This post was updated on April 16 at 9:35 p.m.
Students reported finding several offensive posters on campus early Thursday that describe the group Students for Justice in Palestine as supporting terror groups, less than two months after posters with similar messages were reported across campus.
The posters, found near the De Neve area, read “Stop SJP” and claimed the organization supports groups that oppress women, kill gay individuals and persecute Christians.
Ayesha Khan, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine and a fourth-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student, said the organization expected the posters because the group behind the February posters had hinted that it would hold a week of action in April.
She said Students for Justice in Palestine members think the posters target them unfairly. She added that members would like campus administrators to speak out against the posters.
The posters were made by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, an organization behind a campaign titled “Jew Hatred on Campus.” Conservative writer David Horowitz runs the campaign website, which alleges that UCLA is one of the nation’s most anti-Semitic schools.
Horowitz said he had the posters made and distributed to criticize Students for Justice in Palestine, which he described as a “campus hate group.”
“(SJP) is a Jew-hating group,” Horowitz said. “They have one aim: to destroy the Jewish state.”
Horowitz said in a Jewish Journal interview in February he put up other posters criticizing Students for Justice in Palestine. The February posters depicted men with assault rifles standing over a masked man and named the student group with “#JewHaters” written below it.
In an interview with The Bruin soon after the February posters were discovered, Horowitz said he had no connection with them.
University officials started investigating the February posters soon after they were posted, but Horowitz was never arrested in connection with them.
The student group released a statement in response to the previous posters, saying it saw them as hate speech and as damaging to the campus environment.
Students for Justice in Palestine has sponsored two controversial resolutions over the past two years urging the Undergraduate Students Association Council to encourage the University of California to divest from companies that some say profit from human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Compiled by Sam Hoff and Erin Donnelly, Bruin senior staff.
Isn’t “offensive” editorializing in this Daily Bruin “news” story? The author clearly seems to think they are offensive, but others certainly might not think so.
How about this gem: “University officials started investigating the February posters soon after they were posted, but Horowitz was never arrested in connection with them.” Why is the presumption that he would be arrested? Is there any crime by which he could even be charged?
Nice to see the Daily Bruin cares so little about journalistic standards and free speech. About 5 minutes of research would lead even the uninitiated to learn that so-called “hate speech” is not a crime.
This is unfortunate at one of the top universities in the country.
Goodness. Do you just refresh the Daily Bruin waiting for anything related to SJP?
Threatened by ideas? Unsafe because someone is speaking out against the anti-Jewish hatred and pro-terrorist propaganda of SJP (which, of course, only makes Jews feel unsafe, not anyone you apparently care about). Wake up. The First Amendment doesn’t apply only to Jew-haters and supporters of terrorism.
Liberal and Muslim fascists like you are the hatemongers who want Israel wiped off the map.
” Students have a right to feel safe in their own homes that they’re dishing out $12k for a year.”
Funny how quickly SJP apologists change their tune about things like that when anti-Israel groups are sliding fake eviction notices under the dorm room doors.
I came to say the same thing. “Offensive” is a purely subjective term, and it has no place in a news story.
Well written and evaluated but frankly, I think you’re being a little too soft on the Bruin. This article is a disgrace to journalism. Asking, “Isn’t ‘offensive’ editorializing” – even rhetorically – doesn’t deliver the kind of outrage this article deserves.
Obviously, the Daily Bruin has taken a side on this issue . They’ve compromised their journalistic integrity and they’re demonstrating astounding ignorance about the nature of the Israel-Palestine conflict and SJP.
The suggestion that someone should be arrested for criticizing any political organization – and that such a suggestion would actually come from a campus newspaper – deserves special attention and condemnation.
What kind of bogus history and misguided journalism are they teaching at UCLA?
Joseph Goebbels would be proud of them.
The Bruin is wrong. I took credit for the first round of posters and am responsible for these. The original poster was not of “two men with assault rifles standing over a masked man.” It was a photo of two Hamas terrorists armed with AK-47s standing over a hooded Palestian about to be executed for allegedly collaborating with Jews. SJP which is a mouthpiece for Hamas is a hate group. Why aren’t university officials and the Bruin concerned about that. Why does the Bruin think an arrest might be in order because I expressed my opinion?
What is your problem man? Are you crazy? These are my friends, and you don’t even know them. I’m extremely hurt by your actions. Me and my friends aren’t terrorist, nor do we support such. I find it extremely disheartening that you would go on such a hate-filled campaign against students. Your posters are libelous and attempts to confirm the worst stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims. Stop your hate speech, man.
