its tactics beyond the screen, resorting to in-person intimidation. In 2018, the student body at George Washington University voted on a student-government resolution calling on the university to divest from companies profiting from Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights. Canary Mission put up flyers around campus pushing students to vote against the referendum; the posters read, “THERE ARE NO SECRETS. WE WILL KNOW YOUR VOTE AND WILL ACT ACCORDINGLY.” The night of the vote, two men dressed in canary yellow bird costumes, paraded in a campus building to reinforce Canary Mission’s message.

Canary Mission’s actions and mission are not new. Since the 1980s, pro-Israel groups have worked to influence how the Israel-Palestine conflict is portrayed and discussed on American college campuses, and they have fought to stifle pro-Palestinian student activism. The now offline site Masada2000 would publish the names of Jewish individuals they considered to be “self-hating” or “Israel threatening.” In early 2014, an anti-Zionist blog called Mondoweiss discovered a password-protected site maintained by the organization StandWithUs containing information on pro-Palestinian speakers on campuses. Other organizations similar to Canary Mission include CAMERA, Middle East Forum, Campus Watch, and Honest Reporting. 

In 2015, Ali Abunimah, founder of the pro-Palestinian website The Electronic Intifada, noted that Canary Mission’s “focus on young people and students is an effort to try to tell people that there will be a price for you taking a political position.” He cited the organization’s work as an “effort to punish and deter people from standing up for what they believe.”

Daniel Pipes, president of the Middle East Forum, holds that Canary Mission’s work is a “perfectly legitimate undertaking.” “Collecting information on students has particular value because it signals them that attacking Israel is serious business, not some inconsequential game, and that their actions can damage both Israel and their future careers,” he wrote in an email to The Forward in 2015. Pipes has spent decades promoting anti-Muslim tropes and financing organizations that spread misinformation about Muslims and Islam.

Canary Mission maintains a uniquely opaque stance on its leadership and funding. Operating under a veil of anonymity, there are no names of staff, leadership, volunteers, or founders on Canary Mission’s website. According to a May 2015 piece in the Jewish American newspaper The Forward, the website domain hides ownership, and while the website claims the organization is a non-profit, “no group called Canary Mission is currently registered with the IRS as eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.” The webpage also does not list a fiscal sponsor through which donations can be accepted.

Canary Mission does not seek tax-exempt status in the US, which allows it not to disclose statements about its leadership and budget with the federal government. However, various news outlets have looked into the website’s tax records and discovered contributions from various Jewish groups and foundations. In 2021, Jewish Currents, a Jewish-American magazine, discovered a $50,000 donation to the Canary Mission from Michael Leven. Leven is a Jewish philanthropist and former chief operating officer of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., a luxury hotel and resort operator.

In 2018, The Forward made a major breakthrough in uncovering Canary Mission’s funding sources. The newspaper identified the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco as a major donor to Canary Mission. The Federation is a large Jewish charity with an annual budget of over $100 million. It is one of the largest and most influential in the US, with net assets over $800 million and two seats on the board of the Jewish Federations of North America. In the same investigation, The Forward also revealed links between the Helen Diller Family Foundation and Canary Mission. The Diller Foundation is mostly a provider of Jewish teen programming, although it supports a number of right-wing causes as well. The organization serves as one of the foundations of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco. The Federation appoints most of the members of the Diller Foundation’s board of directors. The Diller Foundation notes in its tax returns that it functions by “conducting or supporting activities for the benefit of” the San Francisco Federation.

In late 2016 or early 2017, the Helen Diller Family Foundation donated $100,000 to Canary Mission, listing the purpose of the grant in its tax filings as “CANARY MISSION FOR MEGAMOT SHALOM.” The donation was made through the Central Fund of Israel, a New York-based charity acting as a conduit for Americans to make tax-exempt donations to right-wing and extremist organizations in Israel. The year’s financial reports were signed by Jonathan Bash, who The Forward previously identified as the person operating Canary Mission, and who is also a “member of the directorate” of Megamot Shalom.

Megamot Shalom is an unknown Israeli charity with a listed address of a padlocked building in Jerusalem. According to its filings with Israel’s charity registry, it was formed just after Canary Mission appeared online in 2016. The Forward notes that the organization’s mission, according to its filings, is to “ensure the national image and strength of the state of Israel via the use of information disseminated by technological means.”

James Bamford, an investigative journalist who the New York Times has called “the nation’s premier journalist on the subject of the National Security Agency,” has also provided insight into the funding behind Canary Mission. In a December 2023 interview for Democracy Now!, Bamford cites Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, and The Forward to explain that much of Canary Mission’s funding comes from “wealthy Jewish Americans and Jewish American foundations.” Bamford stated that the Israeli government is involved with Canary Mission because it can use it as a tool, and Israel’s involvement is one of the reasons behind the secrecy around Canary Mission’s funding and leadership.

