Students for Justice in Palestine Violates UNC Policies and Threatens Students; Why Won’t the Administration Act?

In early 2024, I reported how the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at the University of North Carolina at...

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Now UNC-SJP is brazenly publicizing its intent to disrupt an upcoming campus event.

In less than a week, on Jan. 22, UNC’s Program for Public Discourse is hosting the event, “Frank Bruni and Bari Weiss in Conversation” at 7:00pm. Yesterday, on Jan. 16, UNC-SJP made a social media post encouraging activists to show up at the event at 6:15pm and purposely walkout at 7:20pm.

It also posted a sign-up for this walkout saying, “Bari Weiss hates objectivity like someone hit her with it.” UNC-SJP expresses concern that Weiss speaks out against left-wing antisemitism.

The SJP sign-up asks users to “commit to being at the auditorium in the FPG Student Union at 6:15pm, and staying until the walkout.” By planning to walkout 20 minutes into the event, UNC-SJP is asking students and activists to disrupt this campus event.

UNC-SJP has told its members that masking at events is recommended and required. Yet North Carolina statute 14-12.8 forbids individuals in North Carolina from wearing masks or other coverings to “conceal the identity of the wearer.”

This is one of the reasons that Jewish students on campus report feeling unsafe.

On Oct. 12, UNC-SJP held a “Day of Resistance Protest for Palestine” on campus. The event flier celebrated terrorism by featuring a Hamas paraglider en route to kill Israelis and commit other atrocities. In a widely circulated video, a protester bellowed, “All of us Hamas.”

I interviewed two Jewish students who were silently counter-protesting. They told me they were approached by activists who allegedly brandished knives. One of these students recently told me he is looking to transfer out of UNC.

Fifty UNC students — the majority of whom are Jewish — wrote to a US senator: “Jewish students at UNC do not feel safe.” They reported that on Oct. 12, UNC-SJP members allegedly “threatened several peaceful protesters with violence, and some brandished pocket knives and threatened our members.”

Following the rally, a member of UNC’s Board of Trustees, W. M. “Marty” Kotis III, notified campus leaders and officials that the SJP protest “seems to violate NC Statute 14-12.8 as well as University policy.”

UNC-SJP operates by disrupting campus life.

On social media, it boasted: “On Friday, November 17, a group of about 40 members of SJP and allied organizations occupied South Building for a total of 3 hours, shutting down administrative operations for the day.” A video from this shutdown shows masked activists chanting, “Intifada Intifada, long live the Intifada.” Students and community members described this as menacing.

I attended a Nov. 28 event hosted at UNC in which a guest speaker, Rania Masri, said, “Oct. 7 for many of us from the region was a beautiful day.” There were SJP activists in attendance. As this picture shows, people were sitting closely together inside, and not one person appeared to be masked. Yet, when protesting outside, we have seen that most SJP activists and their allies wear masks. It seems clear that masking is about concealing the identities of protestors and not about health or safety.

The campus police and other agencies take these security matters very seriously, and are on high alert to prevent violence at these campus protests. But how can UNC protect guest speakers, students, faculty, and community members when activists are allowed to disrupt the campus while concealing their identities? Will UNC ever hold its Students for Justice in Palestine chapter accountable?

Peter Reitzes writes about issues related to antisemitism and Israel.

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