According to the FBI, 60% of religious hate crimes are committed against Jews, and Jews are 8 times more likely to be the targets of a hate crime than Muslims. So spare me the “unsafe on campus” crap. There is only one community on the UCLA campus attacking another, and that is Muslim activists and their leftwing allies attacking Jews. Secondly, I’m sure your friends are nice people. But if they are part of SJP they are actively spreading genocidal lies about the Jewish state and supporting the agendas of Hamas terrorists which are overtly genocidal. And they are members of a hate group as clearly defined by the State Department. You can read the documentation here: http://www.jewhatredoncampus.org/sites/default/files/pdf/sjpahategroup_2.pdf
Fascist Muslims like you are the hatemongers who want Israel wiped off the map. Fascist Muslims like you cheered when the Charlie Hebdo was attacked.
I’m not even Muslim. Nor am I Arab, #Fail
Maybe you don’t even know your friends.
I walk run or crawl in 11 languages so I see how often Americans with friends from different countries don’t really know what or how their friends think because as culturally semiliterate or illiterate Americans we tend to project ourselves onto others without understanding how they think.
Ask your friends if the support the right of Israel to exist.
Ask them how they feel about Jews.
And before blowing anti-Zionist smoke rings, think twice before revealing a total lack of knowledge.
Conformed, stupefied and dumbed down are no way to go though life, boy.
Poor little baby is hurt by David Horowitz.
Grow up.
And now we have offended poor Rob. I wonder if the gays that are tortured and killed in Gaza and the West Bank are offended. I wonder if the parents of the Jewish babies who were murdered in front of their eyes when Palestinians throw rocks through car windows are offended. I wonder if the three teens who were murdered by Hamas operatives in the West Bank are offended. I wonder if the girls that were honor killed were offended. Don’t forget about the families that were forced to remain in their homes in Gaza by Hamas after being warned of an imminent attack. Get over yourself – the manipulations, propaganda and outright lies that come from every SJP member’s mouth are clear as day. Hate, hate and more hate is all you preach. You don’t actually care about stopping the violence, but call for more destruction and death and an end to Israel. You think we don’t know what, “From the river to the see Palestine will be free” means? You dare say that you feel unsafe on campus? You have created a hateful, divisive, antagonistic and violent atmosphere through SJP theatrics to cover your lack of substance. How ironic that you find a way to blame the Jews for what you started here on campus. Go figure.
Hello Mr. Horowitz, I’m certainly no fan of SJP. I think their tactics are blatantly antisemitic and I find it more than a little hypocritical that their defenders posting here are so concerned about the mental health of students. I think the SJP does more damage to mental health than any other group on campus. They’ve has certainly contributed to UCLA’s national reputation as an antisemitic school. If that doesn’t cast a shadow on every student in the school, I don’t know what does.
SJP’s reputation is already bad enough, but now you’re making a claim that they are connected with Hamas. That’s a very serious charge. Can you provide any evidence to this?
First ask yourself these two questions: Can you provide evidence that SJP has ever condemned Hamas as a terrorist organization, or their terrorist actions against Israeli and Palestinian civilians? Can you think of a single Hamas propaganda point, including their phony maps proposing to show that Jews invaded a country called Palestine, which is not also a point of SJP propaganda? SJP, Hamas and the Muslim Students Association are all creatures of the Muslim Brotherhood and its agents.
We have published a pamphlet by Daniel Greenfield called “SJP: A Hate Group” which can be accessed here. It documents the origins and activities of SJP.
http://www.jewhatredoncampus.org/sites/default/files/pdf/sjpahategroup_2.pdf
SJP and Hatem Batzian, its founder are profiled here:
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/printgroupProfile.asp?grpid=6379
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2173
I think this is more than enough evidence to describe SJP as a group that supports Hamas and its genocidal agendas.
Mr. Horowitz, thanks for all this information.
I’ve looked it over and I have to admit, it is pretty compelling. No doubt, you show a definite connections between terrorist groups and SJP. Though SJP doesn’t seem to take part in any violence themselves directly, they clearly don’t condemn many instances of violence and you even show some evidence where they actually approve and justify it.
Your evidence seems pretty solid, too. This is pretty troubling stuff. SJP seems to skate very close to the line. They haven’t been connected to any violence acts themselves, but they certainly engage in things that encourage it.
And they certainly go beyond the Israeli-Palestine conflict. They seem to have a problem with all Jews.
In Oklahoma U, after the video of the frat organization chanting the racist stuff against African Americans surfaced, the frat was immediately kicked off campus.
You have much more troubling and compelling evidence than what the school officials had in Oklahoma U. Why isn’t UCLA taking a stronger stand?
If the SJP thinks these posters are offensive, just ask any member whether they support or condemn Hamas and Hezbollah.
