Anti-Israel activism has turned into criminal acts on college campuses all across America– including mine. Since the massacre of Israeli citizens by Hamas on October 7, 2023, my campus has been the victim of at least three incidents of antisemitic vandalism, with only the most recent garnering any strong public condemnation from the University.
In a follow-up letter sent to President Armstrong less than two months after his testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce in a hearing titled Beyond the Ivy Leagues: Stopping the Spread of Antisemitism on American Campuses, the committee specifically highlighted a recent June 4 vandalism incident during which “pro-Palestinian activists vandalized a Cal Poly building with slogans including &#8216;Free Palestine&#8217; and &#8216;Cal Poly Divest.'&#8221;
I was present on May 7 in the Rayburn House Office on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. when President Armstrong gave that testimony. The hearing was meant to spotlight antisemitism on campuses like mine. During his remarks, President Armstrong asserted that Cal Poly is committed to fostering an environment free from discrimination and religious intolerance.
However, this claim is contradicted by the university’s own actions — including its sponsorship of a Cal Poly Students for Justice in Palestine (CPSJP) event titled “All Day for Palestine” on May 31. Just four days before the group of anti-Israel activists carried out the vandalism attack on a Cal Poly building, two university-run departments — the Multicultural Center (MCC) and Student Diversity and Belonging — co-sponsored the event.
The caption promoting the event on the MCC’s Instagram account read: “Don’t miss out on this opportunity to commune with like-minded people and honor the culture of Palestinian resilience… and as always, Free Palestine!!!” This was not a neutral gathering, and the university did not just permit it – it funded and endorsed it, allowing for antisemitic messaging to be amplified with institutional support.
<div id="attachment_945441" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-945441" class="size-large wp-image-945441" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-1848486361-864x576.jpg" alt="San Luis Obispo California, USA - 11-10-2023: California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo known simply as &quot;Cal Poly.&quot; It was brought into the California State University system in 1960 focusing exclusively on STEM education, applied sciences, engineering, sciences, and technology. California has two other technical schools one in Pomona and the other in Humboldt." width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-1848486361-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-1848486361-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-1848486361-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-1848486361-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-1848486361-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-1848486361-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-1848486361-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />JasonDoiy. Getty Images.</div>
The event, hosted at the heart of campus in the University Union, spanned six hours and featured students wearing keffiyehs hoisting Palestinian flags and distributing antisemitic materials. Fliers featured slogans such as “From the river to the sea,” a phrase calling for the elimination of Israel, while another pamphlet promoted the Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) movement, which framed Israeli universities, companies, and cultural institutions as targets for protest and isolation.
These messages are not just hateful in theory — they appear to have inspired the June 4 vandalism, which echoed their rhetoric. Given this context, it is no surprise that a group felt emboldened to carry out the criminal act just days later.
To make matters worse, only hours after the vandalism incident, CPSJP posted a Venmo link titled “SLO Bail Fund” on their Instagram story, soliciting donations for the individuals arrested for committing the act. The post claimed the activists had been arrested for “protesting for a free Palestine” — effectively justifying and even celebrating their actions.
As a Jewish student leader of multiple clubs, I am familiar with the extensive process of requesting and hosting on-campus events, let alone gaining co-sponsorship from a university division. It requires multiple faculty members and administrators signing off and many other logistical hurdles. It is clear that the “All Day for Palestine” event was not an oversight, but a coordinated, institutionally-endorsed initiative which platformed materials and rhetoric that alienated and endangered Jewish students.
This danger is not theoretical. The call for a “Free Palestine” is precisely the same language which has been most recently used in two terror attacks against Jews in Washington D.C. and in Boulder, Colorado. The fact that it has also inspired criminal conduct on our campus demands education and leadership about the harm of misinformation and the vilification of Zionism, or the belief in the Jewish right to self determination in their ancestral homeland, which most Jews around the world agree is central to their Jewish identity.
Cal Poly Students for Justice in Palestine has made its goals unmistakably clear. In an Instagram post celebrating the “All Day for Palestine” event, the group advertised an upcoming meeting to “further define the role of the student intifada for a free Palestine.” The term intifada is historically associated with violence targeting Jews, and its promotion on a college campus by a university-sanctioned group should raise alarms.
It is time for Cal Poly to make a choice: Will the university continue to bolster antisemitic activity under the guise of social justice — such as sponsoring events like “All Day for Palestine” — or will it take meaningful action to protect its Jewish students before the climate worsens? Will it be proactive or reactive? Unfortunately, if a direct call from Congress failed to inspire decisive actions against all forms of antisemitism, it is difficult to imagine what will.
* * *
Adira Fogelman is a third-year student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo studying Business Administration and Law. She is also the Vice President of SLO Hillel and the Vice President of Mustangs United for Israel.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

College Presidents Testify At House Hearing On Antisemitism On Campuses

After Testifying Before Congress On Antisemitism, Cal Poly Hosted ‘All Day For Palestine’

Anti-Semitism

antisemitism

California

Congress

Hamas

Israel

Opinion

Students

Students for Justice in Palestine

Senator Bill Cassidy(R-LA) on Thursday announced that the Senate will investigate American Muslims for Palestine’s activities on college campuses, alleging that nine individuals associated with the group have ties to Hamas or Hamas-linked organizations.
“I launched an investigation into American Muslims for Palestine demanding answers about their activities on college campuses,” the Louisiana Republican said at a hearing discussing rising anti-Semitism on college campuses. “This group’s leaders have ties to Hamas and helped create the group Students for Justice in Palestine.”
Cassidy launched the investigation under the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, which he chairs.
In a letter to AMP, Cassidy accused the group of having “extensive” ties to Hamas, which is a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). He added that the group has been actively involved in organizing college students and helped create and fund Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which has been banned or suspended on several campuses for creating security concerns.
In the letter, he listed the nine individuals who were identified by Jonathan Schanzer, the Executive Director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, with troubling ties.
They include AMP board member Salah Sarsour, who helped raise money for the Holy Land Foundation, which was founded by Hamas’s Deputy Director, Mousa Abu Marzook. The Holy Land Foundation was shuttered by the United States government after it sent $12.4 million out of the United States to “willfully contribute funds, goods, and services to Hamas.” Sarsour also reportedly sent funds to Adel Awadallah, who helped lead Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades before he was killed by Israeli forces in 1998.
Others listed who helped raise funds for the Holy Land Foundation include AMP event speakers Jamal Said and Kifah Mustafa. Mohammed El-Mezain, who helped lead the Holy Land Foundation, spoke at an AMP-sponsored event in 2023 was also listed.
AMP’s executive director, Osama Abuirshaid, is listed due to his previous work for the newspaper of Islamic Association for Palestine, which was founded with startup money from Marzook and provided “media, communications, and fundraising services” to the Holy Land Foundation. According to Cassidy’s letter, in the newspaper Al-Zaytounah, he “published interviews that highlight his communications with Hamas leader Abu Marzook and other Hamas leaders in Gaza . . . [and] in 2014 . . . was featured on the website of Hamas’s self-declared military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades.”
Rafeeq Jaber, who helped prepare tax forms for AMP’s partner organization, AJP Education Foundation, was listed. He previously served as president of the Islamic Association for Palestine along with Sufian Nabhan,who is also listed for being a former member of AMP’s national board and serving as Michigan representative for the Islamic Association for Palestine.
Abdelbaset Hamayel, who is also listed on AMP tax forms and was described in 2014 as AMP’s executive director also served as “secretary general” of the Islamic Association for Palestine and a representative for KindHearts which was also shuttered for its ties to the Holy Land Foundation. Kindhearts’ founder, Khaled Smaili, reportedly worked for Global Relief Foundation, which was sanctioned by the Treasury Department in 2002 for funding al-Qaeda.
AMP Chairman Hatem Bazian  was “a frequent speaker at IAP events” and “helped raise money for Kindhearts in 2004,” and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania according to the letter.
Abuirshaid has addressed students directly at Columbia University, George Washington University. Bazian has addressed students at UC Berkeley and where he teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.
Cassidy’s letter goes on to say that AMP has helped to recently organize SJP conferences at college campuses including at Rutgers Universities and the National Students for Justice in Palestine conference at UCLA.
“These campuses have become sites for a combined total of approximately 300 arrests and detentions,” Cassidy <a href="https://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2025-03-26-BC-to-Hatem-Bazian.pdf">wrote</a>. “UCLA, where AMP helped to organize the National SJP conference, has been the site of more than 200 arrests or detentions.”
Cassidy said that AMP’s ties to SJP groups “raise serious questions about AMP’s involvement in planning, organizing, and funding campus demonstrations that have posed significant threats to campus safety.”
Cassidy’s letter added that more than 60 colleges and universities are under investigation for Title VI violations relating to antisemitic harassment and discrimination.
In a letter to AMP, Cassidy demanded documents about the group’s actions on college campuses including their financial ties and its associates&#8217; ties to Hamas and Hamas-affiliates by April 9.
Cassidy sent letters to several colleges and universities, including UCLA, George Washington University, Columbia University, and Barnard College, requesting information about the activities of SJP and AMP. Additionally, Cassidy sent a letter to the Justice Department outlining the investigation and seeking further information.

