Students for Justice in Palestine - Activities
The movement calls for goals that intersect with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement by ending the Israeli occupation, the return of refugees, and eliminating the apartheid regime in the territories of the Palestinian interior, while some branches of the movement explicitly call for the total liberation of the Palestinian land from the river to the sea and the dismantling of the Zionist colonial project completely.
It also established partnerships with academic freedom organizations spread across various states, the “American Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel,” and the “Black Lives Matter” movement, with which it has common roots of oppression, colonialism, white supremacy, and policies of marginalization and restriction, drawing a comparison between police repressive systems and American security prisons. And the Israeli one that oppresses the Palestinians, pointing to the common root practiced by the American authorities through their financing of the Israeli occupation and their unconditional support for its colonial project.
The movement also contributed to supporting and strengthening the demands of other student movements for equality and social justice related to issues of women, race, marginalized groups, environmental movements, and others.
At the same time, the movement has close ties to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, as it works to implement boycott campaigns targeting cultural and academic activity, and over two decades it has succeeded in implementing more than 70 successful boycott campaigns in American universities, This deprived the entity of billions of dollars in American support. The movement also promotes the boycott agenda through student council decisions and student pressure on university administrations, student governments, and various student groups in order to adopt the boycott agenda of pro-Israel activities, personalities, and brands, especially Caterpillar and Lockheed Martin, which are involved in weapons manufacturing, and even Sabra Hummus, which is owned by an Israeli company.
The movement also fought to boycott academic exchange programs for students and faculty between American and Israeli universities, and to do so, it signed a pledge with thirty other student groups not to support or participate in exchange programs and consider them direct participation in Israeli violations against the Palestinians.
The movement struggles against American involvement in its official and academic institutions in supporting the entity and funding it annually while American students suffer under the burden of student loans. It also struggles against the partnership that links American universities with “Israel,” whether in terms of the relationship between the campus police departments and the Israeli police, or in terms of Student exchange programs and privileges granted to Israeli students, or in terms of the faculty’s involvement in close ties to the Zionist lobby, especially the “Anti-Defamation League” and its resulting influence on the student movement, teaching courses loyal to the Zionist narrative, and anti-terrorism programs that are used in a racist manner targeting Arabs, Muslims, and the Palestinian struggle directly.
The movement’s activities also varied between protest stops and boycotts of events and activities that hosted Israeli or pro-Israel figures or those that promoted Israeli propaganda. It also held multiple student activities aimed at raising student awareness of the issue, including seminars, conferences, discussion panels, and symbolic representations of the apartheid wall and security repression of the Palestinians.
The movement also constantly holds campaigns that usually extend for an entire week, devoting its activities to highlighting pressing issues in the issue, including the “Palestine Issue Awareness Week” and “Israeli Apartheid Week” campaigns, in which it holds seminars and discussion panels, displays films and graphic materials, and builds expressive models such as the separation wall. It also resorts to creative methods to attract students’ attention, such as distributing eviction orders in student dormitories under the threat of demolishing the building, noting that this policy is routinely followed in the occupied Palestinian territories.
On the other hand, the movement struggled against normalization and boycotted all activities that aimed to bring together Arab, Palestinian, or Muslim supporters of “Israel,” whether on the grounds of the university or in the states, or even normalization activities outside the borders of the United States, where it held denunciation campaigns, as an expression of its position rejecting normalization activities at the local, regional and international levels. Branches of the movement, led by the branch of the University of San Diego in California and Columbia University in New York, adopted an anti-normalization policy, launched by the American Campaign for the Cultural and Academic Boycott of “Israel” since 2010, and several branches of the movement across the states followed suit and announced it in their statements.
"Building on the legacy & impact of the student movement in occupied Turtle Island (U.S. and Canada), National Students for Justice in Palestine (National SJP) seeks to empower, unify, and support student organizers as they push forward demands for Palestinian liberation & self-determination on their campuses. The student movement for the liberation of Palestine first began in the 1950s through the formation of the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS). From the U.S. to Palestine, GUPS chapters galvanized thousands of students towards a liberated Palestine. The 90s’ wave of corrupt politicians and faulty deals changed the liberation movement as we knew it and many institutions, including the student movement, collapsed. In the absence of a Palestinan student movement, organizations such as Students for Justice in Palestine emerged across occupied Turtle Island (U.S. and Canada) as a way to educate, advocate, and mobilize in support for Palestinian liberation. "
The movement uses the term “Occupied Turtle Island” as an expression of its solidarity by referring to the North American continent. It is a term used by indigenous people who believe in their traditional narratives that their land was created on the back of a turtle. It refers to the unity of the situation among the indigenous peoples whose will was hijacked, their land colonized, and colonies established by the white European over the bones of her children.
The adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) broad definition of anti-Semitism by the US administration and civil institutions, most notably the academy, where at times is seems to conflate hostility to Jews as members of the Jewish religion and hostility to Israeli and Zionist politics, directly conflicting with pro-Palestinian student activism on campuses. The controversial adoption of this definition mainly targets the Students for Justice in Palestine movement, in addition to the boycott movement.
The IHRA non-legally binding working definition of antisemitism is: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” To guide IHRA in its work, the following examples may serve as illustrations: Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis. Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel. Manifestations might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.
The official adoption of this definition began with the Trump administration signing an executive order in particular, allowing the withdrawal of federal funding for public and academic institutions that do not commit to adopting the definition. After that, the definition spread like wildfire, as it was adopted by many university administrations, educational, cultural and commercial institutions, and employers, and it became a measure of the legitimacy of activity practiced by students and staff.
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