A group of faculty, employees and graduate students at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., has not only offered support to Students for Justice in Palestine but has decided to establish a new entity to complement the chapter’s anti-Israel activities.
After 200 individuals signed a statement in December advocating for SJP, some signatories joined to create a campus branch of Educators for Justice in Palestine (EJP).
The group defined its principles, including support for the BDS movement, “as a way to pressure Israel to end the occupation of Palestine and the curtailment of Palestinian rights in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel.”
It also rejected the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, stating its opposition to “the conflation of antisemitism with criticism of the policies and actions of the Israeli state, critiques of Zionism or support for Palestinian liberation.”
Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, a professor of political science professor and religious studies, supports the group. In December, she wrote on social media that “the definition of anti-Semitism is broad enough that it attempts to silence those, including Palestinians and Jews, who criticize Israel’s current actions in Gaza or voice their support for BDS.”
