The group Students for Justice in Palestine at Wesleyan University began its annual "Israeli Apartheid Week" on Monday.
The week-long campaign is planned in collaboration with The Resource Center, an office at Wesleyan. In an advertisement, the center called the event "a national campaign to raise awareness for the ongoing injustices committed against Palestinians by the State of Israel over the last 75+ Years."
"Israeli Apartheid Week" activities include screening a documentary as the fourth installment of the Palestinian Film Series and a lecture by Faisal Saleh, the director and founder of the Palestine Museum US, titled 1948: What exactly happened "to teach the history of the Palestinian Nakba in which 700,000 Palestinians were displaced by Zionist militias," according to The Resource Center.
Wesleyan, located in Connecticut, is home to roughly 700 Jewish students who make up some 25 percent of the campus population, according to Hillel's College Guide.
Who are Students for Justice in Palestine?
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is the campus arm of the global boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign located on university campuses around the United States and Europe.
The group describes itself as a grassroots student organization that supports “Palestinian freedom and equality” in advocating for Palestinian statehood.
Some SJP events have been known to incite violence.
In June, a SJP protester was charged with a hate crime for throwing rocks at Jewish students at the University of Illinois Hillel center.
A 2017 SJP demonstration in Times Square in New York City featured oversized banners declaring Palestinian “resistance until victory” – an expression of support for Palestinian terrorism until Israel is terminated as a Jewish state.
SJP’s support for Palestinian and Islamist terrorism has characterized its extremist behavior on scores of US campuses, including Princeton, Stanford, Georgetown, NYU, and the University of Pennsylvania. Students, particularly Jewish and Israel-friendly ones, have reported acts of physical violence, threats and intimidation by SJP members.
Research studies by Brandeis University and the AMCHA initiative have revealed a direct correlation between BDS activities and a marked rise in antisemitic acts on campuses with large Jewish populations. The research also revealed a correlation between the presence of SJP and a rise in campus antisemitism.
Jewish students have also reported being terrorized physically, being assaulted and spat upon by SJP members at Stanford, Loyola and Cornell universities.
Dan Diker contributed to this report.