SJP and their allies condemn any form of discrimination based upon race, ethnicity, sexuality, and religion including antisemitism.

The students do not, in any way, on any level, support violence against civilians. The brutal attack by Hamas on October 7 was horrific.

The SJP protesters and their allies have been emphatically clear that they are not protesting against the Israeli people. The students are specifically protesting against the Israeli government’s occupation of Palestine and the ongoing military invasion into Gaza that has killed over 35,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom were women and children. The students are protesting to save the lives of millions of people at risk of death by bombs and starvation and to protect futures for children who are trapped in an adult massacre without a safe place to go.

The UR protesters respect freedom of expression for their Israeli peers, as they do for all other students on campus. Criticizing the policies of the Israeli government is not antisemitism, just like criticizing the policies of the American government or Palestinian government is not anti-American or anti-Palestinian. Again, the SJP protests are not against Israeli people. The protests are against occupation and human rights violations. There is a significant amount of support from Jewish allies who join the protests against the Israeli government’s military invasion of Palestine. Here are three examples:

CNN Opinion: I’m a Jewish student at Yale. Here’s what everyone is getting wrong about the protests

In Dangerous Conflation, a group of Jewish artists and writers respond to the claim that critiquing the Israeli government is antisemitic.

This open letter from Jewish students at Brown University illustrates possibilities for Jewish-Palestinian solidarity.