Senate HELP Committee Holds Hearing On Steward Health Care Bankruptcy

Senate Launches Investigation Into Pro-Palestinian Group For Ties To Hamas

bill Cassidy

College

UCLA issued an interim suspension to two pro-Palestinian student organizations on Wednesday after masked protesters allegedly vandalized Regent Jay Sures’ Brentwood home last week and reportedly harassed his wife.
Chancellor Julio Frenk announced that the two groups could no longer hold on-campus meetings, apply for funding, or formally associate with UCLA while officials <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-12/ucla-suspends-students-for-justice-in-palestine-jay-sures-protest">investigate</a> their alleged misconduct, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Frenk described the alleged harassment in a campus <a href="https://chancellor.ucla.edu/messages/a-stand-against-violence-in-our-community">update</a> on Wednesday:
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<blockquote>On February 5, 2025, individuals affiliated with the student groups harassed Mr. Sures and members of his family outside his home.</blockquote>
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<blockquote>Individuals surrounded the vehicle of a Sures family member and prevented that family member’s free movement.</blockquote>
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<blockquote>Individuals pounded on drums, chanting and holding signs with threatening messages such as “Sures you will pay, until you see your final day.”</blockquote>
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<blockquote>Individuals vandalized the Sures home by applying red-colored handprints to the outer walls of the home and hung banners on the property’s hedges.</blockquote>
</li>
</ul>
“This is not about me. I’m the target but this is about protecting every member of our community from intimidation and hate,” Sures said.
The Los Angeles Police Department is reportedly examining potential criminal charges stemming from the incident, and the university’s conduct proceedings for both organizations have no set end date.
The interim ban follows a trend of other University of California campuses halting the activities of Students for Justice in Palestine. UC Santa Cruz placed the group under suspension until 2026, with UC Irvine enacting a restriction through 2029. At UC San Diego, the organization faced charges related to campus disruptions last spring and did not renew its official status for the current academic year.
Kira Stein, who leads the Jewish Faculty Resilience Group at UCLA, welcomed the move. “We have a long list of SJP violations of university rules and regulations that we have been sharing with the administration,” Stein said, asserting that the group’s actions amount to “intimidation, harassment, and inflammatory disinformation.”
Meanwhile, the union representing university law enforcement encouraged UCLA officials “to demand prosecution” for any illegal conduct and emphasized that administrative responses should deter incidents that cross legal boundaries.
“Universities cannot allow lawlessness under the guise of activism,” said Wade Stern, who serves as the president of the Federated University Police Officers&#8217; Association.
The two student activist groups swiftly responded to UCLA&#8217;s decision on social media, describing the action as “crazy” and encouraging supporters to closely watch for updates.
In prior statements online, the organizations accused the UC system of “militarizing” campuses to stifle demonstrations, and they repeated calls for the university to cut financial ties with certain funds, weapons manufacturers, and other holdings allegedly linked to Israel.
University leaders, however, have publicly affirmed they do not intend to pursue divestment.

UCLA Pro-Palestine protest

‘A Stand Against Violence’: UCLA Suspends Two Pro-Palestinian Student Orgs

Education

Los Angeles (UCLA)

