The Students for Justice In Palestine are holding their annual national conference at the University of Minnesota, beginning today and concluding on Sunday. SJP is a virulently anti-Semitic organization that promotes the boycott, divest, sanction (BDS) movement and advocates the destruction of Israel. This is from the SJP’s own description of the 2019 conference that is now taking place:
Support for the Palestinian cause is increasing within mainstream politics. The election of progressive representatives, including Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, who openly endorse the Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, demonstrates this shift. This reflects a critical juncture in the history of the solidarity movement, as calls for justice are permeating traditional spaces of power. The solidarity movement must amplify these calls, not only by pushing for policies that demand the end of the Israeli occupation, but also by firmly challenging the notion that justice for the Palestinian people can be attained within a Zionist framework.
I take it that “within a Zionist framework” means, as long as the nation of Israel exists. More:
The history of Palestine, and the Palestinian struggle against Zionism, extends beyond the confines of 1967, and well before the Nakba (the Catastrophe) of 1947-1948. It is important that this be recognized by those who claim to act in solidarity with the Palestinian people, many of whom engage solely in anti-occupation advocacy– that is, advocacy which relies on a version of Palestinian history limited to the Green Line. In doing so, they forego the rights of those Palestinians in refugee camps, in diaspora, and in 1948 lands. The student solidarity movement must be equipped with a holistic understanding of the full history of the Palestinian people, in order to advance an unequivocally anti-Zionist movement for Palestinian liberation.
Again, this means the destruction of Israel. SJP is proud of its anti-Semitic radicalism:
This critical juncture presents an opportunity for radical change. Nevertheless, we also know that the solidarity movement, and National SJP in particular, must also confront the danger of neoliberal co-optation which has historically dealt lasting damage to mass movements for justice. We must reflect on the growth of the movement and collectively revisit questions of structure, points of unity, and strategic priorities. In doing so, we will be equipped to overcome attempts to sanitize the Palestinian struggle for centrist consumption.
SJP’s Twitter feed shows that this organization, like so many others on the far Left, is radical across a broad range of issues:
At FrontPage, Sara Dogan comments:
Jew hatred is no longer solely the purview of academic outliers, those institutions known for radical activism and absurdist teachings. The Jew hatred promoted by Hamas through its front group Students for Justice in Palestine has now trickled down to infect less typically activist campuses in the heartland—including the University of Minnesota which will host this year’s National Students for Justice in Palestine conference.
And from this FrontPage article:
By an odd coincidence—or maybe not—the University of Minnesota is playing host to two disturbing events this weekend. The Hamas-funded anti-Israel campus hate group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) will hold its national conference on November 1-3 on Minnesota’s campus. Then, just as SJP’s hate fest is winding down, notorious Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, whose district includes the University of Minnesota, will hold a campaign rally on campus with democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, whose candidacy for president she recently endorsed.
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[I]t hardly seems coincidental that Congresswoman Omar and Senator Sanders have timed their campus visit to coincide with the concluding ceremonies of SJP’s festival of Jew-hatred. Sanders’s brand of socialism and Omar’s allegiance to Islamic extremism both have at their core a deep and abiding hatred of America—of its freedoms, of its possibilities, of its commitment to individual liberty over collectivist tyranny. Their hatred may be irrational, but their alliance is logical and calculated.
A shameful weekend is under way in Minnesota.
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