What is SJP
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is a national organization with chapters across many different universities in the United States. It was founded on the idea of promoting liberation, justice, human rights, and self-determination for the Palestinian people on college campuses. SJP values exist to resist all forms of racism, discrimination, and violence. At UMass Lowell, we believe that the pursuits for freedom, justice, and equality for Palestine, are all interconnected in solidarity with other struggling communities around the world.
Events After October 7th
Following the Hamas retaliation on October 7, UMass Lowell’s College of Sciences made a social media post on Instagram voicing their solidarity with the Zionist state. This was quickly taken down by the administration and replaced with a neutral statement condemning the attack in a shallow attempt to remain impartial by refusing to acknowledge the 75 years of Palestinian suffering. This sparked UMass Lowell Students for Justice in Palestine (UML SJP) to take more action on campus. UML SJP and community volunteers quickly began tabling on campus to spread awareness of Palestinian history and reframe the narrative of Palestinian resistance and the corruption of Zionism. Tabling was a momentous success, as students began educating themselves on the occupation and began questioning their preconceived notions about Zionism and the plight of Palestinians. Tabling led to students and faculty changing their perspectives and taking steps into understanding the Palestinian’s fight for liberation.
Days of Giving
Another considerable success for UML SJP occurred during UMass Lowell’s Days of Giving last semester. Days of Giving is a yearly program the school promotes where clubs, organizations, and departments collect donations to raise money for their individual causes. The Chancellor of the university made a deal to award whichever student organization raises the greatest number of donors; they would receive an extra $5,000 for club funds for the 2024-25 school year. UML SJP collaborated hard with the community to raise donors so that SJP could win the $5,000 award from the school. SJP prioritized donors over donations because we knew that receiving the most donors would result in publicity and more than enough money to host events and purchase supplies for the upcoming school year. The money was planned to host fundraising proceedings for Palestinian mutual aid and relief, host speakers, and other educational events on campus. Not only did UML SJP win Days of Giving, but out of every club at UMass Lowell, we had the greatest number of donors from our community raising way more than what was expected. Despite the chancellor extending the deadline, donating to other clubs, and promoting other clubs on UMass Lowell’s social media (forgetting about UML SJP), we persisted and won.
BDS on Campus
The Boycott Divest and Sanctions movement (BDS) has been spreading across universities in the US since even before October 7th. BDS is a global movement that is meant to pressure companies to break ties with Zionist entities that directly support the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. At UMass Lowell SJP has spread awareness to the students on campus which companies to boycott, what partnerships the school need to divest from, and ways to join the movement. The first way BDS was implemented on campus was by spreading different consumer boycott targets that everyone can participate in. Educating students and faculty that, who they give their money to speaks more volume than just being against the apartheid system.
Divestment is currently being implemented at UMass Lowell with many clubs willing to stand by it. The goal for divestment is to get the university to impose academic boycotts and break ties with any program that is linked to the Zionist’s illegal occupation and war crimes. This is the biggest way for the students to enforce changes to the university policies that support genocide and apartheid. Some ties include research with Shenkar College funded by the ‘Israeli’ Ministry of Defense, a study abroad program that indoctrinates UMass students to a bias and false perspective of Islam, and other research programs currently going on that are actively supporting genocide.
Future Plans
SJP plans to be more involved with the community this upcoming semester. First, we plan to host many educational events educating members of the community on many different topics specific to Palestine and the shared struggle. Some potential ideas SJP plans to pursue in the future includes BDS info session, poetry reading, raising money for mutual aid, axis of resistance talk, Palestine and Zionism debate, and more cultural/educational events that are TBD. We plan to not only to have more discussions about Palestine on campus, but to bring the community together to implement changes to the university that will inevitably make the campus a safer and more inclusive place for all students and faculty that endure any forms of the racist ideology of Zionism. We will make it clear that Zionism and racism is not welcome at UMass Lowell.
UMass Lowell SJP
