Students for Justice in Palestine

Students for Justice in Palestine
Location	Various independent chapters across North America
Established	2001
Affiliations	Palestine Solidarity Movement, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights
Colours	Red, Green, White, Black
Membership	unknown
Website	http://sjpnational.org/

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is a student organization which was first established at the University of California, Berkeley in 2001. The student group's mission statement states the following: "SJP is a diverse group of students, faculty, staff and community members at [establishment], organized on democratic principles to promote justice, human rights, liberation and self-determination for the Palestinian people." Since it was first established at UC Berkeley, different chapters have established themselves throughout the United States and have continued to grow.

Principles

Most SJP groups believe that while the Palestinian people must ultimately be able to decide their future in Palestine, certain key principles, grounded in international law, human rights, and basic standards of justice, are fundamental to a just resolution of the plight of the Palestinians. These include the full evacuation of Jewish occupants from areas that the SJP feels are illegally held (e.g. various neighborhoods in occupied East Jerusalem), the right for the Palestinian people to defend their territories with a stable militia, the end of the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem; the implementation of the right of return and repatriation of Palestinian refugees to their previous homes circa 1948, or those of their ancestors, as well as their properties; an end to social injustices in the occupied Palestinian Territories, as well as the alleged system of discrimination against the Palestinian population within its own borders.

SJP groups typically condemn the what they call apartheid policies and laws of the state of Israel and also reject and condemn hatred or discrimination against other religious, racial, or ethnic groups. "SJP also categorically opposes any form of prejudice or discrimination based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. At the same time, SJP manifestly rejects attempts to equate principled criticism of Zionism, or of the character or policies of Israel, with anti-Semitism."

Methods

Methods used by Students for Justice in Palestine include divestment and boycott campaigns and educational and creative events designed to encourage discussion of Palestinian human, economic, political, social, and cultural rights. It was the first campus group to launch a divestment campaign against Israel.

Activities include educational events, film screenings, discussion forums, and demonstrations meant to promote awareness of the plight of the Palestinian people and encourage activism in solidarity with their struggle. Creative demonstrations have also been used to highlight Palestinian life under occupation. UC Berkeley SJP set up a mock checkpoint at their university on February 6, 2001, when Ariel Sharon was elected prime minister of Israel. In March 2001, UC Berkeley SJP created a mock refugee camp using chicken-wire and large pictures of Palestinians in refugee camps.

In Auckland, SJP has led demonstrations against the local weapons industry including parking a model of a bombed out ambulance outside the shareholder AGM of Rakon, a company that sells components to the IDF and US Military for use in guided munitions. It has also organised demonstrations outside the offices of Oscmar International to protest its selling of military training simulators to Israel. In July and August, 2006 the group organised a series of five protests against Israel's invasion of Lebanon. The first protest turned into an alleyway brawl between activists and police after one person lowered the US flag on the US consulate to half-mast and attempted to climb down a drainpipe and evade police.

"Free Speech Fight" at UC Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley chapter of SJP came to international attention in April 2002 when they chose the memorial of the Deir Yassin massacre to occupy a campus building and disrupt a midterm in progress for over 600 students as part of a protest against their university's investments in Israel. The occupation was broken up by police after warning the students of trespassing. Seventy-nine protesters were arrested, cited for trespassing, and, in some cases, resisting arrest. All but one were released. One protester wound up in jail, on a charge of felony battery after he bit a police officer. Following the arrests SJP was banned from operating at UCLA prompting SJP to begin a campaign against what they saw as the university attacking freedom of speech, assembly and protest. Over two hundred demonstrators turned out the month after on a national day of action, "Free Palestine! Free Speech!", to protest what they saw as the university's stifling of freedom of thought and protest as well as the universities continuing links with Israel.

Following the incident, UC Berkeley administrators gathered information that led them to believe that group that protesters would also try and seize a campus library.

Divestment at Hampshire College

In February 2009, Hampshire College's SJP announced that Hampshire College had decided to cut financial ties with companies that profited from Palestinian oppression. Some of the trustees of Hampshire College "strenuously denied" assertions by SJP that an investment decision made Hampshire the first United States college to sell stock in companies specifically because they do business with Israel. Controversy remains whether the organization's campaigning among Board and administration members resulted in actual divestment from Israeli-incorporated and Israel-trafficking businesses.

Controversy

In April 2011, Avi Dichter, Member of Knesset and member of Israel's centrist and Kadima party, was interrupted by protesters from a group of the Brandeis SJP, while speaking at Brandeis University. Several students got up out of their seats and called Dichter a war criminal, and accused him of torture and crimes against humanity.

In April 2011, 16 African-American members of the Vanguard Leadership Group published full page ads in several U.S. university newspapers, with an "Open Letter to Students for Justice in Palestine" saying that the SJP's use of the word "apartheid" in regards to Israel and Israel Apartheid Week "is not only false, but offensive."

In October 2011, Jarrod Jordan, executive director of the Vanguard Leadership Group, said that SJP's holding a conference about Israel and apartheid is like "the Ku Klux Klan holding a conference at Morehouse College in Atlanta, a total affront to Jewish culture and identity.” In addition, Jordan said that the use of the word 'apartheid' in referring to Israel is "patently false and deeply offensive to all who feel a connection to the State of Israel." The Columbia Spectator refused to publish a full-page ad paid for by VLG because it was "judged it to be political."

SJP National Conference 2011

In October 2011, several SJP chapters will be convening for the first National Conference at Columbia University. The conference titled "Students Confronting Apartheid" has four main objectives that are, Movement Building, Campaign Building, Political Development, Skill Development.

Chapters

Some chapters in North America are affiliated with the Palestine Solidarity Movement, "an umbrella group of Palestine-related groups, primarily on campuses, across North America." In Canada the equivalent to Students for Justice in Palestine is Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights which has 13 campus branches across Canada.

• American University SJP
• Arizona State University SJP
• Bates College SJP
• Berkeley Law, Bolt Hall SJP
• Boston University SJP
• Brandeis University
• Brown University SJP
• Columbia University
• College of William & Mary SJP
• DePaul University SJP
• Florida International University, Miami SJP
• Florida State University Students United for Justice in Palestine
• George Mason University SJP
• George Washington University SJP
• Georgetown University SJP
• Georgia Institute of Technology SJP
• Hampshire College SJP
• Harvard Law School SJP
• Indiana University SJP
• New York University SJP
• Northeastern University SJP
• Northwestern University SJP
• Ohio State University SJP
• Purdue University SJP
• Penn State University SJP
• Rhode Island College SJP
• Tufts University SJP
• University of Chicago
• University of California, Berkeley SJP
• University of California, Davis SJP
• University of California, Los Angeles SJP
• University of California, Riverside
• University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign SJP
• University of Massachusetts Boston
• University of Pittsburgh SJP
• University of Southern California SJP
• University of Texas at Austin SJP
• University of Toledo SJP
• University of Vermont SJP
• University of Virginia Students for Peace and Justice in Palestine
• University of Washington, Seattle SJP
• Yale University SJP

See also

• To Know is Not Enough - A Documentary film about Divestment at Hampshire College.
• Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights