SJP Does Not Belong On Campus

Key Findings:

Author Jacob Baime, CEO of Israel on Campus Coalition, weighs in on the antisemitic climate on college campuses since the October 7th attack. He specifically criticizes the lack of protection Jewish students have received in the face of intimidating behavior from an anti-Israel group by the name of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). 

Baime criticizes the systematic neglect of Jewish students by university leadership, specifically the duty to protect all students from hate and intimidation. Jewish students are seen by faculty, administrators, and other students as “privileged and white”, and for years, have not merited the same protection on campus as other minority groups have. With the significant spike in antisemitism since the October 7th attack, Baime calls on universities to evaluate their response and take action towards fostering a safe space for all students, including their Jewish students.

University leadership is urged to question whether they are complicit in fostering an environment that is comfortable with antisemitism, starting with investigating groups such as SJP, which are funded and sanctioned by the universities themselves. SJP has a history of intimidating Jewish students, explicitly calling for violence, celebrating genocide, using antisemitic speech, and calling for the annihilation of Israel. SJP has proven itself to be far from peaceful, rather, it has asserted itself as an aggressor on campus that provokes intimidation towards Jewish students.

There have been few examples of leaders who have taken a stand against SJP, notably Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who banned all chapters of the group from any state university. Baime urges universities all across America to investigate groups that exacerbate the antisemitic climate on their campuses and take a firm, decisive stand towards protecting their Jewish students: 

“The only way universities exit the spiral is by setting a new course for themselves and defining a culture that is not, at its core, comfortable with antisemitism or its present corollary, anti-Zionism.”