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Students for Justice in Palestine Violates UNC Policies and Threatens Students; Why Won’t the Administration Act?
In early 2024, I reported how the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-SJP) recently incited violence, concealed their identities during protests, disrupted campus administration, and created a hostile campus environment for students and faculty.
Now UNC-SJP is brazenly publicizing its intent to disrupt an upcoming campus event.
In less than a week, on Jan. 22, UNC’s Program for Public Discourse is hosting the event, “Frank Bruni and Bari Weiss in Conversation” at 7:00pm. Yesterday, on Jan. 16, UNC-SJP made a social media post encouraging activists to show up at the event at 6:15pm and purposely walkout at 7:20pm.
It also posted a sign-up for this walkout saying, “Bari Weiss hates objectivity like someone hit her with it.” UNC-SJP expresses concern that Weiss speaks out against left-wing antisemitism.
The SJP sign-up asks users to “commit to being at the auditorium in the FPG Student Union at 6:15pm, and staying until the walkout.” By planning to walkout 20 minutes into the event, UNC-SJP is asking students and activists to disrupt this campus event.
UNC-SJP has told its members that masking at events is recommended and required. Yet North Carolina statute 14-12.8 forbids individuals in North Carolina from wearing masks or other coverings to “conceal the identity of the wearer.”
This is one of the reasons that Jewish students on campus report feeling unsafe.
On Oct. 12, UNC-SJP held a “Day of Resistance Protest for Palestine” on campus. The event flier celebrated terrorism by featuring a Hamas paraglider en route to kill Israelis and commit other atrocities. In a widely circulated video, a protester bellowed, “All of us Hamas.”
I interviewed two Jewish students who were silently counter-protesting. They told me they were approached by activists who allegedly brandished knives. One of these students recently told me he is looking to transfer out of UNC.
Fifty UNC students — the majority of whom are Jewish — wrote to a US senator: “Jewish students at UNC do not feel safe.” They reported that on Oct. 12, UNC-SJP members allegedly “threatened several peaceful protesters with violence, and some brandished pocket knives and threatened our members.”
Following the rally, a member of UNC’s Board of Trustees, W. M. “Marty” Kotis III, notified campus leaders and officials that the SJP protest “seems to violate NC Statute 14-12.8 as well as University policy.”
UNC-SJP operates by disrupting campus life.
On social media, it boasted: “On Friday, November 17, a group of about 40 members of SJP and allied organizations occupied South Building for a total of 3 hours, shutting down administrative operations for the day.” A video from this shutdown shows masked activists chanting, “Intifada Intifada, long live the Intifada.” Students and community members described this as menacing.
I attended a Nov. 28 event hosted at UNC in which a guest speaker, Rania Masri, said, “Oct. 7 for many of us from the region was a beautiful day.” There were SJP activists in attendance. As this picture shows, people were sitting closely together inside, and not one person appeared to be masked. Yet, when protesting outside, we have seen that most SJP activists and their allies wear masks. It seems clear that masking is about concealing the identities of protestors and not about health or safety.
The campus police and other agencies take these security matters very seriously, and are on high alert to prevent violence at these campus protests. But how can UNC protect guest speakers, students, faculty, and community members when activists are allowed to disrupt the campus while concealing their identities? Will UNC ever hold its Students for Justice in Palestine chapter accountable?
Peter Reitzes writes about issues related to antisemitism and Israel.
The post Students for Justice in Palestine Violates UNC Policies and Threatens Students; Why Won’t the Administration Act? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.