Politics

Pro-Palestinian

Protest

Protests

Riots

A George Mason student found in possession of weapons, “Death to Jews” signs, and terrorist flags previously urged the university to condemn Israel for waging “genocide” in Gaza, previously unreleased footage obtained by The Daily Wire shows.
Jena Chanaa, a graduate student who led George Mason’s now-suspended Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at the school last year, slammed the school for its “neutrality” at an April Board of Visitors meeting.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Here is Jena Chanaa — the George Mason student caught with Hamas and Hezbollah flags and &#8220;Death to Jews&#8221; and &#8220;Death to America&#8221; signs — urging the school to place itself on the “correct side of history” by condemning Israeli &#8220;genocide.&#8221;
&#8220;Thank you all and free Palestine&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/HS84Jb7lqF">pic.twitter.com/HS84Jb7lqF</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1868763831247520064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 16, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“Our students are facing great losses every single day, forced to live through this nightmare and forced to live with the knowledge that their own university is not doing anything to position themselves against the genocide that is actively causing this tragedy,” Chanaa said, in reference to the war in Gaza.
She went on to demand that the school endorse a ceasefire and acknowledge the “genocide.”
“As someone who has personally been involved in this campus-wide movement, it has been extremely disappointing to see the university position itself on the side of neutrality,” Chanaa said. “I implore you to place George Mason on the correct side of history. Do your part to support all students and community members affected by this genocide and call for a ceasefire now.”
Jena and her sister Noor Chanaa — who is the current co-leader of the SJP chapter — are suspected of being part of a group that defaced George Mason’s student center in August, the Washington Free Beacon <a href="https://freebeacon.com/campus/death-to-jews-inside-the-home-of-2-sjp-leaders-at-george-mason-university-police-find-guns-ammo-and-terrorist-flags/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
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After being granted a warrant to search the Chanaa family home, police discovered Hamas and Hezbollah flags, anti-American and anti-Semitic signs, and firearms and ammunition belonging to the Chanaas’ brother, Mohammad.
Mohammad’s weapons were seized under Virginia’s red flag law, due to him being “linked to destruction of property in connection with a large group of people with like-minded rhetoric&#8221; and being a danger to others due to his possession of &#8220;terroristic&#8221; materials, the Free Beacon reported. Mohammad, who reportedly recently graduated from George Mason, later had his weapons returned by a Fairfax County circuit court judge, <a href="https://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/substantial-risk-order-redacted.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">documents show</a>.
As punishment for their activity, the sisters have been barred from campus for four years, according to <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/12/03/george-mason-fbi-gaza-palestine-israel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Intercept</a>.
Under Jana and Noor Chanaa&#8217;s leadership, George Mason’s SJP chapter celebrated Hamas’ October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians just days after the attack, describing it as the &#8220;right to resist for Palestinians living under the Zionist occupation.”
“On October 7th, 2023, Palestinian resistance fighters began mobilizing from Gaza into surrounding occupied areas, reclaiming land and seizing settlements considered illegal and a violation of international laws,” the statement reads.
The October 9 statement went on to criticize Israel for defending itself in the immediate aftermath.
“The [IDF’s] bombing of Gaza in response to the resistance is unceasing and barbaric, carrying out several massacres, leveling homes on residents’ heads, and leaving entire families martyred in a pathetic attempt to restore its broken ‘prestige’ due to historic resistance advances,” it stated.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin condemned the Chanaas in a statement, saying he has “grave concerns about the role of organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine on our campuses,” <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2024/12/gov-youngkin-says-students-for-justice-in-palestine-poses-a-clear-and-present-threat-to-jewish-students-and-the-jewish-community-in-virginia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported Jewish Insider</a>.
“These blatant and dangerous antisemitic acts pose a clear and present threat to Jewish students and the Jewish community in Virginia,” Youngkin said.
<a href="https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-demands-va-s-george-mason-university-rescind-suspension-of-anti-genocide-protesters/?emci=5e809896-7cb2-ef11-88d0-000d3a9d5840&amp;emdi=b002660e-82b2-ef11-88d0-000d3a9d5840&amp;ceid=240052" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CAIR denounced</a> the search of the Chanaa home, calling it an intimidation tactic against “those who seek to end the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the Biden administration’s complicity with that genocide.”
“Finally, such a raid for allegedly spray-painting property raises reasonable questions about what is happening,”  CAIR Research and Advocacy Director Corey Saylor said. “Unless George Mason administration has decided anti-genocide viewpoints require treatment outside normal due process, these measures should be rescinded.”
A faculty group released a statement expressing its &#8220;deep concern about the apparent targeting of two George Mason students for their advocacy for Palestinian human rights,” the Free Beacon reported.
The Chanaa family attorney, Abdel-Rahman Hamed, provided a statement to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/12/08/george-mason-university-pro-palestinian-activists/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Washington Post</a>, calling the situation &#8220;yet another example of the police state targeting American Muslims without cause.&#8221; A section of Hamed’s <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/abdelrahmanhamed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LinkedIn page</a> states, &#8220;I deny, defy, and defeat Zionists, antisemites, and White Supremacists,” the Free Beacon found.

Chanaa

WATCH: SJP Leader Caught With ‘Death To Jews’ Signs And Hamas Flags Pushed School To Condemn Israel

George Mason University

An email sent to Oklahoma State University’s psychology department solicited students to participate in a “Week of Rage” hosted by the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
The email, sent by the psychology department’s Student Diversity Committee (SDC), said that the “Week of Rage” would begin on October 7 – the anniversary of the terrorist attack on Israel that killed 1,200 and wounded more than 5,000.
“Since it’s been a year of genocide in Palestine, the students are continuing their commitment to the liberation of the Palestinian people and the end of the Zionist regime through a week of action from October 7th-11th,” the email said, according to a copy posted to X.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The official diversity committee at Oklahoma State University’s psychology department sent an email soliciting students to participate in the &#8220;Week of Rage&#8221; sponsored by SJP.
The first event is on Oct. 7th to celebrate the massacre. This is systemic antisemitism. <a href="https://t.co/yQbatSzSwj">pic.twitter.com/yQbatSzSwj</a>
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) <a href="https://twitter.com/EYakoby/status/1842593911719739426?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 5, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The email listed the events for each day of the week, which includes a “Vigil For Our Martyrs” on Monday night, a “Demand Divestment” protest on Tuesday, a bake sale on Wednesday, a panel on Thursday, and a movie on Friday.
In response to the post about the email, Oklahoma State’s official X account said the email “was student-authored and distributed by a student group. It was not reviewed or endorsed by the university.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This email was student-authored and distributed by a student group. It was not reviewed or endorsed by the university.
— Oklahoma State Univ. (@okstate) <a href="https://twitter.com/okstate/status/1842645329348342167?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 5, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In a statement to The Daily Wire, OSU further said:
<blockquote>This email was student-authored and distributed only within the psychology department by a student group on campus. It was not reviewed or endorsed by the university’s administration. Student use of university email to distribute political content is protected by the First Amendment. 
At OSU, we support free speech and an environment that encourages the sharing of different ideas and perspectives. We believe a robust public discourse is a contribution to the process of addressing society’s most pressing challenges, which is our charge as a land-grant institution.
We appreciate the opportunity to educate students and the public about the First Amendment and protected vs. unprotected speech on public campuses.
</blockquote>
After being pressed about whether the language of SDC&#8217;s email was simply &#8220;the sharing of different ideas and perspectives,&#8221; OSU provided the following statement, which it has published on Sunday:
Oklahoma State University did not and does not officially support or endorse the events or political positions promoted by the student chapter of SJP. OSU supports our students’ free speech and free assembly rights. We have campus policies in place to protect all students and ensure academic instruction is not disrupted. As this week unfolds, we will enforce those rules across campus, and we will be swift to respond to any unlawful events. We encourage all students, staff, and faculty to remain peaceful and respectful and adhere to the principles of the Cowboy Code.
OSU didn’t respond to a Daily Wire inquiry about whether there would be consequences for those behind the email, who used a university mailing list and the official sounding “osupsychdiversity” account name to send the email.
The language of the email from the SDC would appear to violate OSU’s current <a href="https://campuslife.okstate.edu/student-conduct/site-files/documents/code24-25.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Code of Conduct</a>, specifically its rule against discrimination.
&#8220;Discrimination includes but is not limited to, disparate treatment directed toward an individual or group of individuals based on sex, race, color, sexual orientation, age, status as a veteran, gender identity or expression, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, sex stereotype, national origin, religion or a qualified individual with a disability that adversely affects their employment or education,” the code says.
It is also unclear whether the SDC is a student group in the same way that SJP is, since the SDC isn’t a chapter of a national group and is specific to the school.
Other universities are also facing anti-Semitism on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks against Israel. Protesters at the City University of New York vandalized the school’s Advanced Science Research Center, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/10/07/world-news/oct-7-anniversary-live-updates-nyc-protests-and-memorials-around-the-world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Pro-Palestinian protesters have also gathered at Columbia University, but Pro-Israel protesters are drowning them out with chants of “Bring them home,” referring to the 97 people – including 7 Americans – still <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/1-year-later-families-demand-action-as-hamas-holds-nearly-100-hostages-from-october-7-attack" target="_blank" rel="noopener">being held hostage</a> in Gaza.
This post has been updated to include further comment from OSU.

