EDITORS' CORNER
Logo ‘disproves any claims that SJP doesn’t support terrorism,’ critic wrote
A pro-Palestinian student group at the University of California Berkeley is displaying a symbol commonly used by Hamas to designate Israeli targets as part of its logo on the group’s official university webpage.
Students for Justice in Palestine is a “group of students, faculty, and community members working together at the University of California, Berkeley, in solidarity with the struggle of the indigenous Palestinian people against settler-colonialism, genocide and occupation,” according to its webpage.
UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof defended the decision, telling the Washington Free Beacon that the logo falls under the group’s protected First Amendment rights.
However, Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior analyst Joe Truzman told the outlet the logo could be interpreted as an incitement of violence.
Hamas has “used it countless times in videos that they’ve published of attacks against Israeli soldiers,” Truzman said. “This is a symbol of a foreign terrorist organization that’s been designated by the United States.”
“The presence of the symbol on Berkeley’s website may be viewed by some as promoting hate,” he told the Free Beacon. “This red triangle symbol is very deliberate. [SJP] knows what they’re doing.”
Others offered a different interpretation.
The Free Press editor Mark Gimein commented on the logo in a post on X, writing, “Alternate view: Sure, let them use it.”
“It accurately portrays their position, and instantly disproves any claims that SJP doesn’t support terrorism,” he wrote.
Last week, UC Berkeley hosted an event on the “humanitarian and geopolitical ramifications” of the joint U.S.-Israel military operation against Iran. The panelists characterized the operation as an expression of “Jewish supremacy,” the Free Beacon reported.
“This is a project that is completely directed towards one aim, and that aim—we should state it very clearly—is Jewish supremacy,” Rice University professor Abdel Razzaq Takriti said.
What’s more, the SJP chapter recently posted a video of Iranian missiles striking Israel with the caption “Children of Gaza are chanting, ‘O Allah, guide and make their aim accurate.’”
The group also called on Berkeley Law students to join its “Gaza solidarity fast” on March 17 in a post on Instagram.
“Our demands: UC Divest. No more ‘Israel Studies.’ Oakland Arms Embargo now,” the post reads.
The group is also hosting a rally on March 18 to demand the school divests from “war and genocide,” according to an Instagram post.
“UC Regents are complicit in funding war and genocide and refuse to discuss divestment because of their financial interests! The Regents keep the UC invested in weapons manufacturing, surveillance, and policing from the U.S. to Palestine,” the post reads.
“The UC Regents are meeting at UCSF on March 17 & 18. In response there will be a rally to demand long overdue divestment from the U.S. war machine and reinvestment in a university built by and for the people,” it reads.
Universities such as Columbia, Yale, George Washington University, George Mason University, and UCLA have suspended or revoked official recognition of their SJP chapters due to concerns over radical activism, the Free Beacon reported.
DePaul University recently revoked SJP’s official club status until fall 2027 due to the group’s decision to keep posting on social media despite a previous sanction that ordered it to stop, The College Fix reported.
MORE: Police investigating ‘Kill all Jews’ graffiti at San Jose State U.
