tie their demands to broader social justice causes, and to equate their grievances with the various forms of oppression suffered by other groups.
In July 2016, black Americans Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were killed in altercations with police officers, and protests erupted across the United States. In a Facebook post published a few hours after the shootings, SJP’ s NYU chapter attempted to pin the blame for the tragedy on Israel, pointing out that“ many US police departments train with the # IsraeliDefenseForces” [ sic ]. The post then used explicitly intersectional language to link SJP to Black Lives Matter, calling on Palestinians to“ stand with our black comrades … Palestinian liberation and black liberation go together.” 13
In January 2016, students at Northwestern University launched UnshackleNU, a campaign to pressure the University to divest from private prisons. At the same time, NU Divest relaunched a BDS campaign, focusing specifically on the security company G4S, which was also named in UnshackleNU’ s resolution. The two groups co-sponsored multiple joint events during the winter 2016 quarter. 14, 15 One such event called on participants to“ talk about how systematic racism in the U. S. and Israel robs black and brown youth of their childhood.” 16 On a separate occasion, members of the two groups co-authored a letter of support for one another’ s campaigns. 17 In February 2016, the Northwestern Associated Student Government voted on a resolution, co-sponsored by UnshackleNU and NU Divest, to divest from the private prison system. Attempts to amend the resolution to include other countries in which G4S operates were unsuccessful, and the original resolution passed 28-5-8. 18
At Harvard University, anti-Israel activists joined the‘ Reclaim Harvard Law School’ campaign, which was founded to combat racism. In April 2016, the campaign co-sponsored an event titled“ Toward Justice: The Black / Palestine Solidarity Tour,” in collaboration with four Boston-area SJP chapters. 19 Reclaim Harvard Law also hosted anti-Israel speakers Amer Zahr and Remi Kanazi. Kanazi’ s talk was titled“ Building Solidarity from Baltimore to Bethlehem.” 20
SJP activists at Temple University piggybacked on a number of social justice campaigns, partnering with local organizations in a series of area conferences and protests. The Philadelphia SJP group was represented at the Black Radical Organizing Collective’ s( BLOC) January conference, at which anti-Israel academic Steven Salaita spoke on“ Resistance to the U. S.
13. https:// www. facebook. com / NYU. SJP / posts / 1109663052432704 14. https:// www. facebook. com / events / 1889615631264846 / 15. https:// www. facebook. com / events / 1016506118413131 / 16. https:// www. facebook. com / BlackLivesMatterNU / posts / 545630302265328 17. http:// www. northbynorthwestern. com / story / letter-divestment-and-mass-incarceration-are-inext / 18. http:// www. northbynorthwestern. com / story / letter-why-i-voted-no-on-unshackle-nu-but-support- / 19. https:// www. facebook. com / events / 253949538273006 / 20. https:// reclaimharvardlaw. wordpress. com / gallery /
12 www. israelcc. org