Justin Leroy
Overview
Justin Leroy has demonized Israel in his scholarship and on Twitter and supported anti-Israel campus activism.Leroy is an assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis).
Demonizing Israel
Leroy published an article titled “Black History in Occupied Territory: On the Entanglements of Slavery and Settler Colonialism” in which he wrote: “The sedimented histories of settler colonialism, US imperialism, white supremacy, and anti-blackness suffuse contemporary Palestine.”He continued: “Familiar dynamics of indigenous erasure drove the removal of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their land and homes in 1948. Yet it is through the language of anti-blackness—apartheid, open-air prison, ghetto—that the ongoing occupation of the West Bank and Gaza have been legible to anti-Zionist activists around the globe.”
Leroy went on to claim that “Anti-black racism is one of the ways that Israel has produced the idea of an existential racial threat, whether Palestinian or otherwise.”
In October 2014, Leroy was featured on a panel discussion at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Law School titled “Colonialism as Property, Whiteness as Colonialism,” moderated by anti-Israel professor, Robin D.G. Kelley.
The event page description said that “Panelists will consider the role of Israel as a U.S. proxy in the region, which is both governed by and espouses an explicit white supremacist politic.”
On May 22, 2013, Leroy tweeted: “#Israel and #Mexico swap notes on abusing rights” and shared a link to an Electronic Intifada article with the same title.
Supporting Anti-Israel Campus Activism
Leroy signed a letter, authored by the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization and published on January 25, 2017, condemning Fordham University’s decision to block the establishment of a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Fordham.In 2016, Fordham reportedly blocked the formation of a Fordham SJP chapter “based on the reported behavior of other [SJP] chapters on other campuses,” indicating that “the establishment of a local branch could be ‘polarizing’ and pose a safety concern to students and faculty.”
Signatories demanded that Fordham “immediately rescind the rejection of SJP as a student group on campus, apologize to the students affected by this harmful decision, and reaffirm Fordham’s commitment to free speech and academic freedom.”
The petitioners also highlighted SJP’s BDS activity, characterizing SJP’s efforts to promote anti-Israel boycott as part of “a time-honored non-violent mode of political expression.” The petition accused Fordham’s administration of a “fundamental misunderstanding of what boycotts are, the purpose of a university, and the goals of SJP.”
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in cooperation with Palestine Legal (PL), and civil rights attorney Alan Levine sued Fordham on behalf of four students in April 2017. A New York court annulled Fordham’s decision in August 2019, mandating that the university recognize SJP as an official club.
Fordham appealed the ruling to the NY State Supreme Court Appellate Division in January 2020. On July 24, 2020, Fordham SJP students filed a brief asking the appellate court to deny Fordham’s appeal of the lower court’s decision.
As of October 2020, a variety of groups, not directly involved in the case, filed amicus briefs with the Appellate Division for the court's consideration including JVP.
Leroy signed another JVP letter opposing the inclusion of anti-Zionism as an “intolerant position” in the University of California (UC)’s proposed “Statement of Principles Against Intolerance.”
Signatories of the letter argued that “The definition of ‘anti-Zionism’ as intolerance and/or bigotry is vague and overbroad” and stated that “We believe that this formulation is now being revived by seeking to include ‘anti-Zionism’ as a form of bigotry and intolerance, and we urge you to reject that view.”
Social Media and Weblinks
Twitter:https://twitter.com/justin1083University Website: http://history.ucdavis.edu/people/jleroy
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- California-Davis
- Organizations:
- N/A
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- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
Photos & Screenshots
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