On 24th October, Florida’s university system chancellor directed state universities to disband campus groups that have ties with the National Students for Justice in Palestine organisation. The step came after Governor Ron DeSantis issued a memo to the school leaders ordering them to crack down on the events held by the pro-Palestinian organisation. Earlier, Governor DeSantis had said in a statement had he been the President, he would have cancelled the visas and deported the foreign students who celebrated terrorism.
DeSantis also called out the Biden administration for using the First Amendment and the idea of peaceful protest as an excuse for inaction against pro-Hamas protests at college campuses. Quoting NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby’s statement from 23rd October, DeSantis said, “The Biden Administration is dead wrong. No one has a right to come to our country. If foreign students are out there celebrating Hamas’ atrocities, they should have their visas cancelled and be deported.”
Though DeSantis ordered a crackdown on National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), the other states did not take any steps to stop the pro-Palestinian organisation from supporting Hamas terrorists.
Activist Sarah L Gates shared a thread on X (formerly Twitter) with details about the organisation. Gates also linked a toolkit that NSJP released calling for nationwide protests at the universities in support of the Palestinian cause. While supporting the Palestinian people might not be wrong, the language used by the organisation was highly objectionable and clearly showed that they were supporting the Palestinian terrorist organisation Hamas.
The toolkit pointed out that the terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel took place on the 50th anniversary of the 1973 war, also known as the Yom Kippur War or Ramadan War or the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The Hamas terror attack has been called “Toofan Al-Aqsa (Al-Aqsa Flood)” in the toolkit.
NSJP referred to the Hamas terrorists as “Palestinian resistance” and the Israeli people as “Zionist settler society”. Completely ignoring the fact that the terrorists brutally murdered civilians, NSJP praised the Hamas terrorists for entering Israel and kept referring to it as “illegal Israeli settlements”. Interestingly, the organisation called out Israel for retaliation and claimed 320 Palestinians were killed by 12 PM ET on 8th October. “Despite this, our people choose resistance over negotiated cages on our homeland. Fearlessly, our people struggle for complete liberation and return,” the toolkit read.
NSJP called it a “historic win” for the “Palestinian resistance” across land, air and sea. Calling for protests across the US, the toolkit read, “As the Palestinian student movement, we have an unshakable responsibility to join the call for mass mobilisation.” It added, “National liberation is near-glory to our resistance, to our martyrs, and to our steadfast people.”
The group also called for “normalising the resistance” or seeing the Hamas terrorist attack as just “retaliation” by the people of Palestine. Furthermore, they categorically refused to see the Israelis as “civilians”. The toolkit read, “Settlers are not ‘civilians’ in the sense of the international law because they are military assets used to ensure continued control over stolen Palestinian land”.
Use of ‘paraglider’ as logo for the protest poster
One of the most disturbing aspects of the protests called by the group was the use of a ‘paraglider’ as the logo for the protest poster. For those who are unaware, Hamas terrorists used paragliders to enter Israel and landed in the middle of a music festival with thousands of unaware and innocent festival-goers. They opened fire at them, killed them without caring about the nationality of the attendees, raped the women alongside dead bodies, abducted attendees and created unimaginable havoc. The poster is still available on the Instagram account of the group.
In response to the call for the pro-Hamas protests, several student organisations came out. Here are a couple of tweets of such protests.
Students for Justice in Palestine
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is a network of student groups in the United States that uses inflammatory rhetoric and dissemination of anti-Israel propaganda in the name of advocating for the Palestinian cause. SJP has also initiated boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) campaigns against Israel, which some view as counterproductive to finding a peaceful resolution to the conflict. SJP’s tactics include disrupting pro-Israel events and setting up symbolic “apartheid walls” to highlight the perceived mistreatment of Palestinians. The group also promotes “anti-normalisation,” which can hinder dialogue between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel advocates.
Although some chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) claim to condemn anti-Semitism, they tend to vilify Jewish students who support Zionism or Israel. This creates a hostile environment on campus. SJP was established in 2001 at the University of California, Berkeley. Later, it unified under the Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM) in 2006 with the support of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). The National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) conference was established in 2011, and since then, SJP’s influence has grown. Some chapters hold more extremist views, including advocating for the dismantling of Israel, potentially endorsing violence, and rejecting dialogue with Jewish people.
Israel Hamas war
On 7th October, hundreds of Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel through various means, overwhelming the Iron Dome with over 5,000 rockets in a matter of few minutes. They also abducted hostages and took them to Gaza. In a counterattack on Hamas by Israeli forces, thousands have been reportedly killed in the Israel-Hamas war. The death toll in Israel from the Hamas attack has now surpassed 1,400, with over 3,300 injured, primarily civilians. Israel launched a major offensive against Hamas in Gaza as over 400,000 Gaza residents were evacuated. India has launched its own Operation Ajay to evacuate Indians from Israel during this conflict.