On October 12, the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organized a “National Day of Resistance” on college campuses across the United States.
A “Day of Resistance toolkit” released by SJP said the “students in exile are part of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement” and called for the mobilization of its supporters now that “the Zionist entity is fragile, and Palestinian resistance is alive.”
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs claims SJP has ties to terrorist organizations and is a campus front for Hamas.
“SJP is an extremist organization that maintains affiliations with Arab and Islamic terror groups, is overtly antisemitic, incites hatred and violence against Jewish students, and rejects the existence of the State of Israel in any borders,” the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs said in a press release.
Supporting terrorism against Israel
SJP claims it rejects antisemitism and denies ties to terrorist organizations.
Two flyers for the event distributed nationally by SJP portray Hamas fighters in the latest attacks. The first one is a Getty Images photo of two Hamas fighters standing on an Israeli tank; the other flyer shows an illustration of a Hamas paraglider emblazoned on a red background.
As of publication, it was unclear how many US universities held SJP rallies or the exact number of attendees at each of the rallies, but at least 10 universities had anywhere between 200 and 500 SJP supporters attend their local events.
The following universities were among the US campuses that hosted SJP rallies on the National Day of Resistance: University of Washington (Seattle), Columbia University, University of North Carolina, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Southern Florida (USF), University of Virginia, University of Illinois.
The USF rally came less than 24 hours after the USF Center for Jewish Campus Life had been evacuated due to a bomb threat.
Meanwhile, the president of the University of Arizona (UA) canceled the Day of Resistance at his university. UA President Robert Robbins said SJP’s ideals and celebration of Hamas were “antithetical to our university’s values.” Robbins said this was “because the University of Arizona has one of the largest populations of Jewish students in our country, this tragedy hits our community especially hard.”
UA’s cross-state rival, Arizona State University (ASU), allowed the SJP event to occur on campus. MEChA, a Latino student group, supported Students for Justice in Palestine at ASU at the pro-Palestinian rally.
ASU police told The Media Line they estimated 200 pro-Palestinian and 75 pro-Israel supporters attended the rally, which also featured a short march and photo op on the ASU bridge. There was a strong police and school administrator presence.
“I am out here because I think the Palestinian conflict is a matter of consistent racism towards the brown people in the Middle East. I think that Israeli occupation started because of disrespect to the Arab people. … We’re trying to explain to people what’s going on in a way that we are never going to get from the media because they have specific things they want to tell,” an ASU biochemistry major who asked not to be named told The Media Line.
The biochemistry major in his early twenties passed out surgical masks to Palestine supporters to help his “brothers and sisters” conceal their identities. The man acknowledged supporting Palestine could have a negative impact, mainly because of how the media portrays Palestinian supporters, he said. The biochemistry major spoke extensively to The Media Line unmasked anyhow.
“I am extremely frustrated, and I am frustrated we are acting like the violence Hamas is causing is the crime. That is not the crime. The crime is the consistent centurylong violence that has been appropriated upon the Palestinian people by the Israeli government. The crime is the complete disregard for brown people and then the continuous marketing of them as savages, evil, as brutal animals who are rapists, who are murderers, which is not the case,” the biochemistry major continued.
SJP believes the media conceals crimes by Israel and exaggerates Palestinian violence.
The pro-Israel supporters, primarily from ASU Chabad, held Israeli flags while standing on a raised stage in front of the SJP rally. Rabbi Shmuel of ASU Chabad led prayers and supported ASU Chabad members who were on hand.
ASU Student Alex Lieferman attended to support Israel. He said his brother is serving in the IDF and that he personally knew Israeli families who had been raped and killed during the Hamas attack. He was perplexed seeing the rally on his campus.
“I think it is misleading, it’s a little odd to see such a negative thing happen in the world and have such a lot of support behind it,” Lieferman told The Media Line.
“When people are occupied, resistance is justified” and “Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea” were chanted as the students marched across campus and back.
The rally did not end peacefully.
A young female student holding an Israeli flag, and perched upon another student’s shoulders, was pushed by a pro-Palestinian supporter when she inadvertently walked in front of a Muslim prayer that was occurring. This caused a small skirmish between the two sides.
A male student, who later identified himself as Israeli to The Media Line, attempted to go after the men he alleges assaulted the girls, but was apprehended by ASU police in the process. A member of SJP yelled, “F*ck your country” at the Israeli man while a group of ASU police officers forcefully pushed Palestinian supporters back.
The Israeli student told The Media Line that men in the SJP group had assaulted the two women for no reason. He asked not to be identified.
The Palestinian supporters told The Media Line the female Israeli supporters had instigated the event by walking in front of the Muslim men while they prayed to be intentionally disrespectful.
While the Day of Resistance was mainly peaceful, Hamas has called for its “Global Day of Jihad” to occur today, Friday, October 13, 2023.