This Student Group Is Calling For A ‘Week of Rage’ Beginning October 7 

On October 7, 2023, Hamas slaughtered 1,200 Israelis in cold blood: burning families alive, raping women until their bodies became unrecognizable, and taking eight Americans hostage. Before American Jews knew whether their loved ones were dead or alive, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters across the country had already begun glorifying Hamas, harassing American Jews and demanding that Israel acquiesce to the terrorists’ demands.

In the months since, SJP chapters have seized every opportunity to embrace anti-Semitic tropes and rewrite history along ideological lines in their call for the elimination of the State of Israel. It is no surprise, then, that on the first anniversary of Hamas’ rape, murder, and abduction of Israeli civilians, SJP’s national headquarters has called for a “Week of Rage.” Not rage against Hamas. Not rage against Yahya Sinwar or any other actor who could be reasonably blamed for the massive suffering following October 7. No: SJP is raging against any Israeli claim to legitimate self-defense.

Let’s be clear, October 7 marks the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Israel’s stated aims in the ongoing conflict are to return its hostages and to eliminate Hamas’ military capacities. SJP views Israel’s sole aim as the genocide of the population of Gaza.

However, the Israel-Gaza war has amassed one of the lowest ratios of civilian-to-militant casualty ratios in modern history. As the IDF supplies Gazan civilians with humanitarian aid, opts for precision strikes to minimize civilian casualties, and even warns civilians in areas they intend to bomb to allow them time to evacuate — the term “genocide” simply doesn’t apply.

For almost 12 months, SJP has protested Israel’s actions as though Hamas does not exist, merely a thin justification for genocide. A “Week of Rage” on the anniversary of the massacre is SJP finally saying the quiet part out loud: they believe that October 7 was justified, and Hamas’ failure to eliminate the Israeli state is worthy of rage.

Violent and unlawful acts are nothing new for SJP. UCLA’s SJP chapter once re-posted an Instagram story claiming credit for a firebombing at UC Berkeley, reading “NOT SURE WHAT BUILDING IT EVEN WAS. HONESTLY DONT REALLY CARE. EVERY SINGLE BUILDING ON THE UC BERKELEY CAMPUS DESERVES TO BE INCINERATED.” 

During on-campus protests at UCLA, SJP affiliated agitators chanted ‘Itbah El Yahud‘ (‘slaughter the Jews’ in Arabic) and beat a piñata effigy of Israel’s Prime Minister, accompanied by shouts of ‘beat that f***ing Jew.'” SJP is also responsible for the illegal encampments that spread across university campuses last year, along with the vandalism and destruction they caused.

In addition to broad-brush antisemitism and lawlessness, individuals affiliated with campus SJP chapters have taken it upon themselves to harass individual Jewish students. A Jewish student was stabbed in the eye by an SJP-affiliated individual at Yale. At Princeton, a student at an SJP protest assaulted a student reporter. Even when punished, these incidents contribute to a culture that causes Jewish students to think twice about openly expressing their identity. Indeed, a Brandeis study found the presence of an active SJP chapter to be one of the strongest predictors of campus anti-Semitism.

Despite SJP’s clear calls for violence, university responses have been largely tepid or nonexistent, focusing on condemning individual incidents that garner media attention rather than addressing the quacking duck in front of them. While swift action is warranted, most campuses have stood by, either out of fear of backlash or a reluctance to confront the increasingly hostile climate for Jewish students.

Their call for a “Week of Rage” alone is obvious incitement to violence against Jewish students, proud Americans, and all those mourning the victims of October 7. Coupled with their violent record, SJP’s call for a Week of Rage becomes all the more terrifying. As students grieve the loss of their family members, the last thing they should have to worry about is being attacked by their own peers.

A few schools have disavowed SJP as a student organization, representing the appropriate response to a student organization endorsing an international terrorist organization. In October of 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis ordered Florida universities to “deactivate” their SJP chapters, citing their “material support” for a “designated foreign terrorist group.” In November, Brandeis University banned SJP, with University President Ron Liebowitz writing that the academy is “a space for free speech, not hate speech.” Unfortunately, such clarity is the exception, not the norm.

Reacting to instances of textbook anti-Semitism and mounting public pressure, Columbia and GWU banned SJP on their respective campuses. However, SJP continued to operate encampments and violently attack Jewish students on both campuses long past their sanction. Without the appropriate follow-through, their condemnations amounted to little more than milquetoast suggestions.

Overwhelmingly, university responses to the violent hatred wrought by SJP have amounted to little more than generic condemnations of “all forms of hatred,” failing to name SJP or affiliated organizations directly. Such cowardice is clearly exemplified by the University of Maryland’s delineations for October 7, 2024, when the USM restricted campus activity to only university-sponsored events.

While their blanket ban ostensibly targets SJP, it also effectively bans student-led vigils mourning the horrors of the Hamas attack. To pretend that October 7 is a both-sides issue by painting grieving Jewish students as similar to those calling for a globalized intifada is to equivocate the victims of terrorism with its supporters.

In their own words, SJP openly supports internationally-recognized terrorist groups and calls for the destruction of the United States. It is long past time for universities to take these students at their word and hold them accountable as adults. Campuses that continue to tolerate groups that endorse the most dangerous terrorist organizations of our time risk fostering further radicalization and unintentionally abetting their destructive goals.

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Bella Brannon is a student at UCLA studying Public Affairs and Digital Humanities. She is the Editor-In-Chief of Ha’Am, researched bias in artificial intelligence with the School of Technology Law and Policy, and spent the summer as an intern with the Religious Freedom Institute.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire. 

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