Meet the terror group on college campuses.
"Students for Justice in Palestine" is not about Palestinians. It's about hating Jews. It's Hamas' PR team at Western universities.
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This is a guest essay by Daniel Mael, host of the “Mael Time” podcast.
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
Soon, students will be returning to campuses across North America, and a new wave of student activism is taking up positions on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The two camps may look similar in terms of funding and fervor, but they differ dramatically in one especially fundamental way: While pro-Israel activism is diverse and defined by innumerable independent groups representing every shade of religious and political nuance, the Palestinian forces are dominated by a single group: Students for Justice in Palestine.
Students for Justice in Palestine claims to stand for human rights, specifically the rights of the Palestinian people, and consistently portrays itself as an advocate for a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and solidarity with the “oppressed.”
But a closer look at the group’s rhetoric and actions tells a different story.
Instead of promoting justice, Students for Justice in Palestine and/or its members spend almost all of their energy demonizing Israel, advocating for its eventual destruction, showing an unfortunate affinity for pro-terrorist figures, bullying and intimidating pro-Israel and Jewish students with vicious and sometimes antisemitic rhetoric, and even at times engaging in physical violence.
While Students for Justice in Palestine may pay lip-service to peaceful aims, their rhetoric and actions make it hard to avoid the conclusion that a culture of hatred permeates nearly everything the group does — making the college experience increasingly uncomfortable, at times even dangerous, for Jewish or pro-Israel students. Perhaps equally disturbing is the limited response from university authorities that have an obligation to prevent such attacks and protect Jewish students.
And the risk to Jewish and pro-Israel students appears to be growing. Indeed, unless college administrators take a more active role in preventing it, Students for Justice in Palestine has a good chance of achieving its goal of turning venomous hatred of Israel and bullying of Jews and non-Jewish supporters — with all the violence and fear that inevitably accompany it — into a legitimate and accepted tactic on North American campuses.
Students for Justice in Palestine is an outgrowth of an organization called the General Union of Palestinian Students, originally founded in Egypt in the 1950s, and established at San Francisco State University in 1973. In 2001, after graduating from San Francisco State and moving across the bay, a UC Berkeley graduate student (now professor) by the name of Hatem Bazian launched his own chapter of the General Union of Palestinian Students, just as the second intifada and its campaign of suicidal terror were going full swing. He renamed the group, and refashioned it in his own image.
According to Accuracy in Academia, a nonprofit research group, Bazian’s extremist rhetoric can be traced at least as far back as 1999 when, in a presentation at an academic conference, he favorably recited a famous antisemitic passage from the Quran: “The Day of Judgment will not happen until the trees and stones will say, ‘Oh Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’” (He later denied having done so.)
In 2011, Bazian helped organize the “Never Again For Anyone” speaking tour, during which the Holocaust was invoked and the Palestinians likened to the Jews persecuted by Nazi Germany.1 The link drawn between Israel and Nazi Germany is, of course, a staple of modern European antisemitism.
Students for Justice in Palestine does not appear to have strayed very far from its founder’s ideology. On the campus of the University of South Florida, for example, Students for Justice in Palestine kicked off the new year by scheduling an event entitled “The Hidden Genocide: The Story of Palestine.” Headlining the event was “motivational speaker” and Hamas supporter Monzer Taleb, a fundraiser for the terrorist group who has come under investigation by the U.S. government.
Before the Holy Land Foundation was closed by the U.S. government as a designated global terrorist fundraising entity just weeks after the 9/11 attacks, Monzer Taleb (also known as Munzir Taleb, Monzer Talib, et al.) was part of the infamous Al-Sakhra band, which toured the U.S. raising money for the Holy Land Foundation and the terrorist group Hamas. Taleb was so active in his fundraising pursuits that he was personally named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial, which concluded this past November with guilty verdicts on all 108 counts for the defendants.
Having provided a platform for support of the U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hamas, and employing the shocking and objectively preposterous term “genocide” to describe Israel, the event’s description promptly shifted to the rhetoric of empathy and concern. “After a summer of atrocious massacres,” it said, “it is time we come together as a community to be part of the solution. The people of Gaza are without shelter, food, security, and freedom. They need to know their brothers and sisters in Tampa are here for them.”
