The group Students for Justice in Palestine held a meeting last Thursday regarding the David Horowitz-inspired posters describing the group as a terrorist-supporting entity. An attendee took notes, which Truth Revolt has secured. 

One member of the group stated that SJP felt the posters were hate speech directed at SJP without making a distinction between SJP and terrorists. A thank you went to BFI and Hillel and Avi Noam Baral for supporting SJP in removing the posters. David Horowitz was described as a “staunchly conservative agitator.”

One attendee said that people supporting BDS want it out of the goodness of their hearts. A claim was made that the SJP is not inherently anti-Semitic.

A graduate student who attended said that their initial response as a Palestinian was that they were not very shocked, adding that anything Palestine-related would get ‘terrorist’ yelled at them.

Someone asserted that they felt portrayed as subhuman and violent.

Another person opined that they had grown up in a society where the society thought they were violent and anti-Semitic, that when they introduced themselves as a Palestinian people would say that they hated Jews. The person added that behavior like that had become the norm for children growing up in the U.S.

A girl said she was worried about things escalating and leading to attacks.

Another attendee said the UCLA administration has so many eyes on them from the outside that it becomes hard to do anything, adding many lobbying groups and donors need to be pleased. 

One speaker said that just because the posters were acceptable free speech didn't mean they were morally right. 

A facilitator said that Avi Noam sent SJP something that said BFI and Hillel were taking the posters down; UCPD was contacted and the appropriate measures were taken. He asserted that UCLA Chancellor Block sent a letter addressing the Rachel Beyda incident, and added that the problem was that Block lumped the posters and Beyda together. 

A new facilitator brought up HR35, which prompted someone to say that the resolution looked at die-ins and other things like the apartheid wall but asserted that any criticism of Israel was hate speech and is wrong. 

A Jewish student moaned that they didn't support Zionism and that people needed to  honor the idea of separation of church and state.

One girl added that someone told her to ISIS. She asserted that movies like American Sniper just show fear, which was the same as the posters.

Another attendee said that people told them to stop supporting Hamas and then simply left.