Roseanna Bisram

On April 30, 2024, the Alachua Chronicle reported that nine protesters were arrested at the UF anti-Israel solidarity encampment. The charges ranged from battery on a law enforcement officer to trespassing. Most individuals were charged with “failure to obey a police officer, resisting an officer without violence, and wearing a hood or mask on public property.” Some of those arrested were later suspended from UF and banned from campus for three years as a result of their arrest.

During the encampment, protesters chanted [00:00:03]: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!”, a chant used [00:02:52] to call for the elimination of the State of Israel.

Protesters also chanted [00:01:06] against the UF Police Department (UFPD): “IDF [Israel Defense Forces], KKK, UFPD: all the same!” They further mocked [00:00:28] UFPD officers, referring [00:00:09] to them as "pigs."

The Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at the University of Florida (UF SJP), as well as the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) chapter at UF (UF JVP), helped organize the encampment, which was also in support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

On May 1, 2024, FOX 35 Orlando reported that despite UF administrators and the school’s police department warning protesters multiple times during the encampment regarding permissible and forbidden behavior, those arrested [slides 1-3] were found to have violated university rules. According to university regulations, “…speech, expressing viewpoints and holding signs in hands are allowed on campus, while camping, putting up structures, disrupting academic activity or threatening others on campus is not.”

There were over 200 pro-Hamas and anti-Israel college encampments set up in North America, and over 20 more globally, in the spring of 2024. The first began on April 17, 2024, at Columbia University. The encampments were unofficially known as the “student intifada,” borrowing a term associated with terrorist violence.

Protesters harassed Jewish students, blocked Jews from campus facilities and shouted anti-Semitic slogans. They occupied campus grounds, in many cases illegally, caused property damage, violently took over buildings, celebrated terrorism and promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Activists set up encampments to oppose Israel’s right to wage war against the Hamas terror group following October 7, 2023, when Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 people, including 32 American and 8 Canadian citizens. Hamas also kidnapped 252 people, including 11 Americans and the bodies of 2 murdered Canadians.

SJP is a student organization engaged in anti-Israel activity on North American college and university campuses.

The first chapter of SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley by Professor Hatem Bazian. Bazian has spread classic anti-Semitism, reportedly promoted religious anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group. In 2004, Bazian called for “intifada” in America.

SJP organizes anti-Israel campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks, often in collaboration with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Muslim Student Association (MSA) campus chapters.

SJP has been a major force in pushing the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses. Chapters have initiated dozens of BDS resolutions in student governments, which have been proposed on or around Jewish holidays, a time when many Jewish students are off-campus.

SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, disrupted pro-Israel campus events and demonized pro-Israel campus organizations.

Chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for numerous terrorists and whitewashed terrorism.

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by pro-terror activist Omar Barghouti in 2005 to turn “Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.” Barghouti has also called for Israel's destruction and the BDS movement demands would result in that same goal.

BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.

The movement’s most notable achievement has been infiltrating university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments propose resolutions to boycott or divestment from Israel or Israeli-affiliated entities. BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents and pro-terror activism on campus.