Project Esther: Heritage Foundation's plan to crush pro-Palestinian support from schools, universities, Congress
The conservative group responsible for spearheading Project 2025, a far-right policy agenda, has devised a plan to crush the pro-Palestinian movement in the US by removing activism in all forms, from universities to Congress, according to a Tuesday report by the New York Times.
The Heritage Foundation, a Republican-backed think tank based in Washington, DC, proposed a blueprint for President Donald Trump's second term in office that urges reshaping the federal government and expanding presidential powers to a new extreme.
It is called Project Esther, which proposed a rapid dismantling of the pro-Palestinian movement in America, along with its support at schools and universities, at progressive organizations and in the American Congress.
The proposal was drafted after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that killed nearly 1,200 people, and mounting protests in the US against the war in the Gaza Strip.
Project Esther outlined a far-reaching plan to fight antisemitism by branding a broad range of Israel's critics as "effectively a terrorist support network," so that activists could be deported, defunded, sued, fired, expelled, ostracized and otherwise excluded from "open society," according to the New York Times report.
In the most basic terms, any curriculum believed to be sympathetic to Hamas would be removed from schools and universities, and faculty members supporting the pro-Palestinian movement would be fired. In addition, social media content deemed to be antisemitic would be erased and institutions supporting that narrative would lose funding. Foreign students who took part or sympathized with pro-Palestinian demonstrations would have their visas revoked and be deported.
Once a sympathetic presidential administration was in place, in this case, Trump, the plan would be executed, and many of Project Esther's directives have already begun.
"We will organize rapidly, take immediate action to 'stop the bleeding,' and achieve all objectives within two years," Victoria Coates, a former deputy national security adviser and the vice president at the Heritage Foundation who oversees Project Esther, told the newspaper.
Since Trump's inauguration four months ago, many of the president's actions have mirrored Project Esther's proposals, including withholding billions of dollars in federal funding from universities sympathizing with the pro-Palestinian movement, cancelling student visas for international students supporting the cause, and deporting legal residents for their alliances to Palestine.
"The phase we're in now is starting to execute some of the lines of effort in terms of legislative, legal and financial penalties for what we consider to be material support for terrorism," said Coates.
Heritage Foundation officials said they did not know whether the White House had used Project Esther as a guide, but the foundation's national security director, Robert Greenway, who co-authored Project Esther, told the New York Times it was "no coincidence that we called for a series of actions to take place privately and publicly, and they are now happening."
By equating pro-Palestinian activism to "material support" for terrorism, Project Esther aims to take legal consequences to a new level, in which pro-Palestinian support can lead to prison time, deportations and civil penalties.
"Project Esther changed the paradigm by associating anyone who opposes Israeli policies with the 'Hamas Support Network,'" Jonathan Jacoby, national director of Nexus Project, a watchdog group that works to combat antisemitism and protect open debate, told the Times. "It's no longer about ideology or politics ... it's about terrorism and threats to American national security."
Despite Project Esther's focus of fighting antisemitism, many Jewish organizations are criticizing the Trump administration for its extremism.
"Trump is pulling straight from the authoritarian playbook, using tools of repression first against those organizing for Palestinian rights," Stefanie Fox, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, told the New York Times. “And in so doing, sharpening those tools for use against anyone and everyone who challenges his fascist agenda."
Heritage Foundation officials acknowledged that antisemitism was a problem on the conservative right and believe Project Esther is a way to "lead by example."
"Our goal is to eradicate – or not eradicate, but to confront – what we consider a very noxious bigotry," said Coates, adding that the support for Hamas poses a threat not just to Jews or Israel, but to "the foundations of the United States and the fabric of our society."
"This isn't just a battle for the Jewish state," said Coates. "It is also a battle for the United States."
