National SJP's New Target: The United States and Canada
In January 2021, National Students for Justice in Palestine (National SJP) rebranded. Not satisfied with campus violence and its mission to destroy Israel, the group has now taken a position against the existence of the United States and Canada.
The National SJP website now calls the U.S. and Canada "occupied Turtle Island (U.S. and Canada)." The phrase “Turtle Island'' is used by some indigenous people to refer to North and Central America. It has been adopted by far-left activists seeking to delegitimize the existence of the U.S. and Canada.
National SJP now holds three key positions:
Israel must be destroyed.
The U.S. & Canada should not exist.
Terrorism against the Jewish population of Israel is legitimate.
The 2019 National SJP Conference
Since 2015, Canary Mission has reported on the National SJP conference, highlighting its anti-Semitism, support for terrorism and endorsement of violence from both the national organization and its conference attendees.
The 2019 National SJP conference was held at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, November 1-3. It was themed: “Beyond Struggle: From Roots to Branches Towards Liberation." National SJP indicated on its website that the goal of the conference was to create a “solidarity movement” to push for policies that “demand the end of” the State of Israel.Extreme Secrecy
While in previous years, National SJP went to great lengths to hide the conference's content and attendees from the public, in 2019, the group took it to a new level.
Venue organizers went so far as to cover the hall’s windows, making it impossible for anyone to see in or out. No official curriculum or schedule for the conference was released to the public. The conference was a completely closed event in every respect.
Conference organizers required attendees to be “verified and vouched for” by an SJP chapter to which they belonged and required each chapter to register as a group.The conference also restricted media access to journalists “registered and confirmed by our Media Committee in advance to attend the conference. Absolutely no exceptions will be made.”Organizers, Attendees and Presenters
Despite National SJP's efforts to hide, Canary Mission identified 89 attendees of their 2019 conference.
Taher Herzallah, Conference Panelist: "What if, as Muslims we wanted to establish an Islamic State? What if as Muslims we wanted to use violent means to resist occupation? Is that wrong?"
Reem Zaitoon, Conference Organizer: "Announcer at NSJP: There's police here for our safety bc there are people who are upset & angry that we are here Me: I'll f**k up a Zionist."
Stephanie Skora, Conference Organizer: "Israel does not have the right to exist"
Chance Zurub, Conference Attendee: "Long live the Intifada, long live the resistance and long like [sic] Palestine. #HandsOffJerusalem."
Irfan Kovankaya, Conference Attendee: "Israel and the United states were both established on settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing and genocide to indigenous people."
Ala’a Salem [Kiki Salem] has spread anti-Semitism, whitewashed violence and expressed support for terrorists. Salem has also spread hatred of Israel and was active with the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at the University of Chicago (UChicago) in 2019-2020.
While in high school, Salem also spread anti-Semitism, mocked the Holocaust, expressed support for Hamas and promoted hatred of Israel.
Salem was an organizer and administrator for the SJP chapter at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 2017.
Chance Zurub [Chance Emad] has spread incitement, expressed support for terrorism and spread hatred of Israel on social media.
As of March 2018, Zurub was the president of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Kent State University (KSU).Zurub attended and reportedly led a workshop “focused on Black-Palestinian solidarity" at the National SJP and Midwest SJP conferences in 2019.
National SJP held their conference at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (UMN), from November 1-3, 2019. The conference was themed: “Beyond Struggle: From Roots to Branches Towards Liber
