Students should stop supporting Rice SJP

By Colin Hill     10/8/24 10:36pm

Editor’s Note: This is a guest opinion that has been submitted by a member of the Rice community. The views expressed in this opinion are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of the Thresher or its editorial board. All guest opinions are fact-checked to the best of our ability and edited for clarity and conciseness by Thresher editors. 

To foster a truly inclusive campus culture, we must consider the paradox of tolerance: a society must be intolerant of intolerance to uphold its foundational values. Rice SJP not only silences opposing voices, but promotes exclusionary rhetoric that undermines principles of inclusion and pluralism.

SJP amplifies ideas from Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, using a palatable language of anti-racism and social justice that resonates with many in the West. This contributes to a litmus test for Jewish students on our campus: simply believing in the existence of Israel (the only Jewish state and the only country in the Middle East and North Africa region designated as free) can exclude one from campus life. 

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While SJP hushes the religious and ideological intentions of Hamas, Hamas broadcasts their jihadist agenda. Hamas’s founding 1988 charter calls for the annihilation of Israel and violence against Jews through jihad (Islamic holy war).

Although Hamas released a new PR-friendly charter in 2017 that replaced “Jew” for “Zionist” — mirroring themes of “liberation” and “colonialism” found throughout SJP posts — Hamas has not repudiated their original charter, and Hamas officials have since called on Palestinians to attack Jews worldwide.

This radical anti-Jew, anti-Israel, and self-sacrificial ideology pervades Palestinian education and media, as seen through a Gazan kindergarten graduation ceremony, Hamas Mickey Mouse show and 40 more minutes of Palestinian youth TV. According to a NATO-recognized international military organization’s 2019 report, “Hamas exploited Israel’s casualty sensitivity by using human shields, including by encouraging residents to defy IDF warning messages and widely publicising incidents of civilian casualties in order to gain international support.”

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas manifested their ideology in a horrific reality, live-streaming their brutal slaughter of 1,200 people in Israel with chilling pride. Reports of systemic rape underscore the sheer savagery of the day.

The day following these attacks, Rice SJP called for a rally honoring “martyrs” and seemed to suggest a celebration of "victory" with positive sentiment in a since-deleted Instagram post. SJP’s use of the word “resistance” in the wake of the atrocities on Oct. 7 is not just a moral failure, but reveals hateful and troubling undertones. 

To SJP: do you consider the Israeli students, faculty and staff on our campus, who may love their home country, even while dealing with conflicted feelings about its actions, to be “garbage people”? Would this be an acceptable statement if it referred to the people of any other country?

Their ability to cheer in support of terrorism and chant “from the river to the sea” – which calls for the annihilation of Israel and ends with the phrase ‘Palestine will be Arab’ in Arabic – highlights the power of protected speech, a cornerstone of liberal values. This protection does not negate the harmful impact of such rhetoric, however, which can leave Jews and Israelis on campus feeling isolated and targeted.

In stark contrast, the moment SJP faces opposing viewpoints, their commitment to free speech vanishes. Rice SJP has called for the cancellation of events like “Israel at 75” and the “Global Conference for Israel,” revealing a troubling double standard undermining free expression.

SJP’s intolerance is a microcosm of the underlying ideological conflict at play – if you cherish values like inclusivity, individual freedom, rational thought, scientific progress or the rule of law, stop doing the bidding of terrorist groups that want none of those. We must also resist illiberalism on our campus; calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions by SJP and SA threaten academic freedom by promoting an academic boycott (p.13). In a move seemingly out of the MAGA playbook, SJP undermines the political neutrality of our institution by demanding Rice adopt an oversimplified, propaganda-filled narrative. 

Additionally, SJP has twice reposted accounts featuring the upside-down red triangle on X (formerly Twitter), a symbol Meta has banned due to its association with support for Hamas. They blatantly lied about the al-Shifa hospital attacks “clear[ly]” violating rules of war, which the New York Times previously confirmed were linked to Hamas’s operations and can be considered legitimate military targets. This is not just a matter of inaccuracies; It’s a deliberate manipulation of reality designed to garner support for terrorism.

It may feel difficult to reckon with the privilege many of us feel at a top college in a rich country. However, we must not lose sight of the liberal values that have allowed our society to thrive. SJP’s actions, which include silencing differing views while also promoting exclusionary rhetoric and false narratives, oppose the values we should stand for. 

In the Middle East, intent and ideas are critical; at home, we cannot allow our values to be weaponized against us. We have a responsibility to uphold these principles: Rice students should stop attending SJP events, sharing their social media posts, and amplifying their messages, while other campus organizations should stop partnering with SJP.

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