The Observer, April 4, 2008
Volume XL, Issue 23
SJP: decide for yourself what group is about
To the Editor:
Last Friday's Observer included an editorial claiming that an established and sanctioned campus organization, Students for Justice in Palestine, fosters racial hostility and provokes hate crimes [Caleb Posner's "Anti-Semitism strong at Case"]. These claims are absurd, weakly reasoned, and libelous. It should go without saying that SJP is a diverse group committed to overcoming any prejudice and providing free and open discussion.
The editorial's author asserts that SJP hosts events that "make the campus environment hostile to Jews" and connects the organization to incidents of racially motivated violence. SJP's hosted speakers are vilified as "some of the most offensive" to come to Case. Nowhere does the author provide any substantive explanation of how SJP causes racial hatred and violence, or why the speakers we have had the honor of hosting are such horrible people. In the eyes of the author, all that is needed to brand one a hate-monger is that they provide a balanced or pro-Palestinian account. Such rhetoric is not conducive to free and open dialogue and discourages people from participating.
Most odd about the editorial's claims about what SJP is and does, and how our group supposedly preys on the ignorance of naive college students, is the fact that its author has been conspicuously absent from any SJP meetings or sponsored events. He has also never approached any member of our group or questioned us on our alleged hate-mongering in person, something one would expect to happen before writing a damning exposé on us. Perhaps then we would have been able to clear up the numerous misunderstandings he has. But that did not happen; the author dismissed our group without taking the effort to learn about it himself. He expects you to do the same. We hope that you do not. If you are interested in finding out for yourself what SJP is about, we invite you to attend one of our meetings, held every other Monday at 6 in House 4 of the Village. This upcoming Wednesday at 6 we have the pleasure of hosting slam poet Suheir Hammad at The Spot. All are welcome and encouraged to experience firsthand the type of quality entertainment and thought-provoking discussion that SJP brings to Case. Do not let your opinion of our wonderful organization be decided for you by a freshman political science major – decide for yourself.
E-mail palestine@case.edu with questions or to join our mailing list.
Students for Justice in Palestine
