By: Isaac Linsk, Follow South Jersey Intern
GLASSBORO, N.J. – Local activists for the Palestinian cause are having their right to organize challenged at the university level and beyond.
The right to assemble is guaranteed under the first amendment of the Constitution. Assembly through clubs or other groups is commonplace at institutions of higher learning like colleges and universities.
However, for champions of the Palestinian cause in South Jersey, on and off college campuses, the bureaucratic body involved in hosting events and establishing an organization can show ideological bias against those wishing to assemble for a cause often misunderstood by the American public.
On Thursday, March 7, 2024, Montclair State University administration revoked its approval for a charity benefit event called Palestine Lives. It was to be hosted by a coalition of New Jersey chapters of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) movement, namely chapters from Princeton University, Rowan University, The College of New Jersey, and Stockton University.
Palestine Lives was supposed to take place the next day, on Friday March 8. The event was planned to be a cultural celebration in addition to an informative event with panel discussions, keynote speakers, and food. The proceeds of the event were going to be a relief effort for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
The school’s reasoning for the last-minute cancellation of the event was over a line calling for the elimination of Zionism in the mission statement of the New Jersey SJP group.
Montclair University president Jonathan Koppell stated in an email to the student body, “The fundraiser was originally proposed by Montclair’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. This is a group we have come to know well and with which we enjoy a positive working relationship. However, since the time that the event was approved, it was brought to our attention that a newly-formed outside organization, called New Jersey Students for Justice in Palestine, is now the host. This group’s name is on all publicity and communications regarding the event. This organization also publishes a mission statement that goes well beyond advocacy for the Palestinian people. Specifically, it contains an explicit call to ‘eliminate Zionism on our campuses and in our communities.’ So the declared purpose of this organization – to rid the campus of any who oppose its views – strikes at the very core of Montclair State University’s mission and values. Allowing such an organization to enjoy the privilege of using University resources – even for purposes that are positive – would not only contradict our stated purpose, it would lead other members of our community to question the institution’s commitment to their safety, their inclusion.”
In a response to the University, The New Jersey SJP released the following statement on Instagram.
“This last-minute cancellation comes at a time when over 30 thousand Palestinians have been murdered by the fascist and genocidal Israeli occupation, countless more are starving, and the over 2 million people of Gaza have been displaced to refugee camps which are routinely attacked by the Israeli Occupation Forces. We find it offensive that Montclair State’s administration claims a fundraiser meant to celebrate the perseverance of the Palestinian people goes against their values, and it is laughable that they claim to hold dear the values of diversity and inclusion, when their actions clearly show they do not.”
Further on in their statement and post, the NJ SJP group called on Montclair to reschedule Palestine Lives and to fully fund the rescheduled event as well.
The administrative pushback against chapters and members of the SJP extends farther south to Rowan University where the students looking to organize a chapter had to campaign multiple times to the club development committee of the school’s senate in order to get their club chartered.
“This is where we started to have issues,” said Zobia Bokhari, president of the Rowan SJP.
‘I’m a senator for another club, right? And so I’ve been attending senate meetings for the past year, and I know what clubs present in front of senate, what the club development committee is looking for.”
The club development committee had told Bokhari that the reason for the club’s denial was that the SJP would be too controversial and alienating to members of the college community.
However, questions asked at these development meetings are supposed to deal with issues of a club’s viability like their budget, fundraising ideas, and how their club would define active membership.
“And so, you know, we had met every requirement that they asked for,” Bokhari explained. “We proved that we could sustain ourselves as an organization. We had a healthy roster of members. We had meetings that had a good turnout. We had an e-board that was very passionate about the club. And so, the thing is, with the club development committee, they denied our club.”
For the SJP, all of the questions they were asked had to do with the club’s ideology and political stance.
“For us, the first question that we got was being asked to provide a definition of Zionism,” said Kainat Adeel, the Vice President of the Rowan SJP. “It was like a Google definition, not like what is it in your own terms.What is the exact Google definition, And I feel like when it comes to politics, like, you can’t really go off of like, this is the Google definition of something. It’s kind of like there’s two sides of an argument for a reason.”
After their initial meeting with the committee, the organizers of the Rowan SJP had thought they were all but defeated until Bokhari, who is involved with a few other clubs on campus like the Rowan Progressives decided to investigate the Student Government Association’s (SGA) bylaws. There was an appeals process, but the SJP were effectively stuck in place as they could only re-appeal to the exact same board who had denied them over ideological reasons in the first place.
Bokhari then decided to write a six-page, strongly worded email to the SGA’s chief commissioner. After their second attempt at chartering their club, a new committee had been selected to hear the SJP’s case including members of the student affairs committee and a member from the school’s department of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).
The appeals process worked, and the Rowan University SJP became official. Despite being past the voting process, the club still has a probationary period of four academic months ending in June before they are officially added to the schools roster of clubs and are able to access an official budget.
In the meantime, the Rowan SJP will continue to host weekly meetings and events like Kuffiyeh Wednesday’s in order to further their support of the Palestinian cause.
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