Anti-Israel groups plan to seize college campuses to force BDS agenda

Students for Justice in Palestine leads call to ‘seize campuses’ until universities divest from Israel.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Anti-Israel groups began coordinating a campaign across numerous colleges over the weekend, calling on student supporters to “seize the campuses” until their institutions divest from the Jewish state.

The national headquarters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) wrote on social media, “”In the footsteps of our comrades at Rutgers-New Brunswick SJP, Tufts SJP, and Columbia SJP, we will seize our universities and force the administration to divest for the people of Gaza! Join the Popular University, take back our institutions!”

“Our universities have chosen profit and reputation over the lives of the people of Palestine and our will as students,“ the group wrote. However, “The supposed power of our administrators is nothing compared to the strength of the united students, staff, and faculty committed to realizing justice and upholding Palestinian liberation on campus.”

Within minutes of the SJP notice, at least five pro-Palestinian organizations backed their call to action, including Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Democratic Socialists of America and Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, which is allegedly connected to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S.-designated terrorist group,

Hundreds of students have been occupying the Beinecke Plaza In Yale University since Friday demanding that the Ivy League school support the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel due to the alleged crimes the IDF is committing in the Gaza Strip.

The school’s reaction was “weak,” according to critics.

Dean Hannah Peck sent them a message Saturday night saying they had to leave and take all their belongings and tents with them by 11:30 PM or they “may” face disciplinary measures. They could also come back in the morning, sans tents, she said, to continue their protest. Yet when they didn’t leave by the deadline, it was announced that there would be no arrests, and the crowd was encouraged to come back the next day with “five more friends” each.

This contrasted with the actions of Columbia University last week, which called the police to arrest demonstrators because those who “established the encampment violated a long list of rules and policies” said President Minouche Shafik, and refused to obey “multiple notices” of those violations.

More than a hundred protestors were removed from the campus by the authorities, and dozens of students were suspended, including Rep. Ilhan Omar’s daughter.

Their activity was not completely shut down, however. A man wearing a “F*** Hamas” t-shirt walked silently around a Columbia plaza Saturday with dozens of students calling out “Free, free Palestine,” recording everything with his camera. A student confronted him, saying in part that the group “wants peace and love for everyone in the world” and that “it’s really sad that you don’t seem to agree with that.”

SJP is well-known for its violent rhetoric against Israel and its physical and verbal intimidation of Jewish students and campus groups such as Hillel at many universities throughout the United States.

The group’s activities have exploded since the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, taking the lead in anti-Israel and pro-Hamas demonstrations on campus that have left Jewish students wondering about their physical safety and fearful of showing any outward signs of their faith.

The Anti-Defamation League and the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law sent a letter just three weeks after the war began to almost 200 university presidents in response to the surge of antisemitism on campus, demanding an investigation of SJP for “materially supporting a foreign terrorist organization.”

antisemitism on campusColumbia UniversityJewish Voice for PeaceStudents for Justice in Palestine