A new report from Canary Mission, an anti-Semitism watchdog group, documents how National Students for Justice in Palestine has now taken a position against the existence of the United States and Canada.
“Students for Justice in Palestine have a history of violence and anti-Semitism. While they have long sought the destruction of Israel, they now admit that they are against the existence of the U.S. and Canada, calling it ‘occupied Turtle Island.’ It is undoubtedly a significant development, and we are monitoring it closely,” it told JNS.
According to Canary Mission, the phrase “Turtle Island” is used by some indigenous people to refer to North and Central America. It has been adopted by far-left activists seeking to delegitimize the existence of the United States and Canada.
Earlier this year, National SJP announced that it has rebranded its organization across North America to form a “cohesive, centralized structure for the Palestinian solidarity movement.”
Among its goals, according to the organization, was to develop “a national structure for SJP, co-creating shared principles and values for the SJP network, and rebranding National SJP to be reflective of the organization we seek to cultivate.”
Additionally, the Canary Mission report also released new information documenting the 2019 National SJP conference held at the University of Minnesota. The watchdog group said that it has identified 89 attendees at the 2019 conference, which was held under “extreme secrecy,” it said.
The report listed several individuals who were said to have made remarks calling for violence and delegitimizing the Jewish state.
- Taher Herzallah, Conference Panelist: “What if, as Muslims, we wanted to establish an Islamic State? What if as Muslims we wanted to use violent means to resist occupation? Is that wrong?”
- Reem Zaitoon, Conference Organizer: “Announcer at NSJP: There’s police here for our safety bc there are people who are upset & angry that we are here Me: I’ll f*** up a Zionist.”
- Stephanie Skora, Conference Organizer: “Israel does not have the right to exist.”
- Chance Zurub, Conference Attendee: “Long live the Intifada, long live the resistance and long like [sic] Palestine. #HandsOffJerusalem.”
- Irfan Kovankaya, Conference Attendee: “Israel and the United States were both established on settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing and genocide to indigenous people.”
“Since 2015, Canary Mission has reported on the National SJP conference, highlighting its anti-Semitism, support for terrorism and endorsement of violence from both the national organization and its conference attendees,” said the group.