Universities are Suspending Students for Justice in Palestine Chapters

Yesterday the University of Pittsburgh suspended the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The suspension was in response to a protest the group carried out a protest at the school library in December.

Following a study-in organized by students at Hillman Library during the last week of the fall semester, the Office of Student Conduct is requiring SJP to complete a conduct hearing. As the only registered Palestine advocacy club at Pitt, potential sanctions may throw the future of pro-Palestinian organizing on campus into question…

At the study-in, students surrounded themselves with Palestinian flags, keffiyehs and signs with messages such as “hands off Palestine” and “there are no universities left in Gaza” while studying at tables…

The Office of Student Conduct alleged that SJP “promoted and hosted an event” in a non-reservable part of the library, according to the incident description provided to SJP by the office. Posts from SJP’s Instagram at the time attribute the gathering to “autonomous student activists.” A club co-president said SJP did not organize this gathering and only made these posts to “amplify” the study-in.

This is the sort of legal fiction that groups like this often seek to create when breaking the rules: It wasn’t us it was an autonomous collective of students who happen to be members in our group.

In this case it didn’t work. The SJP chapter was called in for a disciplinary meeting and given an interim suspension on March 18. While that suspension was in place, the group then hosted an event marching across the campus.

A group of pro-Palestinian protesters defied an order from their university to stop holding events when they held a march across the University of Pittsburgh campus on Saturday.

Pitt placed Students for Justice in Palestine on interim suspension this past week, saying members of their group improperly communicated with members of the university conduct hearing board. As part of the suspension, they would not be allowed to hold events.

This is not the only school that has recently suspended an SJP chapter. UCLA banned its chapter of the group last week over a protest at the home of a UC Regent.

The UCLA groups were under interim suspensions since Feb. 12, when Chancellor Julio Frenk announced the restrictions in a campuswide message, citing “violence” during a Feb. 5 action at the home of UC Regent Jay Sures.

“No one should ever fear for their safety. Without the basic feeling of safety, humans cannot learn, teach, work and live — much less thrive and flourish. This is true no matter what group you are a member of — or which identities you hold. There is no place for violence in our Bruin community,” Frenk’s letter said.

At the time, the student groups replied via Instagram statements, saying they rejected “Frenk’s accusations that student protesters have committed violence against the UCLA community.”

Sures, vice chairman at United Talent Agency, said he was targeted because he is Jewish. In addition to photos that showed his property vandalized with red blood-like handprints, there was video of protesters briefly surrounding Sures’ wife in her car as she tried to drive to work.

UCLA is not the first UC campus to ban the group.

UCLA joins several other UC campuses and others throughout the country that have banned or suspended Students for Justice in Palestine, including UC Irvine, UC San Diego and UC Santa Cruz.

Other schools across the country have also been banning or suspending the group including the University of Michigan, Tufts, Brown, Rutgers and Swarthmore. This group is wearing out its welcome and that’s good news because this group is clearly pro-Hamas and is willing to break school rules/laws in order to promote its cause.