By Reuvain Borchardt and Matis Glenn
NEW YORK— Over 40 New York legislators are calling on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to “investigate” and “take immediate and necessary action” against Students for Justice in Palestine, a group on college campuses nationwide that says it supports “Palestinian liberation” but which Israel supporters say are calls for the murder of all Jews in Israel.
“SJP’s across New York State have released statements which explicitly endorse the use of violence and attacks on civilians,” reads the letter, dated Monday and signed by a bipartisan group that includes eight councilmembers, 31 assemblymembers, two state senators and a Nassau County legislator. “At their events, SJP members and allies chant things like ‘from New York to Gaza, Globalize the Intifada,’ ‘when people are occupied, resistance is justified,’ and ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.’ These chants are from the Hamas charter and call for the death and annihilation of Jews and Israel.”
In material recently posted to social media calling for demonstrations, the National Students for Justice in Palestine referred to the October 7 attacks of Hamas terrorists on Israeli civilians as a “historic win for the Palestinian resistance: across land, air, and sea,” mentioning the number of Palestinians killed in response to the attacks, but omitting any mention of the murders of Israeli civilians, including women, children and infants. It also called on supporters to “honor the martyrs of Palestine.”
The group does not appear to acknowledge the sovereignty of the United States and Canada, instead referring to them as “Occupied Turtle Island,” and the “so-called United States and Canada.”
According to Monday’s letter, SJP has “published a ‘toolkit’ that refers to the Hamas operation as ‘the resistance’ and states that ‘Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement.’ As such, National SJP is essentially admitting that it is part of a U.S. government-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.”
The letter calls on Hochul to “work with university Chancellors and Presidents, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate further and take immediate and necessary action.”
Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, who organized the letter, told Hamodia she is seeking for the group to be “dismantled.”
“Students for Justice In Palestine is a widespread movement throughout American college campuses that supports radical Islamist ideology,” Vernikov said. “Its members consistently harass Jewish and pro-Israel students, and demand the destruction of the only Jewish state. In the name of ‘justice’ and under the disguise of ‘Free Palestine,’ they seek to “globalize the Intifada and get Zionists, aka Jews, out of university spaces.
“They must be investigated and dismantled as a legitimate organization.”
SJP did not immediately respond Monday to Hamodia’s request for comment on the letter.
