At least three colleges — Brandeis, Columbia and George Washington — have suspended or banned chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine. The national wing of SJP came under fierce scrutiny for a five-page “toolkit” distributed to campus chapters. Among the toolkit’s talking points was the statement: “We as Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement.” Jewish groups, such as the ADL, interpreted that as an endorsement of Hamas, which the U.S. considers a foreign terrorist organization. Hundreds of SJP student chapters launched protests and walkouts on campus in the days after the Oct. 7 attack, some of which have turned violent.
Israel says the Hamas militant group killed about 1,200 people, from babies to grandparents, in its Oct. 7 incursion into towns and villages just outside the Gaza Strip, which Hamas controls.The Israeli military reprisal on Gaza has killed as many as 14,800 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
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The Council on American-Islamic Relations said last month it received 774 reports of bias incidents and requests for help from Muslims across the U.S. from Oct. 7 to Oct. 24, a 182% jump from the average 16-day period in 2022, NBC News reported.
In the ADL-Hillel poll, only 44% of Jewish students said they felt their campuses were “very” or “extremely” welcoming and supportive of Jewish students, compared with 64% before Oct. 7, a drop of 20 percentage points.
“Significantly Fewer Jewish Students Are Very Comfortable With Others Knowing They Are Jewish After 10/07” (Graphic courtesy of Anti-Defamation League and Hillel International)
The poll also showed that only 39% of Jewish students feel “very” or “extremely” comfortable with others on campus knowing they are Jewish, compared with 64% feeling comfortable before the attack.
The first wave of the survey was conducted in the summer of 2023 from July 26 to Aug. 30. The second wave of the survey was fielded one month after the Oct. 7 terror attacks, from Nov. 6-10. The polling of Jewish students for ADL and Hillel began in 2021.
This article originally appeared here.
