Several university chapters of the National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organization have this week, publicly voiced unwavering support for Hamas and for the barbaric murdering of Israeli civilians, butchering of families, decapitating babies, the elderly and the taking of hostages which include young children.
SJP’s co-founder, Hatem Bazian came as a college student to the U.S. from the Hamas stronghold of Nablus in the West Bank. He brought his Islamic Jew-hatred with him and created the SJP campus hate group. Across U.S. campuses, SJP’s chapters activities and actions, along with the group’s DNA as pictured below, make the group ineligible for chartering as a campus student organization.
And yet, campus administrations, too many of which have failed to condemn the SJP-supported Hamas murdering of civilians, and too many of which ignore the antisemitism on their campuses, willingly look the other way and let these Jew-hating groups operate with administration support.
UT-Knoxville had an SJP chapter as early as 2013.
In fact, it wasn’t that long ago that Vanderbilt University had a SJP chapter launched by Hytham Al-Hindi, who, as a Vanderbilt Ingram Scholar would have his undergraduate degree tuition fully paid for.
In exchange for the $160,000 plus in free education, Vanderbilt was going to get its own Jew-hating, HAMAS- connected Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) student organization, started by Al-Hindi.
Who was Hytham Al-Hindi and what are his motives to align with SJP?
Hytham Al-Hindi hailed from Jonesboro, Arkansas. His father, Dr. Ahmad Al-Hindi is a cardiologist who graduated from Jordan University of Science & Technology in northern Jordan, the country presumed to be where Dr. Al-Hindi immigrated from to the U.S.
In 2008, about 3.5 million people in Jordan were believed to be of Palestinian ancestry. Is Dr. Al-Hindi’s ancestry Palestinian? Does Dr. Al-Hindi have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan? Is he an anti-Israel sympathizer? Does he have political views that may have influenced his son?
Hytham Al-Hindi’s Ingram Scholars bio documents his high engagement with the immigrant and refugee populations in Nashville. He volunteered with the refugee resettlement agency NICE (Nashville International Center for Empowerment), that was started by a former refugee turned government contractor “entrepeneur.” (Remember this when the propagandists tell you how great it is that refugees come and start businesses.)
Hytham’s facebook page looked like the who’s who of Muslim Brotherhood organizations. His listed “favorites” included:
- Vanderbilt and UTK’s Muslim Students Association
- Islamic Center of Nashville (ICN) which was the mosque for al-Qaeda imam Abdulhakim Mohammed
- American Center for Outreach (ACO) run by former Muslim Brotherhood CAIR director Paul Galloway
- Hamza Yusuf who describes Judaism as the most racist religion
- Tariq Ramadan (grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna)
- Suhaib Webb – vocal Jew hater
Since he was starting an SJP chapter at Vanderbilt, it’s no surprise that he also listed as “favorites” some of the most aggressive and virulent leftist anti-Israel and Jew-hating individuals and organizations that promote the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel). After all, demonization and delegitimization of Israel along with promoting BDS is the core belief of SJP:
- Angela Davis – former Black Panther party member and Communist
- Noam Chomsky – “America is worse than Nazi Germany”
- Rachel Corrie Foundation
- Jewish Voice for Peace – listed by the Anti-Defamation League as one of the top 10 anti-Israel groups in the U.S. and an aggressive promoter of BDS
- SJP Loyola
- Loyola Divest
- NU Divest (Northwestern University Divest) – its student government passed a divest Israel resolution by two votes
The end goal of the BDS campaign is to eliminate the State of Israel since its existence is hateful to Hamas, Iran and other Arab countries that chosen to support Hamas and Hezbollah terrorism. When pro-BDS and pro-Hamas agitators chant “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free” they are saying that their vision is that there will be no Israel between the Jordan River and Mediterranean—and no Jews – it’s Judenrein.
SJP emulates the language and values of HAMAS. For this reason and because of the extreme anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred displayed by the chapter members, SJP is more accurately labeled “Hamas on Campus.”
SJP chapters on college campuses sponsor events like “Israel Apartheid Week,” disrupt pro-Israel events, and are the primary agitators pushing anti-Israel BDS resolutions introduced to student governments. SJP chapters have created hostile and intimidating campus environments for Jewish students. SJP prides itself on bringing conflict and divisiveness to college campuses along with using a well-financed disinformation campaign that spreads their hatred towards Jews and Israel.
Does Vanderbilt invite Jew hatred?
Vanderbilt actively recruits international students. Recent data from “Open Doors on International Education Exchange” shows that annually several thousand students from places like the Palestinian territories, Iran, Yemen, Qatar, Kuwait and Lebanon, for example, attend U.S. universities.
They are all Muslim majority countries, some of which promote hatred of Jews and Israel. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader who died last year at age 96, supported Palestinian suicide bombings, was based in Qatar. Saudi Arabia follows the strictest form of sharia law which prohibits Jews from being citizens. Iran is behind the recent Hamas massacre of Israelis and supplies Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon with weapons so they can attack Israelis and Jews.
So, what ideology do these students bring with them? Do they gravitate more to student groups like the MSA, SJP and the Middle Eastern Students Association? Homegrown in Waverly, Tennessee, Samar Ali co-founded the Middle Eastern Students Association at Vanderbilt because as she said, “I will always be Arab and I will always be American and I will always be Muslim….My parents always taught us to never forget where we came from and to never forget where we are now.” This sounds eerily similar to the motives behind the anti-Israel work of her father’s Jerusalem Fund organization here, here and here for example.
Vanderbilt and every campus that has an SJP chapter must ask itself whether a group tied to HAMAS, a U.S. designated terrorist organization, can be chartered under any school’s rules for student organizations. Can public money be allowed to flow to these groups? Should private money be permitted to enable these groups?
In true leftist-progressive fashion, Vanderbilt made Christian campus groups unwelcome by enforcing the zero tolerance all-comers’ policy. While the SJP chapter at Vanderbilt quietly faded away, if some form of it reemerges with the administration’s support, will Jews at Vanderbilt be the next group to have to leave?