Oklahoma State University

Oklahoma State University Student Group Sends Email Promoting Pro-Palestinian Events

Oklahoma

U.S.

A federal judge on Tuesday said that the University of Maryland must allow a pro-Palestinian group to hold a rally on October 7, the anniversary of Hamas&#8217; terrorist attack on Israel.
“Even if pro-Israel groups see October 7 as somehow sacrosanct, it is at least fair argument for pro-Palestine groups to see the date as sacrosanct as well, symbolic of what they believe is Palestine’s longstanding fight for the liberation of Gaza,” U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.567249/gov.uscourts.mdd.567249.35.0_1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> in his injunction blocking the university from canceling the event.
“SJP [Students for Justice in Palestine] says it chose October 7 specifically because October 7 marks the beginning of what it calls Israel’s most recent ‘genocidal campaign’ which, SJP claims, has resulted in the death of over 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza. &#8230; No other date, as SJP sees it, can make the point of their mission quite as forcefully as October 7; to SJP, it is unique. That, in the Court’s view, fortifies SJP’s claim of irreparable harm.”
Even though he ruled the event must proceed, Judge Messitte noted that SJP “has picked a particularly controversial date to hold an event to commemorate Gaza War dead, to decry what it terms Israeli ‘genocide’…on October 7, a day when it has been widely reported that Hamas fighters invaded Jewish settlements near Gaza, killing some 1,200 occupants, torturing others, and taking some 250 hostages.&#8221;
The University System of Maryland banned all events on October 7 after University of Maryland President Darryll Pines came under fire for defending SJP&#8217;s planned event. The group, backed by lawyers from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), sued the university system after it said SJP would have to hold its event on a different day.
In response to the lawsuit, the university suggested that it cancelled events on October 7th because of anti-black racism.
Patricia Perillo, the University of Maryland&#8217;s vice president of student affairs, said in an affidavit that “In late August, 2024, my team and I became aware of a new, more angry, aggressive and violent tone to the messages the University was receiving, centered around SJP hosting an event on campus on October 7. For example, on August 26, 2024, an individual emailed University President Darryll J. Pines, who is Black, advising that if the University was going to permit SJP’s event to go forward, ‘then my Klan Rally with sheets and a noose are also approved.’”
The writer of the email in question raises the specter of KKK rallies to highlight how Jewish students would feel if SJP was allowed to proceed with its plan to mark October 7 by covering campus with Palestinian flags. The university&#8217;s filing seems to willfully misread the email.
Judge Messitte&#8217;s ruling makes clear the actual context, saying that a letter from Jews said they found the October 7 event “disgusting” because it was like “granting permission to white supremacists to burn a cross on campus on the day commemorating the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”
The Daily Wire previously reported that Pines misrepresented ChatGPT output about Palestine as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-president-plagiarized-from-chatgpt-to-justify-anti-israel-oct-7-rally">“faculty scholarship”</a> in order to rebuff a Jewish critic, and threatened to call the police on a Jewish resident for sending emails criticizing the school&#8217;s handling of anti-Semitism, all while claiming that the October 7 event itself was protected by free speech.
Judge Messitte wrote that “SJP has held more than 70 events on campus since October 7, 2023, including meetings, protests, sit-ins, and demonstrations, all without significant disruption or conflict.” He said if Maryland really did fear violence it had other options, such as bringing in extra security or installing metal detectors.
He said the First Amendment and precedent make granting an injunction an easy legal call. The free-speech group FIRE lauded the judge’s decision, saying “Students have a First Amendment right to speak on their public campus on October 7th, and UMD&#8217;s effort to delay that speech to a day that&#8217;s more convenient for them was, plain and simple, unconstitutional.&#8221;
SJP has itself tried to proscribe Jewish students&#8217; free speech. When the Institute for Israel Studies invited the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Michael Herzog, to speak on campus in 2022, SJP issued a statement saying that &#8220;students and community members of good conscience&#8221; should &#8220;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CkOHxW9r5uO/?img_index=1">wholeheartedly oppose the event,</a>&#8221; and that &#8220;The University of Maryland should stand in morality by disallowing Herzog&#8217;s presence on campus.&#8221;
And in a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C9yDEB3PJv6/?img_index=2">“statement of views,”</a> the SJP chapter said in July that “UMD SJP unequivocally states that the Zionist state of Israel has no right to exist,” and that Palestinians have “the right to resist.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-president-copied-rocket-science-paper-from-aussie-student">University of Maryland President Copied Rocket Science Paper From Aussie Student</a>

University of Maryland President Darryll Pines (Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Federal Judge Says University Must Let Anti-Israel Group Hold Oct. 7 Event

