Oct. 7th victims’ families sue Students for Justice in Palestine

Bereaved families accuse anti-Israel student group of acting as a front for Hamas activities in the U.S.

By World Israel News Staff

Eight families of terror victims with 60 plaintiffs, among them victims of October 7th, have filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit in the Middle District of Florida under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) against Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), its affiliated network of student organizations, and their leaders.

The plaintiffs claim that SJP is a network established by Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, that it is supported by the terror organization, and that SJP directly provides Hamas with material support and resources – all in violation of American law.

Attorneys representing the plaintiffs say they can demonstrate how Hamas has, over the last two decades, covertly extended its terrorist influence on college campuses in the United States.

They claim that SJP has established a student arm of the terrorist group with the purpose of facilitating intimidation tactics, coercion policies, and spread its terrorist agenda among impressionable college students.

The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of Tel-Aviv, Israel and Robert J. Tolchin of Brooklyn, New York.

The complaint described how SJP has been established as a successor for other organizations which have been designated as terrorist organizations by the Justice Department, such as The Holy Land Foundation, and how it was deliberately created as a “network comprising more than 200 university chapters of ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’ across the United States”, acting under national “terror-linked, violence-promoting” umbrella.

The complaint further elaborates how, by spreading Hamas’s terrorist agenda to the United States and establishing a student arm of Hamas to serve in the United States as its ‘alter‑ego’, SJP and its affiliated organizations have “knowingly conspired with and aided and abetted Hamas – a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.”

According to the complaint, SJP provided material support and resources to Hamas and “aided, abetted, and conspired with Hamas to commit international acts of terrorism.”

“It is time to uncover the true colors of SJP and to take off the masks that covered the faces of those who stand behind this blood thirsty and violence-encouraging entity.” said Nitsana Darshan Leitner, founder and President of the Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center.

“These aren’t innocent, peaceful college students: it is the same terrorist conspiracy that butchered thousands of innocent people, tortured and raped men, women and children. If we don’t act urgently against these organizations, America will face the very real threat of its own October 7th.”