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By: Ilana Siyance
On Monday, over three dozen lawmakers, including both Republicans and Democrats, called on Gov. Kathy Hochul to ban a pro-Palestinian student group, which has been spewing hate on college campuses across New York. As reported by the NY Post, the inflammatory group, Students for Justice in Palestine, has endorsed violence and openly celebrated Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 killing spree in Israel, which took over 1,200 lives and during which over 240 men, women and children were taken hostage. The student group has already been suspended at Columbia University for allegedly violating school policies and inciting hate. Over 500 alumni at Columbia University supported the suspension.
Now, lawmakers want to see the group banned across the state’s college campuses, as anti-Semitism has seen a troublesome surge. “For years, a major growing cause of concern on college campuses has been a group called ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’ (SJP), which has chapters throughout American Universities,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter to the governor. “At their events, SJP members and allies chant things like ‘from New York to Gaza, Globalize the Intifada,’ ‘when people are occupied, resistance is justified,’ and ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’” the letter reads, adding, “These chants are from the Hamas charter and call for the death and annihilation of Jews and Israel.”
Per the Post, the letter was spearheaded by pro-Israel Republican Brooklyn Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, and was signed by 33 other Republicans and eight Democrats in city, county and state positions. Signers included: Minority Leader Joseph Borelli; Councilmembers Robert Holden, Kalman Yeger, Joann Ariola, Vickie Paladin, David Carr and Ari Kagan; Senators Bill Weber and Simcha Felder; Nassau County Legislator Mazi Pilip; as well as numerous Assembly members.
“New York cannot fail in its legal obligation to protect its Jewish students”, reads the Nov. 20th letter. “When the conduct of students, student groups, and even faculty members creates a severe and pervasive hostile environment that interferes with the ability of Jewish students to participate in or benefit from the services, activities, and privileges provided by their school, there is an obligation, under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and applicable state and federal anti-discrimination laws, to act to address and remedy this hostile environment.”
The politicians also requested that any student groups that “explicitly endorse registered foreign terrorist organizations” be banned from New York universities. “We request that you work with university Chancellors and Presidents, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate further and take immediate and necessary action,” adds the letter, which was obtained by the Post.
“They must be investigated and dismantled as a legitimate organization,” Vernikov said of the group. The Ukrainian native who has represented the 48th District in the NYC council since 2021, added that ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’ is a “widespread movement throughout American college campuses that supports radical Islamist ideology.”
The governor’s office did not immediately reply to the Post’s request for comment on the letter. Last week, Hochul had conceded that hate and terror probes have surged “exponentially” since Hamas’s Oct, 7 terror attack on Israel. She said that she has assigned additional state police investigators to work with federal anti-terrorism agencies.