Seriously, Daily Bruin? In case your journalistic knowledge has gone out the window, opinions don’t belong in a news headline. Just because SJP considers it offensive does not mean that it is so. Have you ever included the word “offensive” when covering SJP’s Israeli Apartheid Week and its wall? I’m sure that a large number of Jews and non-Jews alike find it offensive as well.
Double standards have no place in newspapers. You’re no better than Al Jazeera or Fox News.
Get used to it. This was written by the future Editor-in-Chief, so I’m sure we all have another year of double standards ahead of us.
http://165.227.25.233/2015/04/08/sam-hoff-appointed-as-2015-2016-editor-in-chief-of-daily-bruin/
USAC should have stayed out of this crap from the get go.
I can’t see how they could have avoided it. This is certainly a controversy worthy of intelligent debate in a university setting. The fact that we can’t seem to get to the “intelligent” part of this debate demonstrates how poorly UCLA is being administered. You don’t see this level of animosity on most other campuses in the USA.
But SJP does support terror groups. Not to mention the Jew hatred.
Anyone can claim to be for justice as a subterfuge, and many will be fooled. It’s the halo effect.
The SJP is a hate group. They hate Jews, hate Christians, hate freedom, hate Israel.
What’s offensive is the willful ignorance required to defend a well-documented hate group.
While Min, Kaur, Vance and others say they’re only interested in Palestinian rights and human rights. They’re bigots, hypocrites and anti-Semites. Why?
1. Two weeks ago ISIS beheaded hundreds in the Palestinian Yarmouk refugee camp. Over the past two years, Syrian Rebels have killed several thousand Palestinians in the same camp. These were reported on the major mainstream media. What wasn’t reported was protests by these students and SJP and MSA groups. Because they’re were no protests. Can’t protest killings unless Jews do it?
2. Mai Ali Saleh, Palestinian Muslim woman was Valedictorian at Israels top med school and Hanan Zoabi, Hamas supporter, serves in Israel’s Knesset. No such women’s rights allowed in the West Bank and Gaza. In Israel, if a Palestinian woman is raped, she’s the victim. In the WB and Gaza, if a woman is raped, she is the criminal. Honor killing us not only legal but the PA itself announced a doubling of honor killings in each of the past two years. No protests on campus because they’re not mistreated by Israel. Or these people don’t believe in Palestinian women’s rights.
3. Gay rights. In Israel, there’s a thriving gay community for all including Muslims. In the WB and Gaza, gays are executed because it is illegal to be gay. No protests again. I guess these campus groups don’t support gay rights either.
4. After the 2014 war in Gaza, Hamas executed 37 in public for complaining that Hamas forced them to stay in their homes and be martyrs despite Israeli warning that nearby rocket launchers would be hit. Palestinian rights under Hamas and the PA. Still no protests on campus. I guess these groups don’t feel that Palestinian have civil rights either. However, remember the wall Israel built to keep out terrorists (successfully), the Palestinian in the West Bank sued thenIsraeli govt in Israeli courts. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled in their favor and ordered the govt to move the wall in a number of places where it was causing undue hardship. Looks like the Israelis are more interested in Palestinian rights than the BDS campus bigots, I mean campus groups.
5. Both Hamas and Abbas of the PA publicly stated that they support a policy of killing Israeli children as young as infants so that they don’t grow up to be soldiers. Nice of these student groups to,protest such hatred and the fact that over 200 streets, buildings, parks, etc. have been named in honor of Palestinian heroes who kidnapped a school bus and killed many of the children, blew up a Sbarras, blew up a nightclub for young people, shot up a university cafeteria, blew up a Passover Seder and killed three Jewish students last summer that led to the Gaza War. Didn’t protest that either.
6. The AP reported last week that of the billions of dollars, thousands of tons of cement and thousands of concrete blocks that have been given to Hamas to rebuild from last summer, almost NONE has gone for that purpose. Almost ALL of the aid has been used by Hamas to rebuild tunnels and re arm. Did the BDS groups ask where the over $1 trillion in aid that the Palestinians have received over the years has gone. Very little has gone to improve the life of everyday Palestinians.
If these student groups really supported Palestinian and human rights, they would do something other than prove they’re just another
Bravo! Exactly to the point.
College children are among the most if not the single most mentally conformed things.
SJP labeling themselves a human rights group is the most offensive and outrageous action they have taken and naive adherents who follow should only blame themselves for their gullibility. If they had any intention of helping the Palestinians, they would help them to rid themselves of the corrupt despotic terrorrists that haven’t held elections in more than a decade. The Daily Bruin defending SJP only speaks to the lack of journalistic integrity that this pseudo paper holds.
wow, goodbye free speech.