Students for Justice in Palestine, an anti-Israel group on college campuses throughout North America, has been conducting events in support of Hamas following the terror organization’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel that have left more than 1,300 dead, thousands wounded, and as many as 150 civilians taken captive and brought to the Gaza Strip.
SJP says protests took place at participating chapters at Arizona State University; Butler University in Indianapolis; the University of Louisville; the University of Binghamton, a State University of New York; and the University of Virginia.
A toolkit the group distributed to its student activists states that “liberating colonized land is a real process that requires confrontation by any means necessary.” It has been urging sit-ins, flier distribution, rallies, disrupting activities and holding so-called “educational” events.
The Israel on Campus Coalition shared with JNS the names of other schools with anti-Israel events on Oct. 13. These include Columbia University, Kalamazoo College, Kent State University, Purdue University, University of California-San Diego, University of Florida, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of South Florida, George Mason University, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, New York City’s Hunter College, California State University-Sacramento, University of Georgia and University of North Carolina.
SJP CSU-Sacramento posted a video of its protests, featuring drum beats and a young woman with a bullhorn, wearing a keffiyeh leading chants of “free, free, free Palestine.” She then calls for “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “one, two, three, four, occupation no more, five, six, seven, eight, Israel is a terror state!”
She concluded with, “We don’t want no two states, we want all the 48,” as a man took over leading the march.
A planned protest today at Rutgers University moved to Zoom after intervention from the university’s president, Jonathan Holloway. The school’s SJP chapter wrote on Instagram that it could not “confidently and safely hold our event originally scheduled for today.”
Holloway released a statement on Wednesday in which he wrote: “What Hamas did in brutally murdering, torturing and holding hostage innocent Israeli victims of all ages was unconscionable and an act of terrorism. That Hamas has reportedly threatened to murder the hostages one by one and show them on film, only reinforces their brutality and terrorism.”
He wrote that the school was in touch with Rutgers police and the New Jersey state police to prevent potential disturbances.
The University of Arizona’s SJP chapter also chose to stop its event after a letter from their school’s president, claiming that “we no longer feel safe holding our rally on campus” and announcing its postponement.
Brooklyn College, a City University of New York, took strong measures against the planned pro-Hamas demonstration, requiring students to move it off-campus.
“Let’s be clear: SJP chapters are supporting and praising Hamas terrorism,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League. “By encouraging ‘resistance’ by ‘any means necessary,’ they’re actively promoting a threatening environment for Jewish students on campuses across the country. This is unacceptable, dangerous and despicable.”
Video of a protest on Wednesday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison showed demonstrators chanting “Glory to the murders!” and “Glory to the resistance!” Other schools with protests from yesterday include Marquette University, San Diego State University, the University of Connecticut and the University of Notre Dame.
Timed to the Hamas-proclaimed day of global mobilization on Oct. 13, anti-Israel groups have also scheduled protests at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Central Florida.
“We call for any university recognition of SJP chapters to be withdrawn, and any university funding to be rescinded,” according to a statement released by the Israel on Campus Coalition and co-signed so far by 27 other organizations. “We make this call because the organization glorifies violence against Jews and others, praises war crimes and crimes against humanity, demonizes Jews and calls for further violence against Jews and others, celebrates the rape of women, incites genocide and violates every norm and code of conduct at every university we know of.”
Last week, a “Mock Apartheid Wall” stood for the first time on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor.
The End Jew Hatred Movement said the wall denies Jewish identity, “our indigeneity to our ancestral homeland, and the rights of Jewish students to be free of intimidation and harassment.”
“We call on the University of Michigan to give meaning to the principles of social justice and protect the Jewish community from this example of blatant Jew-hatred,” it added.