Maryland

Palestine

On October 7, 2023, Hamas slaughtered <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/hamass-october-7-attack-visualizing-data" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1,200 Israelis</a> in cold blood: <a href="https://www.thejc.com/news/israel/remains-found-of-12-year-old-girl-burned-alive-by-hamas-pwuvp95s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">burning families alive</a>, raping women until their bodies became unrecognizable, and taking eight Americans hostage. Before American Jews knew whether their loved ones were dead or alive, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters across the country had already begun <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/students-justice-palestine-sjp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">glorifying</a> Hamas, harassing <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/nyc-colleges-jewish-students-seen-locked-inside-library-anti-israel-protest-moves-building" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Jews</a> and demanding that Israel acquiesce to the terrorists’ demands.
In the months since, SJP chapters have seized every opportunity to embrace <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/shocking-antisemitism-at-ucla/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">anti-Semitic tropes</a> and <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/students-justice-palestine" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rewrite history</a> along ideological lines in their call for the elimination of the State of Israel. It is no surprise, then, that on the first anniversary of Hamas’ rape, murder, and abduction of Israeli civilians, SJP’s national headquarters has called for a &#8220;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C__KP_pSvp9/?igsh=MWQ1ZGUxMzBkMA%3D%3D&amp;img_index=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Week of Rage</a>.&#8221; Not rage against Hamas. Not rage against Yahya Sinwar or any other actor who could be reasonably blamed for the massive suffering following October 7. No: SJP is raging against any Israeli claim to legitimate self-defense.
Let’s be clear, October 7 marks the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Israel’s stated aims in the ongoing conflict are to return its hostages and to eliminate Hamas’ military capacities. SJP views Israel’s sole aim as the genocide of the population of Gaza.
However, the Israel-Gaza war has amassed one of the lowest ratios of civilian-to-militant casualty ratios in modern history. As the <a href="https://www.ajc.org/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-israels-humanitarian-aid-to-gaza" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IDF supplies</a> Gazan civilians with humanitarian aid, opts for <a href="https://www.fdd.org/analysis/op_eds/2024/07/18/idf-carries-out-precision-strikes-on-hamas-on-two-fronts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">precision strikes</a> to minimize civilian casualties, and even warns civilians in areas they intend to bomb to allow them time to evacuate — the term “genocide” simply doesn’t apply.
For almost 12 months, SJP has protested Israel’s actions as though Hamas does not exist, merely a thin justification for genocide. A &#8220;Week of Rage” on the anniversary of the massacre is SJP finally saying the quiet part out loud: they believe that October 7 was justified, and Hamas’ failure to eliminate the Israeli state is worthy of rage.
Violent and unlawful acts are nothing new for SJP. UCLA’s SJP chapter once re-posted an Instagram story claiming credit for a firebombing at UC Berkeley, reading “NOT SURE WHAT BUILDING IT EVEN WAS. HONESTLY DONT REALLY CARE. EVERY SINGLE BUILDING ON THE UC BERKELEY CAMPUS DESERVES TO BE INCINERATED.” 
<div id="attachment_801989" style="width: 282px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-801989" class="size-large wp-image-801989" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/unnamed-272x576.png" alt="Credit: Instagram" width="272" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/unnamed-272x576.png 272w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/unnamed-142x300.png 142w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/09/unnamed.png 666w" sizes="(max-width: 272px) 100vw, 272px" />Credit: Instagram</div>
During on-campus protests at UCLA, SJP affiliated agitators chanted &#8216;<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/ucla-professor-schools-gutless-response-antisemitism-campus-complicit-hamas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Itbah El Yahud</a>&#8216; (&#8216;slaughter the Jews&#8217; in Arabic) and beat a piñata effigy of Israel’s Prime Minister, accompanied by <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/11/10/news/ucla-students-batter-bibi-pinata-to-chants-of-beat-that-f-g-jew/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shouts of</a> &#8216;beat that f***ing Jew.'&#8221; SJP is also responsible for the illegal encampments that spread across university campuses last year, along with the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/police-move-in-on-anti-israel-encampment-at-ucla-make-dozens-of-arrests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vandalism</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&amp;v=ZmBk3T935CI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">destruction</a> they caused.
In addition to broad-brush antisemitism and lawlessness, individuals affiliated with campus SJP chapters have taken it upon themselves to harass individual Jewish students. A Jewish student was <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/jewish-yale-student-stabbed-eye-palestinian-flag-rowdy-protest-mob-behavior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stabbed in the eye</a> by an SJP-affiliated individual at Yale. At Princeton, a student at an SJP protest <a href="https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/student-journalist-reports-being-pushed-while-filming-princeton-protest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">assaulted a student reporter</a>. Even when punished, these incidents contribute to a culture that causes Jewish students to think twice about openly expressing their identity. Indeed, a <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/cmjs/noteworthy/ssri/hotspots-antisemitism.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brandeis study</a> found the presence of an active SJP chapter to be one of the strongest predictors of campus anti-Semitism.
Despite SJP’s clear calls for violence, university responses have been largely tepid or nonexistent, focusing on condemning individual incidents that garner media attention rather than addressing the quacking duck in front of them. While swift action is warranted, most campuses have stood by, either out of fear of backlash or a reluctance to confront the increasingly hostile climate for Jewish students.
Their call for a &#8220;Week of Rage&#8221; alone is obvious incitement to violence against Jewish students, proud Americans, and all those mourning the victims of October 7. Coupled with their violent record, SJP’s call for a Week of Rage becomes all the more terrifying. As students grieve the loss of their family members, the last thing they should have to worry about is being attacked by their own peers.
A few schools have disavowed SJP as a student organization, representing the appropriate response to a student organization endorsing an international terrorist organization. In October of 2023, Florida Governor <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/desantis-directs-florida-state-universities-to-deactivate-students-for-justice-in-palestine-group/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ron DeSantis</a> ordered Florida universities to “deactivate” their SJP chapters, citing their “material support” for a “designated foreign terrorist group.” In November, Brandeis University banned SJP, with University President Ron Liebowitz <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/president/letters/2023-11-08-free-speech-not-hate-speech.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writing</a> that the academy is “a space for free speech, not hate speech.” Unfortunately, such clarity is the exception, not the norm.
Reacting to instances of textbook anti-Semitism and mounting public pressure, <a href="https://news.columbia.edu/news/statement-gerald-rosberg-chair-special-committee-campus-safety" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Columbia</a> and <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2024/08/gwu-suspends-anti-israel-campus-groups-through-fall-semester/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GWU</a> banned SJP on their respective campuses. However, SJP continued to <a href="https://mediarelations.gwu.edu/update-demonstration-gws-foggy-bottom-campus-630am" target="_blank" rel="noopener">operate encampments</a> and <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-ny-jewish-columbia-student-alleges-harassment-by-violent-anti-israel-protesters/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">violently attack</a> Jewish students on both campuses long past their sanction. Without the appropriate follow-through, their condemnations amounted to little more than milquetoast suggestions.
Overwhelmingly, university responses to the violent hatred wrought by SJP have amounted to little more than <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/adl-colleges-and-universities-are-failing-fight-antisemitism-campus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">generic condemnations</a> of “all forms of hatred,” <a href="https://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/news/statement-about-support-and-resources-students-crises-unfold-worldwide" target="_blank" rel="noopener">failing to name SJP</a> or affiliated organizations directly. Such cowardice is clearly exemplified by the University of Maryland’s delineations for October 7, 2024, when the USM restricted campus activity to only <a href="https://dbknews.com/2024/09/02/usm-limits-oct-7-campus-demonstrations-university-sponsored-events-backlash/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">university-sponsored events</a>.
While their blanket ban ostensibly targets SJP, it also effectively bans student-led vigils mourning the horrors of the Hamas attack. To pretend that October 7 is a both-sides issue by painting grieving Jewish students as similar to those calling for a globalized intifada is to equivocate the victims of terrorism with its supporters.
In their own words, SJP openly supports internationally-recognized terrorist groups and calls for the destruction of the United States. It is long past time for universities to take these students at their word and hold them accountable as adults. Campuses that continue to tolerate groups that endorse the most dangerous terrorist organizations of our time risk fostering further radicalization and unintentionally abetting their destructive goals.
* * *
Bella Brannon is a student at UCLA studying Public Affairs and Digital Humanities. She is the Editor-In-Chief of Ha’Am, researched bias in artificial intelligence with the School of Technology Law and Policy, and spent the summer as an intern with the Religious Freedom Institute.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Police Arrest UCLA Protesters And Clear Encampment

