Students for Justice in Palestine Internal Document Revealed by AMCHA Calls for Illegal Action Against Jewish & Pro-Israel Events

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Students for Justice in Palestine Internal Document Revealed by AMCHA Calls for Illegal Action Against Jewish & Pro-Israel Events

TAKE ACTION: Please join AMCHA in writing and/or calling the Presidents of Universities with active SJP chapters to ask that they remain alerted to violations of Jewish and pro-Israel rights to freedom of assembly and expression by SJP chapters. For your convenience, we have published a list of contact information for Universities with active SJP chapters.

Upon discovery of a disturbing internal SJP document revealed by AMCHA Initiative, 15 Jewish and education advocacy groups wrote to the presidents of more than 100 universities with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters to warn them of the strategy outlined for disrupting pro-Israel student events – conduct which is subject to prosecution and conviction under state criminal laws.

The foundational document of the SJP group at Binghamton University (SUNY), entitled “Declaration of Principles and Strategies,” has a section called, “With Regards to Tactics and Strategies Used to Counter Zionist Normalization,” which spells out a strategy for disrupting pro-Israel events. Specifically, the document details the engagement of, “non-violent disruption of the event in question” depending on the number of SJP members present. The disruption of on-campus events violates New York State law. Sec. 240.20 of the New York Penal Law outlaws “disorderly conduct,” which includes “without lawful authority,…disturb(ing) any lawful assembly or meeting of persons.” All states have similar laws restricting the disruption of public events if this same tactic were to be employed by other SJP chapters.

The document is extremely troubling in that it outlines a clear strategy for targeting, ostracizing, harassing and silencing students. It advocates behavior consistent with “anti-Zionist normalization” campaigns being waged by SJP groups across the country, whose explicit purpose is to delegitimize all pro-Israel perspectives and actively suppress their expression on college campuses. These campaigns have resulted in dozens of Jewish and pro-Israel students’ events being disrupted and Jewish and pro-Israel students feeling harassed, intimidated, and stripped of their constitutionally-protected freedom of expression and association.

See HERE for a sample of Israel-related events that have been disrupted by SJP students on more than 20 U.S. campuses including:

On March 12th, 2013 at DePaul University, SJP members and other protesters shut down the event of Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas (sponsored by Center for Jewish Law & Judaic Studies) with their disturbances. The event ended early.
On Mar 3rd, 2014 at Vassar College, at an event to discuss a class trip to Israel, Jewish students who spoke were heckled, drowned out with a finger snapping noise and loudly laughed at.
On Sept 9, 2014 at Loyola University-Chicago, SJP members verbally assaulted their Jewish peers, yelling insults at them before creating a human wall to block Hillel’s attempt to advertise Birthright trips to Israel.

The illegal and uncivil strategy of violating Jewish and pro-Israel students’ freedom of expression and assembly has to stop.

You may see the letter to the Presidents of universities with active SJP Chapters HERE.
You may see the letter to Binghamton University President Harvey G. Stenger HERE.

You may either:

write to a specific university on the list you are affiliated with either as a student, relative of a student, donor or alumni. You may see the list HERE.
write a bulk email to all presidents on the list by copying and pasting these batch email addresses – press HERE for bulk email.

Thank you for your actions to protect Jewish students.

Warm regards,

AMCHA Initiative

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