Members of the Rutgers-New Brunswick Students for Justice in Palestine, their suspensions lifted, issued further demands of school officials at a recent press conference.
The SJP had been suspended for “multiple infractions of the University Code of Student Conduct,” according to The Daily Targum, which included “disruptions to study environments, events, classes and a demonstration at Rutgers Business School.”
Despite its reinstatement, SJP will remain on probation until the end of the year and faces “education sanctions,” Fox News reports.
On its Instagram account, the SJP called its suspension “political posturing … in response to Zionist pressure.”
At the press conference, a trio of keffiyeh-covered SJP members, standing at a podium complete with banner reading “Rutgers Profits off of Palestinian Suffering,” demanded Rutgers “incorporate anti-Palestinian racism” into mandatory diversity trainings, and establish an “Arab cultural center with resources for Palestinian and Arab students.”
Other demands included the hiring of more academics who specialize in “Palestine and settler colonial students,” an official university statement on the “ongoing genocide against Palestinians,” and “protection” of Rutgers’ Palestinian students who “exercis[e] their political rights.”
The SJP also wants the Rutgers official who allegedly leaked news of the SJP suspension (which included contact information of an SJP member) fired.
NEW: Rutgers New Brunswick students release a 'terrorist-like' message to their school, demanding that the school cut ties with Israel.
This looks like a hostage video. Welcome to the new U.S. education system. Thanks progressives.
According to @thestustustudio who attended the… pic.twitter.com/Jz2ad9Iv6p
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 18, 2024
MORE: Rutgers SJP accuses university of ‘racism’ and ‘repression’
More from The Daily Targum:
During the conference and in their statement, the organization extended this critique of the University administration to University President Jonathan Holloway. The University’s angling of Palestinian students to be hazardous and agitational suppresses their identity, the organization said.
“To President Holloway, we, Students for Justice in Palestine, are also your students,” the organization’s statement read. “We would like our university to treat us as students. We would like to be a part of your ‘beloved community,’ if you only let us in.” …
“For the last three months, Rutgers University has shown that they will not uplift the movement — they will suppress it,” an SJP speaker said. “But the students have shown that they will keep organizing for Palestinian liberation. The passion for justice that exists in the hearts of this academic community is enough to propel us through any obstacle and any oppression.”
The SJP also reiterated demands from November, such as divestment from “Israeli bonds and corporations.”
“President [Jonathan] Holloway, in your adoption of the Zionist narrative that our existence is a threat to Israel you have knowingly or unknowingly securitized your students,” the SJP wrote on its Instagram page.
The group further accused Holloway of “endorsing [the] permanent subjugation” of the SJP by “labeling its calls for freedom” as “threatening.”
MORE: Jewish student sues Rutgers alleging antisemitic harassment
IMAGE: Collin Rugg/X
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