Dozens of representatives of Reservists on Duty (ROD) and Students Supporting Israel (SSI) held a protest outside the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) conference on Saturday.The pro-Israel rally honored Israeli victims of Palestinian terror. Additionally, students held large posters countering the messages of SJP and shared their personal Israeli stories and experiences with passersby.“Reservists on Duty will be present wherever this ancient hatred presents itself, to expose and to fight the organizations that spread it,” said Ofir Ohayon, a member of the group’s delegation.SJP’s annual conference ran from November 1 to 3 at the University of Minnesota, which is located in the home district of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, herself an outspoken supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. The event brought together representatives from 200 local SJP chapters from around the country, with the mission of encouraging members to embrace “the fullness of international liberation through a framework that refuses to sacrifice the demands of those who struggle against state violence, settler-colonialism, and imperialism– from Palestine to Turtle Island, from the Philippines to Mexico and beyond.”
Last week, a nearly 100-page report by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) highlighted how SJP “promotes antisemitic rhetoric” and is “associated [with] violence and terror, ideologically and politically.” The report called the organization an “antisemitic force on campus.”“It is upsetting and angering to see how this year, too, an American university has decided to allow and even give the stage to the hate organization SJP, which can deploy its antisemitic doctrine,” Ohayon said. “It is time to reveal what this organization really stands for, and what it doesn’t. SJP is not pro-Palestinian or pro-justice. It is an anti-Israeli and antisemitic organization, and its real purpose on campus is to isolate and demonize Israel and Jewish students.”In the past, SJP has hosted speakers with direct terrorist ties at its annual conference, including in 2015 when Rasmea Odeh was the keynote speaker. Odeh perpetrated a terrorist attack in 1969 at a Jerusalem supermarket that killed two Hebrew University students. She later immigrated to the United States but was caught and deported in 2017.This year, the conference was closed to non-invitees and the organization kept its list of speakers closed to the public.According to SSI co-founder Ilan Sinelnikov, the event was held in a building closed to the public, with curtains down over the windows. Students who walked in and out of the building “covered their faces like criminals.”