Fordham University’s refusal to recognize a campus chapter of the pro-Palestine group — Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) — as an official student club has drawn widespread criticism from civil and constitutional rights groups, who claim the decision was politically motivated.
The unofficial Students for Justice in Palestine chapter had been seeking approval from the University for over a year — they first proposed the club in November 2015 — before their application was officially denied by the dean of students, in late December.
Explaining the rationale behind the ban, University Dean Keith Eldredge cited the group’s political “goals”, including its support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel, which he says runs counter Fordham’s “mission and values.”
In a letter to the head of SJP, he explained “[he] cannot support an organization whose sole purpose is advocating political goals of a specific group, and against a specific country.”
“There is perhaps no more complex topic than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and it is a topic that often leads to polarization rather than dialogue,” Eldredge’s letter continues. “The purpose of the organization as stated in the proposed club constitution points toward that polarization.”
The ban has become highly politicized with several legal and constitutional rights advocacy group coming out swinging at SJP.
In a joint 11-page letter to the Jesuit institution, released last week, the Center for Constitutional Rights and Palestine Legal affirmed that the denial not only violated free associated principles but was a blatant case of discrimination in violation of Title IV of the Civil Rights Act, pointing that all four applicants for the SJP chapter’s executive board were students of color.
Three of them were Muslim and one was Palestinian-American.
The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) also took aim at Eldredge’s decision, arguing that SJP’s stated political agenda was no sufficient ground for a ban as many other authorized clubs across the nation (such as Students for a Free Tibet) advocate against the policies of specific foreign governments.
Echoing this sentiment, Ari Cohn, the director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s individual rights defense program also noted that Fordham already hosts student groups, including chapters of the College Democrats and College Republicans, with explicit political goals.
“The fact that the group [SJP] is oriented toward advocating a specific political viewpoint is not out of the ordinary, and student organizations at every campus across the country do just that,” Cohn said. “It’s a little bit baffling to see that justification used to deny a student organization recognition.”
Students for Justice in Palestine chapters across the country have often garnered controversy with their polemical direct actions, such as the distribution of “mock evictions notices” in campus dormitories — meant to draw attention to the forceful removal of Palestinians from their homes to make way for Israeli settlements — or the organization of “Israeli Apartheid Week” which has been dubbed anti-Semitic by some Jewish organizations.
In its profile of the group, one such organization, the Anti-Defamation League describes SJP as “the primary organizer of anti-Israel events on U.S. college campuses” and the group that “has consistently demonized Israel, describing Israeli policies toward the Palestinians as racist and apartheid-like, and comparing Israelis to Nazis or Israel to the Jim Crow-era U.S.”
Following cases of verbal and physical intimidations against Jewish students, officials at Northeastern University, the UC Berkeley, and Loyola University Chicago have all in the past suspended or temporarily banned SJP members from protesting.
Speaking to Algemeiner, the campus director for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), Aviva Slomich, called Fordham’s ban “reasonable and commendable.”
“SJP and its affiliates promote extreme anti-Israel propaganda; harass students and faculty members — Jewish and non-Jewish — who are known to support Israel; and are responsible for the rise of antisemitism,” she said.
Fordham University could not be reached for comments.