Students for Justice in Palestine founder, also a UC Berkeley lecturer, denounces attacks against group as 'Islamophobic assault'
Hatem Bazian, a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley and founder of Students for Justice in Palestine, has defended the group for its recent activism.
Bazian teaches about subjects like Arab and Arab American Studies, Colonialism and Post-Colonial Studies, Comparative Liberation Theologies, and Critical Race Theory.
A lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley who is the founder of the anti-Israel group, Students for Justice in Palestine, has previously referred to backlash against the organization as “Islamophobic assault.”
A continuing lecturer in the Department of Ethnic Studies, Hatem Bazian teaches about subjects like Arab and Arab American Studies, Colonialism and Post-Colonial Studies, Comparative Liberation Theologies, Critical Race Theory, Muslim American Studies, and Palestine Studies. He is also an assistant professor at Zaytuna College in Berkeley.
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Bazian helped found Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) in 1993 and has continued to defend the group against criticism.
“Since the events of October 7th and Israel’s war on Gaza, Students for Justice in Palestine has faced a steady stream of articles, negative media coverage, and constant political attacks directed at the group and their successful campus activism for Palestine,” he wrote in a Medium piece in November.
Specifically calling out Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for ordering state schools to remove SJP chapters on the basis of terrorist affiliations, Bazian wrote that, “The ongoing Israeli national and international Islamophobic assault on SJP is precisely because of its success in forging a multi-ethnic, multi-faith, and intersectional coalition across college campuses.”
“Sinisterly, the Israeli Government, pro-Israel advocates in the US (ADL, AJC, ZOA, AIPAC, Stand With US, and others), and media talking heads have utilized a combination of Islamophobic tropes and outright fabrication to demand the shutdown of the organization across the country,” Bazian continued. “Israel’s malicious, bullying and McCarthyism-style strategy centers on demonizing SJP, JVP, AMP, and others because, to be frank about it, they no longer can defend the records of Zionism, Apartheid Israel, settler daily violence, Netanyahu, and his cast of religious extremists.”
Over the past year, Campus Reform has reported the reasons for SJP’s “negative media coverage,” which include week-long encampments on college and university property, disruption of school buildings and events, such as graduation, and calls for what many consider to be violence.
For example, one SJP chapter at the University of North Carolina stated, “We condone all forms of principled action, including armed rebellion, necessary to stop Israel’s genocide and apartheid, and to dismantle imperialism and capitalism more broadly.”
The national SJP organization released a statement this month saying that divestment from Israel “necessitates nothing short of the total collapse of the university structure and the American empire itself.”
When Columbia University shut down its SJP chapter last year, Bazian defended the group. “Shutting down SJP and JVP at Columbia University is evidence of the power and impact of student organizing and mobilization against Apartheid Israel and genocide in Gaza,” he posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Nov. 10. “Keep organizing, & making a difference!”
Shutting down SJP and JVP at Columbia University is evidence of the power and impact of student organizing and mobilization against Apartheid Israel and genocide in Gaza. Keep organizing, & making a difference!
— Dr. Hatem Bazian (@HatemBazian) November 11, 2023
Bazian himself has a history of using language similar to that used by SJP groups. For example, Bazian tweeted in 2018 that “The ‘Jewish nation’ is the central myth of Zionism. It needs to be dismantled.”
The ‘Jewish nation’ is the central myth of Zionism. It needs to be dismantled. https://t.co/1Iy6EWY4MY
— Dr. Hatem Bazian (@HatemBazian) April 19, 2018
One of Bazian’s classroom subjects is “Critical Race Theory,” according to his UC Berkeley biography. In one Medium article, called “Decolonize Education,” Bazian asked, “When will the University be ready to reckon with the racism, neoliberalism, and eurocentrism that reproduces the society that we all are experiencing?”
Bazian continued to state that the current university model upholds structural inequality and racism.
“The University, as an institution, is at the forefront of reproducing the societal structures, political, social, cultural, and economic, to name the obvious, and embedded in all are the racial markers and signifiers that make racism so difficult to undo and challenge,” he wrote. “Examine what is taught as the Canon, and you will find missing or totally erased the history and contributions of Blacks, both in the ‘New World’ but more critically pre-enslavement in Africa.”
In another article on his website, Bazian said that the “unvarnished truth” is that America is “paradigmatically racist and intensely toward the ‘black’ subject.”
Campus Reform has contacted Hatem Bazian for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
