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You have likely heard of the group Students for Justice in Palestine, as they are the ones generally heard screaming about Israeli Apartheid around campus. The Flame recently ran an article about the group that presented it as a clean-cut, moderate, non-prejudiced organization that only wants people to hear about the plight of the poor Arabs in Israel (Students for Justice in Palastine: An inside look (11/2/09). The time has come to remove any mystery, confusion and deception as to what this group really is.
Students for Justice in Palestine is indeed radical and one-sided, constantly bordering on and crossing the line of anti-Semitism, and engaging in conduct embarrassing to the university as a whole and damaging to their expressed cause. The UIC chapter of SJP came into existence after the second intifada, an upsurge in Arab terrorist attacks that resulted in the death of over a thousand Israelis. SJP has clearly shown itself for what it truly is through the events it has sponsored this past semester.
On October 15, SJP sponsored a protest of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the University of Chicago. Protesting is completely fine and a democratic right, but much of what goes on at their protests is entirely unacceptable. This occasion was only different in that it was worse than usual. One of the most troublesome occurrences at this event was when a student from Columbia College accompanied the SJP president. This same individual spearheaded such spectacles as this one at DePaul University, where he rapped: ". . . I'd rather wire bombs, walk into the Israeli Embassy with a firearm. I don't wanna hide at all; I'm down to die for God." The protest also saw a student throwing pennies at Jewish people across the street while screaming, "You want a shiny penny? I have a shiny penny!" But clearly, as stated by the president of the organization, SJP "in no way is a group aimed against a certain group of people." Inside the protest they behaved no better. About 30 students, many of which were UIC students, had to be dragged from the lecture hall after screaming things such as "pig," "bastard," "war criminal," and "faggot" at Mr. Olmert as he tried to talk about his attempts at peace and after they had been repeatedly asked by the Dean to please be respectful.
On Oct. 20, SJP brought a group to campus called Viva Palestina to recruit students to take a trip to break the siege of Gaza. The head of this group, George Galloway, has been barred from entering Canada on the grounds that he gives financial support to Hamas, a terrorist organization committed to the destruction of Israel and the West. The Muslim Students Union at the University of California-Irvine is currently being investigated for whether it helped raise money for Hamas by organizing an event with Galloway. By attempting to recruit students to break the siege of Gaza and bring supplies to Hamas, SJP is supporting a group that says, in its founding charter, ". . . 'The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'"
All of these incidents have been captured on video. Unfortunately for UIC students, all of this is apparently technically within the bounds of what is allowed by the student code of conduct. Nonetheless, the actions of the Students for Justice in Palestine are an embarrassment to the university, do nothing to help the people they claim to support and must be discouraged. If you truly want peace in the Middle East and for the lives of the people of Gaza to improve, then the path to follow is not the path of the Students for Justice.
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