Unmasked: Students for Justice in Palestine is a Terror-Affiliated Anti-Semitic Network

This group does not promote peace, as it claims, but pushes anti-Semitism and is linked to terrorism, a new report reveals. 

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a group at the forefront of the war against Israel, is not as they claim, a pro-peace grassroots student organization, but is rather a terror-affiliated anti-Semitic network that currently operates with autonomy and impunity at colleges and universities across the US, a new report reveals.

A 52-page report published on Tuesday by Dan Diker and Jamie Berk of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) revealed that SJP, the student arm of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement in the US, 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.

SJP activists advance their skewed notion of “Palestinian justice” by undertaking initiatives to isolate, demonize, and ultimately destroy the state of Israel, instead of promoting the potential benefits of Palestinian nationhood.

The report shows that many students and university administrations have erroneously treated SJP as a legitimate pro-Palestinian equivalent to pro-Israel student groups. However, as the paper documents, SJP is an extremist organization that maintains affiliations with Arab and Islamic terror groups, is overtly anti-Semitic, incites hatred and violence against Jewish students, and rejects the existence of the state of Israel within any borders.

SJP Linked to Terrorism

Furthermore, SJP has been linked to terror groups, the report shows. For instance, SJP at the University of California, Berkeley, has been defined as a campus front for Hamas.

Principal backers of SJP include founders, financial patrons and ideological supporters who have been connected to Islamist terror organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

SJP 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 US government between 2001 and 2011 for financing Hamas.

SJP has also been proven to be a driving force behind on-campus anti-Semitism. Brandeis University and AMCHA Initiative studies have revealed a direct correlation between BDS activities and anti-Semitism on campuses with large Jewish student populations. The studies also found a correlation between the presence of SJP and a rise in campus anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.

Expose, Investigate, and Prosecute

“SJP is not a peaceful, mainstream equivalent to pro-Israel student organizations,” the writers conclude. SJP does not maintain transparent donors and fundraising efforts. Instead, it operates under mysterious auspices and receives monetary and material support from organizations and individuals connected to Palestinian terror groups and associates.”

Furthermore, “SJP also advances policies of anti-normalization, and regularly intimidates and harasses Jewish and pro-Israel students. Documented incidents of anti-Semitism involving SJP members make the commonalities between this organization and Palestinian extremists and terrorists more apparent,” the authors write.

“There are means to stop SJP’s violence, harassment, intimidation, and linkages to terror groups. There are also strategies and initiatives to expose SJP’s boycott of Jews, Israelis, and Zionists on campus, extremist propaganda regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as its illegitimate funding,” the report points out.

The report calls for “constant monitoring and diligence,” otherwise SJP will continue to “operate unabated.”

The action the report suggest is that “university donors and alumni would be advised to remain well-informed and vigilant, and demand that campus communities and state governments unmask, expose, investigate, prosecute, and sanction SJP to reign in their extremist and anti-Semitic actions on US campuses.”

By: United with Israel Staff