The group is especially consistent in its preference for the language of victimhood. Just a few weeks ago, for example, they held a September 5, 2014 vigil for Gaza on the campus of Binghamton University in upstate New York. Students for Justice in Palestine member Victoria Brown told the campus paper that the group’s motives were purely humanist.
“We feel that we need to commemorate [the Palestinians’] lives, humanize their lives,” she said. “We’re not talking about the military, we’re not talking about the army, we’re talking about children — women and innocent civilians who were massacred.”2 Brown’s use of the inflammatory term “massacre” is a telling one. It is standard Students for Justice in Palestine tactic to coat its hate speech with humanitarian stevia.
Even when Students for Justice in Palestine turns away from the “historical struggle,” it retains its focus on the hatred of Israel and denial of Jewish history or legitimacy. Poet Remi Kanazi, for example, who frequently speaks at Students for Justice in Palestine-sponsored events, represents Palestinian culture through work that attacks Israel as a “racist, apartheid state” that is “built upon the graves of Palestinians.” In one Facebook post from 2012, Kanazi wrote, “Dear Zionists: You have never ‘defended yourselves.’ You came in, stole land that wasn’t yours & maintained a racist state through massacres and brute force.”
Students for Justice in Palestine’s support for radical, distorted, and violent views extends into the realm of concrete policy as well. Despite its stated concern for justice and human rights, it opposes any kind of collaboration or coexistence with Israel or its supporters. The Students for Justice in Palestine National website, for example, proffers what it calls “Anti-Normalization” information with links to articles that oppose working with Israel-associated organizations.
Students for Justice in Palestine also opposes the idea of a two-state solution, and is quite hostile to the peace process in general. Far-Left Israeli academic Ilan Pappe, for example, who opposes a two-state solution, celebrated the group’s national conference on the organization’s website by deriding “the attempt to reduce Palestine geographically and demographically under the guise of a ‘peace process.’”
Instead, he spoke approvingly of Students for Justice in Palestine as part of “a new popular and successful struggle to bring peace and reconciliation to the whole of Palestine.” In the lexicon of Palestinian nationalism, the “whole of Palestine” refers to all of what was British Mandatory Palestine, thus implying the eradication of the State of Israel.
Students for Justice in Palestine’s barely concealed extremism in this regard is further underscored by its dedication to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to strangle Israel’s economy, sabotage its ability to defend itself, and destroy its standing in the international community. BDS is now the center of Students for Justice in Palestine activism, at times taking on the appearance of an obsession. As explained by the Tufts University Students for Justice in Palestine chapter’s motto, the core principles of the organization are: “Peace through justice. Equality through resistance. Humanity through BDS.”
Bazian, the group’s founder, has chimed in to support these efforts, announcing an “International Day of Action” scheduled for this past September 23 (the eve of Rosh Hashana, continuing a pattern by Students for Justice in Palestine of scheduling anti-Israel events on Jewish holidays) in order to advocate a complete academic and cultural boycott of the Jewish state.
The event’s Facebook announcement stated that among its goals were: “No joint research or conferences with Israeli Institutions, No to University Presidents’ Visits to Israel, No Campus Police Training or Cooperation with Israeli Security.” It also called for the elimination of all study-abroad programs in Israel. The effort was clearly intended to prevent any academic interaction with the Jewish state and limit students’ and scholars’ ability to interact with Israelis in general.
The “International Day of Action” was largely a flop, though a group of students, including a member of the student government, paraded around the UC Berkeley campus chanting, “We support the Intifada!”, “Long live the Intifada!”, and “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!” — again, calls for Israel’s destruction through violence.
