The Sconi

Ahead of their Day of Resistance rallies across the country, the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) issued a toolkit document that refers to Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Hamas' brutal terrorist attack in Israel that left over 1,200 dead, and it further stated that student activities are part of the movement and not just in solidarity. While the document has led some schools to move to deactivate the group, the SJP currently operates on the campus of UW-Milwaukee and has been regularly holding rallies and walkouts.

SJP's toolkit document frequently refers to Hamas as "the resistance" and frames Israel as "the Zionist enemy" and "a violent settler state." According to National SJP, Operation Al-Aqsa Flood is part of the Palestinian people's "struggle for complete liberation and return." The toolkit proclaims that "National liberation is near— glory to our resistance, to our martyrs, and to our steadfast people," and emphasizes that "we as Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement."

According to the American Jewish Coalition, the death toll from Hamas' Operation Al-Aqsa Flood currently stands at 1,210, and of the 240 taken hostage, about 137 are believed to remain in Gaza. The report also notes that hostages have been treated very badly under Hamas captivity and shared an account of two teenage boys who were branded with a motorcycle exhaust pipe so that they could be identified if they escaped.

On Oct. 8, the day after Hamas' attacks, Jamilah Arabiyat, president of the SJP chapter at UW-Milwaukee, stated, “This isn’t something that happened overnight. When people are under occupation and pressure and violence, people are going to retaliate." 

According to a report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, during one of their rallies, activists from UW-Milwaukee chanted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and added with it: “By any means necessary.”

A recent survey of college students across the United States found that 86% supported the "From the river to the sea" chant, but only 47% were able to name the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. A Jerusalem Post article noted that two-thirds of the surveyed students went from supporting the chant to rejecting it after being presented with a handful of "basic facts about the Middle East."

According to the publication Answer, on Oct. 12, the date prescribed by the toolkit document, there was an anti-Israel, pro-Palestine protest in Milwaukee. Sponsors included University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Students for a Democratic Society and UW-Milwaukee and UW-Madison's chapters of SJP.

According to an Instagram post, SJP UWM also cosponsored a "Free Palestine!" rally and march held by the Milwaukee Anti-War Committee and other local left-wing groups like Freedom Road Socialist Organization Wisconsin on Oct. 11. The purpose of the rally was to show solidarity with Palestinians "against Israeli occupation" as well as to shame Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) for supporting Israel.