An encampment launched by Students of Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of California Santa Cruz has issued starkly antisemitic demands that include the university severing ties with Jewish community organizations.
SJP set up its “encampment” on campus on Thursday, joining an effort that has seen dozens of campuses taken over by activists calling for the destruction of Israel, demanding the abolition of police, and slamming the United States.
The City on a Hill Press, the student-run weekly paper at UC Santa Cruz, reported that the activists were acting on instructions from overseas (emphasis added):
UC Divest organized the rally, and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) of Santa Cruz, with the support of SJP National, are operating the encampment. Although the events were not explicitly linked, there was overlap among participants, with the workers’ rally expressing unity with Palestine.
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“Our SJP local is answering a call which came down from the SJP National, which came down from organizers in Palestine and in the Palestinian Youth Movement,” said Dax, a participant and media representative for the encampment.
The Times of Israel noted SJP’s demands:
Under its call for a “complete academic boycott,” SJP demands that the California university, “Cut ties UC wide with all zionist organizations — including study abroad programs, fellowships, seminars, research collaborations and universities. Cut ties with the Hellen Diller foundation, Koret foundation, Israel Institute and Hillel International.”
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“Three of the four organizations cited in the academic boycott demand by encampment activists at UCSC are Jewish charities and communal groups,” the Bay Area JCRC writes on X, formerly Twitter.
“They are pillars of the Jewish community. This isn’t just about opposing Israel’s Gaza actions but seems aimed at Jewish institutions, revealing underlying antisemitism,” the Jewish group adds.
As local Bay Area Jewish leaders noted, Hillel is simply a Jewish organization that provides religious and cultural services to Jews on campus, worldwide.
Activists elsewhere have made similar demands. At UC Riverside, SJP demanded a commitment to boycott Sabra hummus. Sabra is an American company, but the word “Sabra” is a Hebrew term referring to a native-born Israeli.
Despite the fact that the demand violates civil rights laws barring discrimination on the basis of nationality, and also violates California’s “anti-BDS” law barring boycotts of Israel or other nations, UC Riverside agreed to the demand.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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