It is worth pointing out that Students for Justice in Palestine’s devotion to the BDS movement makes the group significantly more extreme than the official Palestinian leadership. In addition to its official support for both the two-state solution and the peace process, the Palestinian Authority has repeatedly criticized BDS, and as recently as December 2013, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas publicly declared that a boycott of Israel is not in the interests of the Palestinian people.3
The Palestinians, he said, “have relations with Israel, we have mutual recognition of Israel.” In line with Abbas’ remarks, four BDS activists were arrested in July by Palestinian Authority forces for “provoking riots and the breach of public tranquility.” A Palestinian Authority official told Israeli-Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh that the BDS movement makes all Palestinians appear radical and “goes against the Palestine Liberation Organization’s official policy, which is to seek a peace agreement with Israel based on the two-state solution.”4
Palestinian leaders in America have followed suit. In June 2014, Ghaith al-Omari, executive director of the American Task Force on Palestine, told an audience that BDS is “completely unacceptable” and “doesn’t fit with the idea of the two-state solution.”5
It is difficult not to conclude from this that Students for Justice in Palestine’s purpose is less to advocate for the Palestinians than to damage Israel by propagating the same hate-filled rhetoric that has caused Jews in France to lock themselves in synagogues and make plans to move to Israel.
Indeed, it explicitly advocates extremist measures that many Palestinian leaders believe will do their own people more harm than good. In this sense, Students for Justice in Palestine’s ideology does not seem to be generally pro-Palestinian, but in fact a lot closer to the beliefs and policies of Hamas than to the recognized Palestinian leadership.
Such suspicions are bolstered by Students for Justice in Palestine’s choice of speakers and guest lecturers, many of whom are open advocates for terrorism and reject any vision of a peaceful Middle East that includes the Jewish state. Frequently, and particularly in times of war, they cross the line into overt antisemitism.
In a 2006 speech at UC Irvine during “Israel Apartheid Week,” co-sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Student Association, Students for Justice in Palestine speaker Amir Abdel Malik Ali explicitly called for war and, apparently, mass murder, saying of Israel, “The truth of the matter is your days are numbered. We will fight you. We will fight you until we are either martyred or until we are victorious.”
In an equally chilling statement in 2010, Malik Ali asserted his support for terrorism. When questioned by Roz Rothstein, of the organization StandWithUs, he answered as follows:
Rothstein: Do you support Hamas?
Malik Ali: Yes.
Rothstein: Do you support Hezbollah?
Malik Ali: Yes.
Rothstein: Do you support [Palestinian] Islamic Jihad?
Malik Ali: Yes.
Rothstein: Do you support jihad on this campus?
Malik Ali: Jihad on this campus…? As long as it’s in the form of speaking truth to power, yes. And the reason why I said it’s not a good idea to sit down with Zionists, is because when you sit down with Zionists, for cookies and cake, and talk about issues, that kind of thing, right, it gives the impression that Zionism is like, it’s okay, that it’s okay. Now, you Jews, in all due respect, you wouldn’t sit down with Nazis for tea and cake. No you wouldn’t!
Malik Ali is far from the only pro-terror Students for Justice in Palestine speaker. In 2012, for example, Students for Justice in Palestine invited Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist Khader Adnan to headline an Students for Justice in Palestine-sponsored event at American University. Adnan, who was at one point the official spokesman for Palestinian Islamic Jihad, is a supporter of suicide bombings and terrorist attacks on civilians, and has accused the Palestinian Authority of being a collaborator with Israel.
Nor is such rhetoric limited to Students for Justice in Palestine’s outside speakers. Indeed, the group’s own leadership has displayed an attitude toward violence that seems disturbingly close to pathological. In December 2013, Mohammad Hammad, president of San Francisco State University’s General Union of Palestinian Students (the chapter kept its original name from 1973) posted a picture of himself wielding a knife on his Tumblr page.
“I seriously cannot get over how much I love this blade,” he wrote in the caption. “It is the sharpest thing I own and cuts through everything like butter and just holding it makes me want to stab an Israeli soldier.” According to CBS News, Hammad has come under investigation by anti-terrorism officials and the FBI for activity that included serious threats of violence.
In the face of such a torrent of incitement, should it be surprising to see members of Students for Justice in Palestine engaging in actual physical aggression and violence against Jewish or pro-Israel students?
