Students For Justice in Palestine Should Be Classified As a Terrorist Organization

I am a pretty much a First Amendment absolutist. People should be allowed to say whatever they want within the well-understood boundaries of the law. This applies very much to American citizens and, within reason, to Green Card holders. I tend to think that guests of any kind should be required to meet minimum standards, including screaming “Death to America.”

But unlike many liberals and university administrators, I draw a pretty strict line between “speech” and aggressive action, including harassment. Calling for the destruction of our institutions, committing vandalism, intimidating people, “occupying” spaces, or any other actions can and should be regulated in a way that pure speech is not. 

Demonstrations should require permits, faces should be exposed, intimidation should be off limits, and people should be dispersed when it is required. 

Great news out of George Washington University – the school’s SJP chapter, known for promoting terrorism and causing havoc on campus, has been suspended for the upcoming academic year.

Other schools must follow suit. pic.twitter.com/x7kH5F4zEV

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) May 6, 2025

Students for Justice in Palestine is clearly on the wrong side of all these lines. They disrupt, they intimidate, they harass people, commit violence and property damage, and their goal itself is the eradication of Jews and the downfall of the United States and the West. 

Temple University Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) President Rishi Arun during a Panel Honoring Cop-Killer Mumia Abu-Jamal: It Is Our Job to Destroy the U.S.; Samidoun Official Mohammed Khatib: Liberating Palestine Will Help Dismantle America pic.twitter.com/i3DszQMEzm

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) May 6, 2025

SJP makes no bones about wanting to destroy America, take down our higher educational institutions, and spark a revolution. It is all about “decolonization” and all that is implied in that phrase, and openly celebrates and, importantly, aids Hamas through partnerships with terrorist organizations. 

WATCH: Pro-Hamas seminar from Temple SJP and Samidoun “When we ask universities to divest from imperialism, the only way to pull that demand is destroying the university … We must accept the eventuality of bringing the USA to its knees” pic.twitter.com/5mPBpl38Vy

— Canary Mission (@canarymission) May 7, 2025

One key thing about SJP is that it is STUDENTS for Justice in Palestine, so in a rational world, every college and university that hosts–and often FUNDS through student fees–SJP would immediately expel the chapters and often the students when they break the rules. 

We do not live in that world. In most cases, the schools bend over backward to protect students from the consequences of their actions, even when those illegal actions harm the school itself or the students who pay tens of thousands of dollars a year to attend. As often as not, employees of the university participate or even sponsor chapters, which is even more bizarre. 

I don’t believe students should be punished for verbal utterances, as long as those utterances don’t poison the well so profoundly as to become intimidation. I have spent enough time as a student or teacher in higher educational institutions to realize that people experiment with dangerous ideas as they navigate the complex intellectual world of ideas. 

Students having or expressing disagreeable ideas is part of growing up. 

But SJP and similar organizations are not about ideas or advocacy; their goal is revolutionary violence and destruction. 

BREAKING: New email statement from Temple University President John Fry addressing Mo Khan and SJP. pic.twitter.com/e3ZmfHuVDd

— Brian Hart (@BrianHartPR) May 7, 2025

Students who participate in this group should be kicked out of schools, not because their ideas are vile, but because their commitment is to destroy the colleges and universities themselves. They make it difficult for non-disruptive students to get the education they are paying so dearly for. 

PYM member, Lea Kayali melts down and screams “this whole d**m system has to go”

➡️Kayali was a member of Harvard Law SJP and reportedly the chair of Claremont SJP

➡️On May, 2021 tweeted” I have had no words today. F**k Israel”

➡️Blamed Hamas’ terror on Israel

➡️Spread hated… pic.twitter.com/xWlSwQfXwW

— Canary Mission (@canarymission) March 30, 2025

But far more importantly, the federal government has to identify every foreign member of SJP and deport them, and the best way to do that is to identify SJP as a terror-supporting organization and a threat to the United States. This is not a stretch–they openly SAY they are a threat to the United States, and they openly ally with terrorist organizations. 

Don’t pussyfoot around. These are not casual Marxists flirting with Critical Theory. They are hardcore revolutionaries, and to the extent we can legally do so, we should treat them as such.