Canary Mission’s impact not only impacts the lives of young students and scholars, but it also plays a role in domestic and international politics.

Among many activists, Canary Mission is known as a “cautionary tale,” with many worrying that a profile on the website will result in employment blacklisting. In a July 2024 interview with USA TODAY, college student Will Mleczko stated that if prospective employers “find you on there [Canary Mission website], they will probably not hire you.” L. Ali Khan, a professor at the Washburn University School of Law, explained that tenured professors are more able to avoid or survive attacks on their reputation, but students are much more vulnerable. “If somehow you get on this Canary Mission list, now there is a presumption that you are mongering hatred … and that’s scary,” he said to USA TODAY. Khan also noted the psychological impacts of being targeted by Canary Mission as hateful or antisemitic. 

Individuals targeted by Canary Mission have experienced threats to their safety. Although Canary Mission profiles do not include phone numbers or addresses, the website’s blacklist can open the door to other forms of targeted harassment or doxxing. Layla Saliba, a graduate student at Columbia University, reported receiving hundred of death threats and rape threats. Andrew Ross, a professor of social and cultural analysis at New York University, also explained that a Canary Mission profile can result in campaigns to get individuals fired. “Character assassination and death threats are pretty common,” he told the New York Times. “All of these things certainly happened to me over the years.”

Domestically, Canary Mission’s work contributes to rising levels of Islamophobia. In 2011, the Center for American Progress (CAP) published a report titled “Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America,” in which it discussed the role of websites like Canary Mission in American anti-Muslim sentiment. The report explains that by presenting extreme anti-Islam views across media outlets, these organizations give legitimacy and credibility to anti-Muslim views. According to the report, “these right-wing media outlets play a major role in pushing out a playlist of nonexistent Sharia threats, Islamic takeovers of the world, extremist Muslim infiltration into society and government, and more.” Politicians at all levels of government then rely on these outlets to appeal to conservative and right-wing Islamophobic sentiment in order to raise campaign funds and accumulate voters. CAP identifies this structure as enabling “unchecked bullying by the misinformation experts,” emphasizing that the Islamophobia network spreads myths and misconceptions about Islam.

Canary Mission also has a documented history of being used as a source of intelligence for Israel. Several individuals have reported interrogations by Israeli officials when trying to enter Israel, in which they were asked questions based on their Canary Mission profiles. 

In December 2023, Lara Alqasem, a 22-year-old Palestinian American student, reported being interrogated at Tel Aviv’s airport when travelling to pursue a master’s program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, despite already having a valid visa. According to a December 2023 piece in The Nation, the Ministry of Strategic Affairs sent over a document marked ‘Sensitive’ during her interrogation. The document contained her Canary Mission profile listing her “crimes,” such as serving as president of Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Florida. 

Katherine Franke, a Columbia Law professor, experienced similar problems, as reported by The Nation. After landing at Tel Aviv, she was held in detention for 14 hours before being deported and informed of her permanent ban from entering the country. During the process, a border officer accused her of traveling to Israel to “promote BDS.” Franke denied the claims, to which the officer responded by holding up his phone, which appeared to display her Canary Mission profile, and saying, “See, I know you’re lying.”

Andrew Kadi, a leader of a major pro-Palestinian advocacy group and member of the steering committee of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, was also interrogated by security officers at Ben Gurion International Airport. According to an August 2018 piece in the Forward, Kadi (a US citizen) flew to Israel to visit his mother, who is a Palestinian citizen of Israel. Kadi went through three interrogations lasting more than eight hours in which he was questioned about information on his Canary Mission profile.

Canary Mission has been supportive of the second Trump administration’s policy of detaining students for their involvement in the pro-Palestine movement. On March 24, 2025, Canary Mission published a piece titled “Uncovering Foreign Nationals” in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order cracking down on antisemitism. The piece listed the names of seven students and academics who could be deported as they are not US citizens. In a briefing on March 31, a State Department spokeswoman refused to discuss “what happens with individuals and visas, and whether they’re issued or if they’re revoked” when asked if the Canary Mission piece influenced decision-making.

According to an April 2025 piece in The New York Times, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE)  denied relying on lists from Canary Mission, and some of the individuals detained do not appear on any of their lists. However, immigration lawyers and experts emphasize the overlap between Canary Mission’s piece and ICE detainments, suggesting that information from Canary Mission and other pro-Israel groups like Betar “may be providing road maps for ICE enforcement actions.”