In the aftermath of Hamas’ barbaric attack on Israel, Arizona State University’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) declared “Palestinian freedom fighters are not terrorists!”
The message was a theme in the group’s anti-Israel “Day of Resistance” in solidarity with Palestine — and, by extension, Hamas.
In a report titled “Students for Justice in Palestine Unmasked,” the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs breaks down the SJP, describing it as a “terror-affiliated anti-Semitic network that currently operates with autonomy and impunity at colleges and universities across the United States.”
And U.S. taxpayers, in part, are picking up the tab for this radical group.
The extensive report finds:
- SJP is not, as it claims, a “grassroots” student organization; it is a terror-affiliated anti-Semitic network that currently operates with autonomy and impunity at colleges and universities across the United States.
- SJP network serves as the leading student arm of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement in the United States.
- SJP has adopted a policy of “anti-normalization” of relations with Zionist groups and most Jewish organizations with the exception of the equally radical, anti-Zionist, and pro-BDS Jewish Voice for Peace. Students for Justice in Palestine advances its proprietary view of Palestinian justice by undertaking initiatives to isolate, demonize, and ultimately destroy the state of Israel.
- Many students and university administrations have treated SJP as a pro-Palestinian equivalent to pro-Israel student groups such as StandWithUs, The Israel on Campus Coalition, or Hillel. However, SJP is an extremist organization that maintains affiliations with Arab and Islamic terror groups. It is overtly anti-Semitic, 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 notes that SJP has been linked to terror groups. Principle backers of the student group include founders, financial patrons, and ideological supporters who have been connected to Islamist terror organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
“Students for Justice in Palestine is a byproduct of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), an organization whose leaders were former members of Palestinian and Islamist terror organizations. AMP was founded in 2005 by the former leaders of three organizations; Kindhearts, the Islamic Association for Palestine, and the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. All three organizations were implicated by the U.S. government between 2001 and 2011 for financing Hamas,” the report states.
‘From the River to the Sea’
Representatives from the Arizona State Chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine did not return The Star News Network’s requests for comment.
Finn Howe, president of SJP at Arizona State, told Cronkite News at last week’s “day of resistance” that the ASU student body is “really coming together for this moment.”
“We would like to hear from ASU to support their Palestinian students,” he told the news outlet.
They didn’t discuss Hamas’ brutal terrorist attack on innocent Israelis, the murder of hundreds of young people at a concert, the torture, the rape, the hostages the “freedom fighters” grabbed. SJP organizations and similar organizations across the country have blamed Israel and its “apartheid regime” for the terrorist attacks.
A “Joint Statement by Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups on the Situation in Palestine” declares: “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”
The anti-Israel protesters at ASU carried Palestinian flags and handmade signs as they marched from the Memorial Union, through the Palm Walk and onto the lawn in front of the Palo Verde East student dormitory while chanting, “Free, Free Palestine,” and, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free.”
“From the River to the Sea” is the Hamas slogan for pushing the Jews out of Israel — by force and/or extermination.
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free” is a common call to arms for pro-Palestinian activists. It calls for the establishment of a State of Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, erasing the State of Israel and its people,” the American Jewish Committee states on its website.
Calls for Accountability
The violence is hitting home.
An Israeli student was beaten with a stick on the Columbia University campus last week amid heightened tensions over the Israel-Hamas war, the New York Post reported. The campus newspaper, the Columbia Spectator, reported that the 19-year-old female suspect attacked the victim after she ripped down posters he had put up about hostages in Gaza, and he confronted her. The suspect was subsequently arrested.
Several Jewish organizations, including the Israel on Campus Coalition, are calling on universities to pull funding and ancillary support for SPJ.
“These actions and statements cannot be ignored and must be condemned — by all members of the university community,” the letter from dozens of organizations and on-campus groups states.
“We call for any university recognition of SJP chapters to be withdrawn and any university funding to be rescinded.”
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) is urging the Department of Justice to investigate the third-party funding of far-left student organizations that have called for the effective destruction of Israel.
“In the wake of the brutal terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel, we have witnessed an alarming rise in support for violence against the Jewish people,” Hawley wrote in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. “Public reports indicate that several far-left student groups have lined up to effectively cheerlead Hamas’s genocidal war against the people of Israel.”
“Given the potential scale of this threat, I urge you to immediately deploy DOJ resources to investigate these organizations’ funding sources,” the letter continued. “The First Amendment protects the right to protest. But it does not protect the provision of material support to terrorist organizations. Nor does it insulate financial transactions that threaten our national security.”
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Protesters” by Students for Justice in Palestine – Arizona State University.
