Anti-Israel group at U of Oklahoma holds divestment protest one day after 9/11
The SJP called for divestment from companies with financial ties to Israel.
The school was the scene of a bomb scare earlier this year caused by anti-Israel activists.
A student group at the University of Oklahoma (OU) held an anti-Israel sit-in in a school building to demand that the university divest from companies that have ties to Israel.
The protest was planned by the OU chapter of the controversial group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) for the afternoon of Sept. 12.
“No back to school in Gaza!” the SJP posted in a Sept. 6 advertisement for the demonstration. “As the semester starts back up we continue to call on our university to cut all ties with the weapons manufacturers, fossil fuel companies, and intelligence companies that profit off of genocide, occupation, and war.”
[RELATED: UMich student government criticized by pro-Israel org for withholding student funds in divestment demand, calls it a ‘gross abuse of power’]
The National SJP also coordinated a “Day of Action” on Sept. 12, one day after 9/11. In an X post advertising the event, it wrote: “Last school year, the Student Movement for Palestine showed the world what we’re capable of. University repression will not stop us. Draconian speech codes will not stop us. There is only one way out: cut ties with the Zionist entity.”
The OU SJP has organized anti-Israel protests in the past as well. This May, the SJP helped plan a rally in which anti-Israel activists chanted controversial slogans, including “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a chant that many have condemned as calling for the extermination of the Jewish state.
In its guidelines on free expression, OU states that “[t]he right to freedom of speech and assembly is expansive but not unlimited.”
“The University reserves the right to enforce reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions on expressive activity,” the university’s policy states. “All speakers, regardless of point of view, are prohibited from interfering with the campus community’s ability to move safely about campus and to conduct University business.”
[RELATED: Northwestern University reportedly suspends professor, places him under investigation after participation in anti-Israel encampment]
“The University also reserves the right to discipline or request that law enforcement remove any speaker who is unlawfully inciting violence or otherwise violating the law or University policy against any person or group of people,” OU warns.
This February, OU had to evacuate numerous buildings because anti-Israel activists caused a bomb scare.
Campus Reform has contacted the University of Oklahoma for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
