SJP at UNC calls for termination of Hillel group on campus, compares it to KKK
The UNC SJP called for an end to Hillel, which is ‘the world's largest and most inclusive Jewish campus organization.’
The SJP said that Zionism is a ‘racist supremacist ideology’ and stated that Hillel, which it compared to the KKK, ‘should not be welcome on campus.’
Anti-Israel activists at the University of North Carolina (UNC) called for the end of a popular Jewish organization at the school.
The UNC chapter of the anti-Israel group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) held a rally on Oct. 9 listing its demands, which included cutting off ties between UNC and Israel, and “No more Hillel,” according to The Daily Tar Heel.
Hillel is a more-than-century-old Jewish organization that calls itself “the world’s largest and most inclusive Jewish campus organization.” The group provides Jewish students with an opportunity to explore their heritage and build a community on their campus. UNC’s Hillel chapter claims it “empowers and inspires students to pursue their own Jewish journeys by creating strong communities and transformative experiences.”
UNC’s SJP told The Daily Tar Heel that Hillel is “a fundamentally Zionist network masquerading as a Jewish campus organization.” The anti-Israel group sees the dismantlement of Hillel on campus as a core demand.
The term “Zionism” refers to the “movement for the self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland, the land of Israel,” as defined by the Anti-Defamation League (ADF).
The UNC SJP, however, calls Zionism a “racist supremacist ideology” and compared Hillel to the Ku Klux Klan, saying that the group “should not be welcome on campus.”
The American Jewish Committee states that anti-Zionism, which is the “belief that the Jews, alone among the people of the world, do not have a right to self-determination — or that the Jewish people’s religious and historical connection to Israel is invalid,” is “inherently bigoted” and anti-Semitic.
Heels for Israel, a pro-Israel group at UNC, told The Daily Tar Heel that Hillel is a “safe haven for Jewish students” and that the SJP’s rhetoric “creates an environment where Jewish students are fearful of being targeted for events in the Middle East.”
[RELATED: Temple University suspends SJP following disruptive anti-Israel protests at career fair]
Hannah Spinrad, executive director of N.C. Hillel, also condemned the SJP, telling The Daily Tar Heel that the anti-Israel activists’ conflation of Hillel and the KKK is anti-Semitic.
Several Republican senators published a letter on Oct. 8 that called on the Department of Justice and FBI to investigate the SJP for potential connections with the terror group, Hamas.
Campus Reform has reached out to the University of North Carolina, UNC Students for Justice in Palestine, Hillel, N.C. Hillel, and Heels for Israel for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