Most institutions of higher education have strict and often stringently enforced codes against this kind of hate speech, intimidation, and violence. Yet, in the case of the Students for Justice in Palestine, university administrators have proven ambivalent about when and where to draw the line.
After the Northeastern University chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine was suspended, the group argued that its right to free speech was violated, and it was later reinstated. After the Temple University student was assaulted, the school launched an investigation and the attacker was arrested. But Students for Justice in Palestine at Temple University remains a chartered and school-approved group with access to finances and school facilities.
When I asked one New York University student to grade his administration’s response to Students for Justice in Palestine antisemitism on a 10-point scale, he responded in the bluntest possible terms: “The administration hasn’t done sh*t.”
Students for Justice in Palestine patently fails, in fact refuses, to advocate anything resembling peace or a just solution to the Middle East conflict. It does not advance Palestinian human rights or the human rights of anyone. In fact, it consistently violates the human rights of pro-Israel and Jewish students. It demonizes Israel, often in racist terms, and thus perpetuates division and conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
It opposes any and all cooperation or dialogue with Israelis or indeed anyone who disagrees with its radical ideology. It has shown itself disturbingly undisturbed by terrorism and those who support terrorism. It engages in and propagates anti-Semitic racism. And its members engage in acts of intimidation and physical violence, often with impunity.
Contrary to its own claims, University is not a voice for the Palestinians. In fact, through its “anti-normalization” ideology, its goal is to shout down the many Palestinians and Jews who do seek a peaceful future, and instead manipulate the Palestinian cause in order to promote an atmosphere of hatred, intimidation and radicalism on campus. The result is that rather than contributing to debate and dialogue, University seeks to destroy these bedrock values of the modern university.
The coming year, therefore, will pose a test for university leaders, both students and administrators: Will they stand for the values of free discussion and open inquiry and fulfill their role as guardians of a safe environment for students, free of bullying and intimidation? Or will they continue to allow an organization that promotes terror to terrorize our campuses under the guise of free speech?
The answer they choose will have a huge impact on the nature of our campuses for many years to come.
Campus Watch
“Students for Justice in Palestine, Pro-Israel groups rally on the Spine.” Pipe Dream.
“Abbas: Don’t boycott Israel.” Times of Israel.
“Palestinians: BDS Activists Are Troublemakers, Criminals.” Gatestone Institute.
“Palestinian advocate discourages divestment.” The Layman Online.
 | A guest post by
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Clearly, the Trump Administration should designate SJP as a terrorist organization and prosecute it and its members to the full extent of the law, as well as take the most extreme actions possible against any academic institution that countenances its presence on campus.
——The coming year, therefore, will pose a test for university leaders, both students and administrators:
"Will they stand for the values of free discussion and open inquiry?"
American academia hasn't stood for these values in quite a while, maybe not since this year's freshmen were infants. In the minds of our progressive clerisy, "free discussion and open inquiry" could lead to some students "feeling unsafe", esp among the "marginalized", thus these things are discouraged if not denounced. The last place anyone should expect "free discussion and open inquiry" is at an upscale American university.
...."and fulfill their role as guardians of a safe environment for students, free of bullying and intimidation?"
The progressive clerisy has already answered this question: for every other group "speech is violence", esp if it is ugly and based on retrograde stereotypes, but for Jews "violence is speech", meaning that a pack of shrieking kids calling for your murder needs to be placed "in context", and should be excused because these shrieking kids just care so deeply about Palestinian children and their blood and tears.
"Or will they continue to allow an organization that promotes terror to terrorize our campuses under the guise of free speech?"
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but all our most prestigious universities have converted to the Social Justice faith (it is their product, creation and credential, after all) and in the Social Justice faith, Israel is the world's great pariah, Jews are automatically suspect unless they publicly denounce their faith and people, and Zionists are the new Nazis.
Just like its Marxist grandparent, the Social Justice movement has decided that Jews are the enemy that needs to be destroyed for its utopian vision to be achieved, and as this movement is based in our most famous universities, this is the last place Jews should look to for support. Hating Israel and its supporters is a new mandatory belief for entry into the progressive clerisy that runs our colleges and culture, which means the old is new again.