This Student Group Is Calling For A ‘Week of Rage’ Beginning October 7 

This Student Group Is Calling For A 'Week of Rage' Beginning October 7 

American Universities

Columbia University

Jews

October 7

Terrorism

UCLA

The University of Maryland will allow the anti-Israel Students for Justice in Palestine to take over a massive chunk of its campus on October 7, the anniversary of Hamas&#8217; slaughter of 1,200 Israelis.
Rabbi Ari Israel, director of the university&#8217;s Hillel chapter, told The Daily Wire he expressed concerns about the event to university leadership. SJP held a similar event on Tuesday, the university&#8217;s second day of classes, setting up 15,000 flags in the center of campus to “honor the 150,000+ martyrs who have lost their lives within the past year,” and holding speeches against “the zionist entity,” according to an SJP flier.
The October 7 event is likely to be similar, and set to take place on the same section of campus.
Not even Hamas claims 150,000 people have been killed since Oct. 7 — the terrorist group alleges that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/eighty-media-outlets-issue-correction-on-ap-story-that-inflated-gaza-civilian-death-toll" target="_blank" rel="noopener">40,000</a> Palestinians have been killed— but SJP says it uses a higher “estimate” because “the health ministry has been unable to keep count of the dead.&#8221;
&#8220;We are approaching 11 months of genocide against the Palestinians,&#8221; the Maryland chapter of SJP said on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C_GdCwzRkey/?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a> &#8220;It has been almost a full year of genocide and terror as death tolls continue to rise.&#8221; In its <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C9yDEB3PJv6/?hl=en&amp;img_index=5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declaration of views,</a> the university&#8217;s SJP chapter &#8220;unequivocally states that the Zionist state of Israel has no right to exist.&#8221;
&#8220;The zionist entity has committed some of the most egregious criminal acts of our century&#8221; the group added.
Israel told parents of Jewish university students that “we did voice our concerns with senior UMD leadership&#8221; and &#8220;apprised them of the emotional load SJP&#8217;s callous behavior will bear on our Jewish community if they protest on the greatest Jewish day of mourning and tragedy since the Holocaust.”
The University of Maryland SJP chapter did not return a request for comment from The Daily Wire. Spokespeople for University of Maryland President Darryll Pines did not provide SJP’s application materials for reserving the space, or explain Pines’ justification in allowing it to proceed.
<div id="attachment_787351" style="width: 1046px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-787351" class="size-full wp-image-787351" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/umd-sjp2.jpg" alt="" width="1036" height="1634" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/umd-sjp2.jpg 1036w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/umd-sjp2-190x300.jpg 190w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/umd-sjp2-365x576.jpg 365w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/umd-sjp2-768x1211.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/08/umd-sjp2-974x1536.jpg 974w" sizes="(max-width: 1036px) 100vw, 1036px" />Screenshot</div>
Gerard Filitti, a lawyer for the Lawfare Project, which fights anti-Semitism on campus, wrote to Pines demanding the university cancel the event. According to Filitti, the event violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bars federal funds from being spent to encourage discrimination.
“No campus should permit SJP or any similar organization to hold any kind of event on October 7th,&#8221; Filitti wrote. &#8220;Doing so gives the university&#8217;s tacit approval to the celebration of Hamas&#8217; violent and despicable actions on that day,&#8221; and tells &#8220;Jewish students, faculty, and staff that the university is condoning the celebration of the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.&#8221;
Filitti also noted that the SJP event highlights how American universities discount the needs of Jewish students.
“Would any university allow a student organization to burn crosses on its campus to celebrate the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.? To celebrate the anniversary of 9/11 by calling for new Al Qaeda attacks? We all know the answer to those questions is an emphatic no,” he wrote.
In 2022, when the Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies and College of Arts and Humanities invited the ambassador to Israel, Michael Herzog, to speak, Maryland&#8217;s SJP chapter said it &#8220;wholeheartedly oppose[s] the event&#8221; and said &#8220;The University of Maryland should stand in morality by <a href="https://x.com/UMD_SJP/status/1585680956123672577/photo/2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">disallowing</a> Herzog&#8217;s presence on our campus.&#8221;
Five days after Hamas’ terror attack, the national SJP held a “Day of Resistance,” and issued a statement calling the attack a &#8220;historic win for the Palestinian resistance. The group further called for “armed confrontation with the oppressors.” The Anti-Defamation League has said <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/students-justice-palestine-sjp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SJP supports terror and violence</a> and called for “dismantling” Zionism on college campuses.
College campuses have become hotbeds of anti-Semitism since Oct. 7, in large part, thanks to the actions of SJP. George Washington University banned its SJP chapter after the group projected <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/george-washington-university-suspends-students-for-justice-in-palestine-group/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Glory to our Martyrs”</a> on a campus library named after a Jew. Bard College&#8217;s SJP chapter printed a poster adorned with images of paragliders, a reference to how Hamas terrorists crossed the Israeli border to massacre civilians. The chapter also said it “unequivocally supports the Unity Intifada.”

Students from Brooklyn College and supporters hold signs

University of Maryland Will Let Anti-Israel Group Hold Oct. 7 Rally

A lawsuit filed in federal court this week alleges that AJP Educational Foundation Inc. — also known as American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) — act to support Hamas, the terrorist group responsible for the October 7 massacre.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of Virginia by global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, the National Jewish Advocacy Center, the Schoen Law Firm, and the Holtzman Vogel Law Firm.
&#8220;The lawsuit, which seeks compensatory damages for nine American and Israeli victims of the attack in which Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 240 people hostage, alleges that AMP and NSJP work in the United States as collaborators and propagandists for Hamas,&#8221; a joint statement from the law firms <a href="https://www.gtlaw.com/en/news/2024/05/press-releases/greenberg-traurig-national-jewish-advocacy-center-schoen-law-firm-and-holtzman-vogel-represent-american-and-israeli-victims-of-hamas">said</a>. &#8220;The suit also notes that AMP and NSJP are merely the current version of several prior entities that were already determined by the U.S. government to be supporters of Hamas.&#8221;
The lawsuit comes as pro-Palestinian protests have erupted on dozens of college campuses across the U.S. to varying degrees over the last two weeks.
Throughout the course of the protests, hundreds of protesters have been arrested for a variety of crimes ranging from assault to trespassing.
The statement continued:
<blockquote>The suit alleges AMP and NSJP responded on Oct. 8, 2023, the day after the horrific atrocities perpetrated by Hamas, by participating in the terrorist’s propaganda to justify its appalling brutalities. AMP and NSJP answered Hamas’s “call for mass mobilization” by disseminating a manifesto and plan of attack. This manifesto confirms that “AMP and NSJP are not merely organizing to assist Hamas’s ongoing terror campaign abroad—they are intentionally extending their aid to fomenting chaos, violence, and terror in the United States.” In this manner, the groups acted to support and further the goals and directives of Hamas.
Further, the lawsuit states that “Plaintiffs—survivors of Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack, family members of those murdered by Hamas, civilians still under fire from Hamas’s ongoing terrorism, and persons displaced by Hamas’s ongoing terrorism—have been, and continue to be, injured because AMP and NSJP knowingly provide continuous, systematic, and substantial assistance to Hamas and its affiliates’ acts of international terrorism. AMP and NSJP are thus liable to Plaintiffs for the damages they incurred because AMP and NSJP aid and abet Hamas’s terrorism.”</blockquote>
In a joint statement, the victims said that it was their goal to hold AMP and NSJP &#8220;responsible for their horrific actions.&#8221;
&#8220;We want to go on record to expose these groups for the terrorists they are and make certain that they are stopped from operating in the United States and other countries they infiltrate,&#8221; the statement said.
Just a couple of weeks after the October 7 massacre, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/desantis-orders-florida-colleges-to-shut-down-pro-palestinian-student-groups-that-expressed-support-for-hamas">led the nation</a> in banning local chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine on the state&#8217;s college campuses because they allegedly broke Florida laws about terrorism.
“During a holy Jewish holiday, the recognized terrorist organization, Hamas, launched an unprovoked attack on Israel – among those killed were babies, women, and elderly,” Ray Rodrigues, chancellor of the State University System of Florida, said in a letter to the presidents of Florida’s public universities. “To date, approximately 1,400 Israelis have been killed, including 31 American citizens. Governor DeSantis, our State University System and the Florida College System have condemned these attacks.”
In response to the Islamic terrorist attacks, “National Students for Justice in Palestine (National SJP) released a ‘toolkit’ which refers to Operation Al-Aqsa Flood as ‘the resistance’ and unequivocally states: ‘Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement,&#8217;” the letter said.
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The letter noted that under Florida law, it is a felony to “knowingly provide material support . . . to a designated foreign terrorist organization. . .” The United States designates Hamas as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
“Here, National SJP has affirmatively identified it is part of the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood—a terrorist led attack,” the letter continued, later adding: “Based on the National SJP’s support of terrorism, in consultation with Governor DeSantis, the student chapters must be deactivated.”
The letter concluded by saying that Florida will continue to monitor events on college campuses and will be “using all tools at our disposal to crack down on campus demonstrations that delve beyond protected First Amendment speech into harmful support for terrorist groups.”

