Brown suspends anti-Israel student group for vandalism, ‘foul language’ during protest

Students for Justice in Palestine vow to fight hard for dispossession despite ongoing external investigation

Brown University has suspended an anti-Israel student group, citing harassment and intimidation during a protest, while administrators conduct an external investigation.

“Given the seriousness of the alleged threats, intimidation and aggressive actions during the event on campus, Brown University has initiated an investigation into the event and has requested that the Brown chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine cease all organizational activities pending a full investigation,” said university spokesman Brian Clark. The Brown Daily Herald.

He also said the school’s decision last week “was based on the seriousness of the alleged conduct and did not address whether the organization violated policy.”

The student group pushed back and accused the school of a “politically motivated ploy.”

Brown politicians provides that a suspended group loses official campus recognition.

Students for Justice in Palestine led a protest on October 18 against “Brown Corporation’s recent decision not to divest from 10 companies associated with the Israeli military.” Herald reported

After the protest, Executive Vice President for Planning and Policy Russell Carey sent an email to the school, calling the students’ behavior “deeply disturbing” and “totally unacceptable.”

The school said the students were “slamming cars,” “shouting profanity at people at close and personal distance” and yelling “a racial epithet directed at a person of color,” according to the report. NBC News.

The Brown Divest Coalition, a divestment activist group including Students for Justice in Palestine, called the decision “outrageous.” Instagram post Sunday.

“By undermining the premier Palestinian liberation organization on this campus, the administration has made clear its commitment to the dehumanization and destruction of Palestinian life,” the students wrote.

“However, we know that the administration’s campaign of bureaucratic violence will not silence or stifle our efforts to hold the institution accountable,” the group wrote.

The students vowed to “press on” as long as the university “maintains its support for the Zionist regime’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinian and Lebanese people.”

They also called the school’s decision a “politically motivated move to slander the protesters, divide the student movement and downplay their complicity in the extermination of the Palestinian people.”

In contrast, Brown’s confidant Joseph Edelman recently resigned in protest of Brown’s decision to hold a vote on Israel’s withdrawal. The College Fix reported earlier.

“I find it morally reprehensible that a vote on disenfranchisement was even considered, much less that it would be held, especially after the biggest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” he wrote in a letter published by The Wall Street Journal.

MORE: Brown University students are on hunger strike to get out of Israel

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