nation / world
Student Campaign at Tufts
Urges Peers to Reject Even
Liberal Pro-Israel Groups
PENNY SCHWARTZ | JTA.ORG
B OSTON — University stu-
dent-led campaigns to boycott
Israel are not an uncommon
sight, but a new student movement at
Tuft s University is taking a form rarely
seen before in similar campus boycott
eff orts.

Tuft s’ Students for Justice in Palestine
chapter this week called for a strategic
boycott against Israel, asking students
to sign the group’s pledge not to buy
Israeli snacks sold on campus (such
as Sabra hummus). But in what some
observers say is a new and troubling
tactic, the group also asks students
to refuse to join campus groups or
programs “that normalize or benefi t”
Israel, including the student groups
Tuft s Friends of Israel, TAMID and
Tuft s J Street, a campus branch of the
liberal Middle East policy group that
advocates for a two-state solution.

Th e campaign also urges students to
not study abroad in Israel or partici-
pate in Birthright Israel; not to take a
university program entitled Visions of
Peace that focuses on dialogue between
Israelis and Palestinians; and not to
enroll in a summer fellowship sup-
ported by the Anti-Defamation League.

SJP went public with “Justice
Th rough BDS,” its latest initiative, on
Monday in an op-ed in a student pub-
lication that it shared on its social
media sites. Th e group supports BDS,
the boycott, divestment and sanctions
movement that targets companies that
do business with Israel.

In its statement, SJP accuses Israel of
violating human rights of Palestinians,
including with demolition of homes
and displacement dating back to 1948,
the year Israel gained statehood. It
describes Zionism as a form of “set-
tler colonialism” and uses the term
“apartheid” to describe its occupation
of Palestinian land.

Th e statement included a justifi cation
for opposing J Street: “While SJP recog-
14 A view of Tufts University’s Medford, Massachusetts campus
nizes that many Jewish people begin their
anti-zionist political journey through J
Street U, and appreciates that J Street U’s
Tuft s chapter agrees that antisemitism
and anti-Zionism are not synonymous, it
is crucial for students to refuse half-mea-
sures that condemn occupation while
normalizing colonization.”
Th e Tuft s SJP did not respond to sev-
eral requests for comment.

“We strongly oppose this renewed
campaign at Tuft s,” Patrick Collins,
executive director of the schools’ media
relations, said in a statement.

Collins expressed disappointment
that SJP chose to ask students to boy-
cott other student groups on campus.

Tuft s rejects the BDS movement, “ele-
ments of which we believe are rooted in
antisemitism,” according to Collins.

“As an educational institution, we
must encourage honest and open debate
about diffi cult issues, including those
in the Middle East. Students for Justice
in Palestine have an important role
to play in these discussions. However,
their most recent campaign is divi-
sive and harmful. It doesn’t help foster
MARCH 24, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
important conversations — rather, it
shuts them down while ostracizing fel-
low students,” Collins wrote.

Th e campaign could point to a larger
shift in strategy for proponents of Israel
boycotts, as a similar sentiment was
recently expressed by the leader of the
San Francisco branch of the Council
on American-Islamic Relations. In
November, Zahra Billoo delivered a
speech urging pro-Palestinian activists
to oppose “polite Zionists,” whom she
defi ned to include Jewish groups like
Hillel, the ADL and “Zionist syna-
gogues.” “Th ey are not your friends,”
Billoo said at the time.

Tuft s, a liberal arts college and
research institution with some 5,800
undergraduates and a large Jewish stu-
dent body, is located just six miles from
downtown Boston. Over the years, its
administration has taken a stand against
academic boycotts and has rejected ear-
lier eff orts by SJP to have the school
divest from Israeli companies.

Tuft s Hillel condemned SJP’s call
for a boycott against Israel and Israel-
related programming on campus.

Courtesy of Tufts University
In a statement on its Facebook page,
Rabbi Naft ali Brawer, the group’s exec-
utive director, and Allison Cohen,
Tuft s Hillel student president, said the
groups targeted by SJP represent a wide
spectrum of views on Israel.

“Unlike SJP, we fi rmly believe that
dialogue is the only route to deeper
understanding between people of
divergent views and a lasting peace
between Israelis and Palestinians,”
they wrote.

Th e latest SJP campaign goes well
beyond the conventional norms of
boycotts, according to Robert Trestan,
regional director of the New England
Anti-Defamation League.

Asking students to sign a pledge
refusing to associate with a range of
groups elevates Trestan’s concerns, he
wrote in a letter to Tuft s University
president Anthony Monaco that
Trestan provided to JTA.

“Th is list ... eff ectively creates a lit-
mus test that could be used to restrict
Jewish students from full participation
in the many facets of student life,” he
wrote. JE