A banner for Students for Justice in Palestine, the

Pro-Palestinian Groups Leading College Protests Work As ‘Collaborators And Propagandists For Hamas’: Federal Lawsuit

Courts

Lawsuit

A private Massachusetts university has decided to ban its chapter of the National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) from campus, becoming the first private university to do so amid the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Brandeis University cited the group&#8217;s support for the Palestinian terror group Hamas as the main factor in the school&#8217;s decision to ban the student group.
“SJP has called on its chapters to engage in conduct that supports Hamas in its call for the elimination of the only Jewish state in the world and its people,” a Brandeis University spokesperson <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/4296741-first-private-university-bans-students-for-justice-in-palestine-as-middle-east-fallout-spreads/#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The Hill.
“Such expression is not protected by Brandeis’ principles of free speech,” the spokesperson said. “Students are welcome to express their support for Palestinians in a manner that complies with our rights and responsibilities.”
The university&#8217;s decision comes a month after Hamas launched deadly terrorist attacks on Israel that killed more than 1,400 people, including women and children. Israel has responded with airstrikes and a ground offensive.
Brandeis, which is located just west of Boston, was founded in 1948 by the American Jewish community “at a time when Jews and other ethnic and racial minorities, and women, faced discrimination in higher education,” the university <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/about/index.html#:~:text=Brandeis%20was%20established%20in%201948,of%20all%20backgrounds%20and%20beliefs." target="_blank" rel="noopener">states</a> on its website.
Brandeis also sent the SJP chapter a letter explaining its decision to boot them from campus.
“This decision was not made lightly, as Brandeis is dedicated to upholding free speech principles, which have been codified in Brandeis’ Principles of Free Speech and Free Expression,” reads the school’s letter, which was <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2023/11/brandeis-becomes-first-private-university-to-ban-students-for-justice-in-palestine-on-campus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published</a> by Jewish Insider.
The school&#8217;s free speech principles do not allow individuals to say &#8220;whatever they wish, wherever they wish, or however they wish,&#8221; Brandeis said, adding that the principles also permit the university to restrict expression that constitutes a &#8220;genuine threat or harassment&#8221; or that is otherwise &#8220;directly incompatible with the functioning of the university.&#8221;
Students who participate in conduct expressing support for Hamas “will be considered to be in violation of the University’s student code of conduct,” the school said in its letter.
However, students who want to express their support for Palestinian civilians will be allowed to form a different student group, the university said.
The decision was criticized by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which argued that Brandeis is &#8220;punishing its students for nothing more than protected political advocacy.&#8221;
State colleges in Florida have already banned SJP student organizations on campus. Late last month, Florida officials <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4275788-florida-orders-state-universities-disband-pro-palestinian-student-groups/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ordered</a> state universities and colleges to disband any SJP groups.

Private University Bans Pro-Palestinian Student Group Over Support For Hamas

Palestinians

Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer, who frequently opines on issues pertaining to Israel, Zionism, and anti-Semitism, has agreed to take part in a <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/8c47026d6af148588f3ad8f4c1c2935d">debate</a> about the Trump administration’s new Israeli-Palestinian peace plan at the new website <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/">Pairagraph</a>, which <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/about">describes itself</a> as “a platform for written dialogue between pairs of notable individuals” and “an online meeting place for the world’s most prominent figures across government, industry, academia, religion, and the arts.”
Hammer was previously scheduled to <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/b155455f1bf04a71a596bf1b8cb0cf13">debate</a> Palestinian-Arab activist <a style="font-style: italic;" href="https://twitter.com/Issaamro">Issa Amro</a>, but Amro <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/b155455f1bf04a71a596bf1b8cb0cf13/2">refused to respond</a> to Hammer after his <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/b155455f1bf04a71a596bf1b8cb0cf13/1">initial response</a>. Pairagraph then secured Omar Baddar as a new debate opponent, and Baddar <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/8c47026d6af148588f3ad8f4c1c2935d/2">responded</a> to Hammer on Sunday. The Pairagraph debate format consists of dueling 500-word entries. 
Here is Hammer&#8217;s <a href="http://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/8c47026d6af148588f3ad8f4c1c2935d/3">rebuttal to Baddar</a>.
<div>
An old lawyer maxim goes: &#8220;If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table.&#8221;
Omar Baddar is pounding the table. He has doused a field of straw men in gasoline and applied an industrial-grade blowtorch.
Baddar embraces countless obfuscations and outright lies. There was no &#8220;ethnic cleansing&#8221; in 1948 — only the fateful Arab rejection of November 1947. Blame for the 1967 war lies squarely with Gamal Abdel Nasser, who repeatedly vowed to exterminate Israel and militarized the Sinai in defiance of the 1956 demilitarization. U.N. S.C.R. 242 has never been internalized by the Palestinian Authority, but Israel has frequently offered a generous Palestinian state (e.g., 2000 and 2008) hewing closely to 1948&#8217;s harrowing &#8220;Auschwitz borders.&#8221; Israel did not instigate the civilizational jihad that was Arafat&#8217;s Second Intifada; rather, the mentee of Hitler ally Haj Amin al-Husseini planned it while rejecting the peace offered at Camp David in July 2000. (“[Arafat] did not negotiate in good faith; indeed, he did not negotiate at all,&#8221; President Clinton said.)
Baddar and his ilk nonsensically shout &#8220;apartheid,&#8221; but if the Palestinian-Arabs wanted peace, they would have negotiated one of the sundry times Israel has offered statehood. Instead, the PA has become the laughingstock of the Arab world. The vile 1967 Khartoum Resolution is now the very distant past; following Trump&#8217;s peace plan unveiling, Saudi Arabia said it &#8220;appreciate[d] the efforts of President Trump’s administration to develop a comprehensive peace plan.&#8221; The UAE&#8217;s foreign affairs minister approvingly tweeted a Bret Stephens column decrying Palestinian rejectionism.
Historically, separatist movements are rarely successful. Those separatist movements — Tibetans, Kurds, etc. — that might be offered a state by the &#8220;international community&#8221; would gladly accept. That the PA, which names parks after suicide bombers and directly subsidizes murderous jihad via &#8220;pay to slay,&#8221; rejects such offers gives the game away. The PA&#8217;s ultimate goal is not peace, but to kill all the Jews. &#8220;From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free,&#8221; a rally cry frequently associated with terror-sympathizing hate groups, is nothing short of a call to genocide.
The Arab world, sobered by Iran, finally sees the Palestinian ruse. It wants to finally resolve this issue. Accordingly, the Trump peace plan is emphatically reasonable. That the plan&#8217;s bare-bones preconditions to full Palestinian statehood — cease indoctrinating Palestinian-Arab children in Jew-hatred, oust Hamas, etc. — are viewed as non-starters in Ramallah says all one needs to know about the moral midgets of the PA.
There is zero — zero — compelling U.S. national security interest in carving out a PLO/PA jihadist state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The PA is fortunate that it has enough addlebrained leftists to carry its flag and keep viable the &#8220;two-state&#8221; solution paradigm. Israel has yet again stretched out its hand, but the PA is again poised to throw its own people under the bus.
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Israel : Illustration

