On February 10th of 2015, members of Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC) at UCLA interviewed Rachel Beyda, a student candidate who was running for a position on the Judicial Board. One of the council members asked Beyda if her Jewish background would influence her performance as a student leader. The recording of the session meeting is available online.

Jewish people have continually endured detestable and unacceptable discrimination. This incident is yet another manifestation of such outrageous and distressing prejudice. We, as members of Students for Justice in Palestine at ASU, denounce the unjustified interrogation of this student and the subsequent offensive discussion of her identity as deplorable and anti-Semitic.

If such anti-Semitism was used with the intention of defending a social justice movement, then the perpetrators have no place in the movement.

Sincerely,

SJP at ASU

We submitted this letter to the State Press on March 31, 2015. 

Join us in hearing independent journalist Rania Khalek speak about how Israel uses Palestine as a laboratory to test and refine weapons and methods of domination and control, which are then exported to regimes around the world for use on other marginalized populations.

Rania Khalek is an independent journalist who has written for Salon, AlterNet, Al Jazeera America, In These Times, The Nation, Vice and many other widely read independent publications. She’s a regular contributor to Truthout, the gender columnist at Extra! (published by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) and is a blogger for The Electronic Intifada, where she is on the editorial board. She also co-hosts a weekly podcast called Unauthorized Disclosure with journalist Kevin Gosztola, covering a range of underreported topics relating to national security and US foreign policy from perspectives that are often missing from the mainstream press.

The event will be held at ASU Tempe in CDN 68 at 6:00pm. We recommend parking in Lot 20 or 14. Everyone is welcome! 

On the morning of Monday, February 23, offensive and graphic flyers were posted around ASU Tempe campus. The flyers pictured a bloodied and beaten man being dragged by his feet behind a motorcycle. The words “Students for Justice in Palestine” and “#JewHaters” were emblazoned on the image.

Soon after the flyers were posted, a non-ASU political organization called the David Horowitz Freedom Center published a statement confirming that they were responsible. Until now, no investigation has taken place to determine whether or not ASU students were involved in the posting of these flyers.

We at Students for Justice in Palestine are appalled by these posters. Not only do these posters inaccurately label SJP as violent and anti-Semitic, they also foster an attitude of fear, hatred, and mistrust towards us because the ASU community will now associate these posters with SJP.

To reify our longstanding values, we as an organization strongly condemn all forms of violence and hate speech.  We are a nonviolent, non-political, non-religious organization promoting awareness about Palestine and stand in solidarity with all human rights movements.

We are grateful for the support of various organizations, from Bruins for Israel, J Street U at UCLA, to Jewish Voice for Peace, for writing statements condemning these flyers unequivocally.

Starting February 16th, we will be hosting Israeli Apartheid Week. During this time, we will be hosting two speakers, showing a documentary, and of course having our Mock Apartheid Wall event. For more information and to RSVP, click here.

List of events: 

MONDAY: Jeff Halper– Author and founder of Israeli Coalition Against Home Demolitions  Feb 16th | 6pm | COOR 184

WEDNESDAY: Mock Apartheid Wall | Hayden Lawn | Feb 18th

FRIDAY: ”Road map to Apartheid” Documentary Screening
Feb 20th | 3:30pm | COOR 120

MONDAY: Alison Weir– Author, journalist and founder of “If Americans Knew”              Feb 23rd | 6pm | CDN 68

Full: Letter: Students should seek understanding rather than smearing

“Our wall was set up on Hayden Lawn as a talking-point to inform the ASU community about the Wall and the Israeli occupation, as it is known by the International Court of Justice and the United Nations. The wall featured facts, statistics and artwork illustrating daily life under the occupation and celebrating the resiliency of the Palestinian people. It was intended to be an invitation for dialogue, and frankly, we are confused as to why Brunner did not choose to talk to any SJP members who stood by the Wall for over 16 hours. SJP welcomes all opinions, even dissenting ones, as we believe in democratic ideals and freedom of expression. So, we invite anyone to join us at our meetings and learn how we campaign for greater human rights awareness.”

This letter is our response to the libelous State Press opinion article, “Students for Justice in Palestine should erect a bridge rather than a wall”