On Tuesday afternoon a bright-red graphic popped up on a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student group’s Instagram page. The post, by the campus’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, advertised a “Day of Resistance” protest on Thursday. Behind bold, capital lettering, a group of cartoon protesters held up peace signs and posters. A silhouette of a paraglider flew above.
Within hours, the image went viral.
“The @UNC branch of Students for Justice in Palestine is deploying THE IMAGE OF THE #PARAGLIDERS #HAMAS USED TO ATTACK & MURDER INNOCENT #ISRAELI #CONCERTGOERS in its advertisement for a Thursday campus demonstration,” Eric Muller, a law professor at the university, posted on X. “Let that sink in.”
Similar images appeared on several other organizations’ pages throughout the day next to statements reflecting the same sentiment — that deadly attacks by the Hamas militant group in Israel over the weekend had been justified and a direct result of the Israeli government’s oppression of people in occupied Palestinian territory. Those statements have been met with fierce criticism on social media calling on colleges to denounce the groups.
The language appears to have come directly from Students for Justice in Palestine as it organizes a “Day of Resistance” on Thursday. The group, a student-activist organization that operates in the United States and Canada, has chapters on hundreds of campuses and is a leading campus organizer of the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions movement against Israel.
A day after Hamas’s initial attack on Israel, the organization, known as SJP, posted the red graphic on its Instagram page, encouraging its campus chapters and other affiliated groups to mobilize for a “national day of action.” The post led students to a form where they could fill out information about their campus events and to a “Day of Resistance toolkit,” which laid out possible event formats, messaging, and suggestions for how chapters could support the cause. The bottom of the document also featured a link to two different posts, including one with a red background and cartoon paraglider, that students could use for their events. (Some videos of the Hamas attack have shown militants traveling in paragliders.)
“Today, we witness a historic win for the Palestinian resistance: Across land, air, and sea, our people have broken down the artificial barriers of the Zionist entity, taking with it the facade of an impenetrable settler colony and reminding each of us that total return and liberation to Palestine is near,” the introduction to the document reads. “As the Palestinian student movement, we have an unshakable responsibility to join the call for mass mobilization.”
‘A Hostile Environment’
The toolkit, a five-page Google document that is linked in the organization’s Instagram bio, encourages students to host demonstrations throughout Thursday. Groups on at least 20 campuses have planned events such as vigils, teach-ins, and rallies, all advertised with SJP-provided graphics.
The chapter at Ohio State University on Tuesday posted the red graphic without the paraglider cartoon, encouraging protesters to meet at the Ohio Statehouse at 5 p.m. on Thursday. The group teamed up with the university’s Palestinian Women’s Association for the event, and its post is populated with a variety of other organizations labeled as “endorsers.”
At the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the chapter also used the national organization’s branding to advertise a protest in the student union. It encouraged protesters to arrive with flags, posters, and kaffiyehs, a traditional headdress worn by men in the Middle East.
The toolkit and messaging have fueled anxiety leading up to Thursday’s events. The Anti-Defamation League on Monday issued a warning about the SJP’s calls for “confronting and ‘dismantling’ Zionism on U.S. college campuses.”
Though the toolkit’s suggested demonstrations are nonviolent, the league’s statement says that “they raise the real possibility of creating a hostile environment for Jewish students.” It also lists several college chapters of the SJP that have released statements or planned protests.
Aside from planning Thursday’s events, the toolkit also encourages chapters to work with other organizations on campus and release a statement to “show a cohesive and united movement.” It then provides a bulleted list of messaging points for chapters to follow that it says “contextualizes” the SJP’s movement.
Chapters at numerous colleges have heeded those words as well, posting statements and infographics on their social-media profiles that advertise many of the same points listed in the toolkit.
In response to the growing backlash against the organization, the national SJP posted another infographic, this time providing guidance on how its chapters can protect themselves from doxxing attacks. The graphic encourages students to remove their names from club lists, to drop any photos of members from social-media sites, and to avoid using “easy to infiltrate” platforms like Google Drive or GroupMe.
A Harvard University student group echoed much of the SJP’s messaging. The document, which was initially written by the campus chapter of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee and was signed by more than 30 other student organizations, drew heated pushback, including from Lawrence H. Summers, the former Harvard president and U.S. treasury secretary.
Following the controversy, several of the signers removed their names from the document, The Harvard Crimson reported, and the campus organization dropped the list of cosigning groups. “For student safety,” the document now says, “the names of all original signing organizations have been concealed at this time.”