Hammer At ‘Pairagraph’: Trump’s Israel-Palestinian Peace Plan Is Fair And Just (Part 2)

Donald Trump

Foreign Policy

Middle East

Radical Islam

Radical Islamic Terror

Trump Administration

In the United States, “The Cognitive Campaign to Co-opt Zionism” is in full force. This is a movement, sometimes intentional, sometimes unintentional, consisting of one simple goal: The complete separation of Judaism and <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/a-definition-of-zionism">Zionism</a>, which is the belief in the right of the Jewish people to a state in the territory defined as the historic Land of Israel.
But what exactly is a cognitive campaign?
In the information era, war is often not waged in any physical space. Instead, the battlefield lies inside peoples’ hearts and minds — where influence is the weapon of choice. As Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser and David Siman-Tov of Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) <a href="https://www.inss.org.il/publication/the-cognitive-campaign-strategic-and-intelligence-perspectives/">explain</a>: “The purpose of the cognitive campaign is to cause target audiences to adopt the perception of reality held by the side wielding the effort, so that it can more easily advance the strategic and/or operational objectives that it sees as critical.”
Campaign activists accomplish this via a wide array of tools, ranging from traditional diplomacy, mass media, social media, grassroots efforts, and so forth. Cognitive campaigns have become such powerful weapons in both domestic and international affairs that governments have created entire agencies to operate exclusively in the field of public perception.
However, the cognitive campaign to co-opt Zionism is one that is seldom discussed, likely due to the sensitivity surrounding the subject within the Jewish community. Jewish identity has many different characteristics. Some emphasize the community aspect of Judaism, others the religious aspect, and others the Zionist aspect. And in a society that puts such an emphasis on personal identity, it is galling to see broad swaths of the public, Jews included, disparage Zionists because of their beliefs. Many American Jews simply do not see Zionism as a legitimate component of Jewish identity. Unfortunately, it is often Jews themselves who take prominent roles in the campaign against Zionism.
The cognitive campaign to separate and redefine Zionism from Judaism is longstanding. For decades, Zionism has been compared, in some quarters, to colonialism, imperialism, and white supremacy. In 1975, a shameful <a href="https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/InternatlOrgs/Issues/Pages/40-years-since-UN-resolution-equating-Zionism-to-racism-10-Nov-2015.aspx">resolution</a> was passed at the U.N. declaring that Zionism is racism (it was later reversed in 1991, but by then the damage was done). Today, this cognitive campaign is led by anti-Israel activists, such as <a href="https://ukmediawatch.org/2016/08/25/guardian-again-whitewashes-the-extremism-of-students-for-justice-in-palestine-sjp/">Students for Justice in Palestine</a>, <a href="https://www.camera.org/article/jewish-voice-for-peace-jvp-what-the-media-is-concealing/">Jewish Voices for Peace</a>, and BDS supporters, who relentlessly promote misinformation that Israel is a non-democratic, oppressive, apartheid state.
In the digital age, almost everyone spends time on social media, where cognitive campaigns thrive, and where people live in echo chambers that oftentimes expose them to only one perspective on a given issue. When combining this one-sided social media exposure with the blatant lies constantly told about <a href="https://israelforever.org/israel/reading/industry_of_lies_media_academia_and_the_israeli_arab_conflict/">Israel in the media and academia</a>, people fall victim to the <a href="https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/illusory-truth-effect/">“illusory truth effect,”</a> which causes them to believe misinformation due to repeated exposure. If someone ignorant of the facts were to stumble upon all the terrible things said about Zionism and Israel, it’s no wonder he might distance himself.
This brings us to President Donald Trump’s recent Israel-related moves. Part of the controversy surrounding the president’s actions is that they amplified the already fraught tension inside the Jewish community about the connection between Judaism and Zionism.
Take, for example, the Trump administration’s <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-of-pompeos-statement-on-settlements/">declaration</a> that Israel’s &#8220;settlements&#8221; in Judea and Samaria do not necessarily violate international law. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit the nail on the head when he <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Benjamin-Netanyahu-Mike-Pompeo-speak-at-Kohelet-Policy-Forum-WATCH-613535">stated</a> that the declaration “establishes the truth that we are not strangers in our land.&#8221;
Then there’s President Trump’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-combating-anti-semitism/">executive order</a> (EO) combatting anti-Semitism on college campuses — an EO that many <a href="https://www.heritage.org/religious-liberty/commentary/trumps-executive-order-against-anti-semitism-will-protect-us-jews">erroneously claimed</a> would &#8220;redefine&#8221; Jews as a race or nationality. In fact, the EO merely enshrines that Jews will enjoy the same protections under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act as other racial, ethnic, or national groups. It also implicitly links Zionism with Judaism, by relying on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s <a href="https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/working-definition-antisemitism">Working Definition of Anti-Semitism</a>, which stipulates that “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination” (i.e., Zionism) is inherently anti-Semitic.
Of course, one cannot forget President Trump’s statement regarding the American embassy move to Jerusalem, when he <a href="https://il.usembassy.gov/statement-president-trump-jerusalem/">reminded the world</a> that Jerusalem was “the capital the Jewish people established in ancient times” — a fact which he reinforced in his newly unveiled vision for a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/peacetoprosperity/">comprehensive peace agreement</a> between Israel and the Palestinians.
All these actions by President Trump not only reaffirm the connection between Jews and Zionism, but also subvert decades of the cognitive campaign’s attempt to separate the two.
Make no mistake — the cognitive campaign to co-opt Zionism is consequential for the Jewish people. Will large sectors of Jewish society continue to distance themselves from Zionism? Or will they re-embrace it?
The most effective way to combat this campaign is through what can be described as a “Counter-Cognitive Campaign.” Obviously, this campaign must spread some much-needed truth about Zionism as a legitimate national movement. Equally important, the campaign must clarify that although Judaism and Zionism need not always be conflated, they must not be disassociated from each other. Of course, not every Jew needs to consider Zionism a core part of his individual identity. We do, however, need to recognize that every Jew enjoys the right to identify as a proud Zionist — and nobody can demonize him or her for that.

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