On September 12th, 2023, an 18-year-old San Jose State University freshman had a verbal exchange with a group of Zionists who were tabling on campus. He rightfully expressed criticism of the state of Israel and their campaign of murder against the Palestinian people. He spoke respectfully and truthfully in defense of victims of genocide, and asked the people tabling a simple question, “Are you aware that you are supporting a country that kills people?” In response to this, the girl told him that she does not care about those lives lost. He said nothing about Jewish people or Judaism. An hour later, he was arrested and jailed for battery and a hate crime for allegedly tossing an empty Capri Sun towards the Zionists (He tossed it in their general direction as he was removing himself from the situation). Nobody was injured from this empty juice container, nor was it thrown with any intent to hurt someone. SJSU has suspended him without giving him the chance to share his account of what occurred. SJSU Vice President of Student Affairs Patrick Day, and Chief Diversity Officer Dawn Lee also sent out an email to the entire student body on September 29th, misrepresenting what occurred as an anti-Semitic hate crime and making him even more of a target. They sent this email to the whole school before he even got the chance to tell his side, or attempt to defend himself. There is a difference between Anti-Semitism, and Anti-Zionism. This student was not anti-semetic, and to frame him as so is simply unjust defamation from our school leaders.

Speaking out against the genocide of the Palestinian people is the right thing for all of us to do. SJSU has stood idly by while its students who stand with Palestine (particularly its Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab students) live in fear of doxxing, retaliation, hate crimes, and political repression. Much of this pressure on the school comes from Zionist faculty members, who try to push the school to further their support of the state of Israel. Such faculty members hold influence in shaping the minds of our youth, and their opinions do unfortunately have a great impact on both the student body, and the school itself. When a professor speaks to news reporters about how “Yes people have freedom of speech, but I think they should be aware that when they embrace terrorists, people are going to be terrified. It’s a natural reaction,” (Jonathan Roth) this is going to have an influence on people. This professor’s racist speech was targeted at the students who exercised their right to peacefully protest in support of Palestine.  In associating those who support Palestine with terrorism, this spreads fear amongst the student body. And it also increases the chance that some uneducated people may retaliate, or commit various hate crimes against anyone against the genocide of Palestinians out of such fear. These acts of repression and hatred against pro-Palestine students are on the rise nationwide. Florida has banned chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine. Several powerful CEOs have tried to blacklist Harvard students for their statement in solidarity with Palestine. In our own Bay Area community, a Syrian student at Stanford was hit by a car in a hate crime for wearing a shirt with Arabic writing on it.

We demand that all charges be dropped against this Palestinian student and that his record be expunged. We demand an immediate reversal of his suspension. We demand that SJSU officially retracts its biased emails and issues an apology to him.

We must stand in solidarity with this student against this blatant targeting of pro-Palestine students. They will not intimidate us into staying silent!

*money donated goes to change.org, not to the SJSU student or anyone affiliated*