This weekend, UCLA recommended an indefinite ban for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) following their suspension. However, if the university continues to fail to impose consequences on students who violate the rules, the ban will remain nothing more than words on paper. UCLA has issued statements time and time again while refusing to hold accountable the students responsible for repeated violations of campus policy and federal law.
Before being recommended for an indefinite ban, SJP had already faced interim suspension for vandalizing UC Regent Jay Sures’ family home, a penalty that took effect on February 12.
While under suspension, SJP at UCLA has flouted the university’s authority with impunity, violating the terms of their suspension, federal law, and school prohibitions. Their offenses include vandalism, destruction of property, trespassing, refusal to disperse, and violations of Time, Place, and Manner guidelines.
Beyond mere violations of university policy, SJP’s rhetoric and protest materials have unabashedly endorsed terrorist organizations that seek the destruction of the United States. Their demonstrations have featured the Hamas red triangle insignia, lionized images of Yahya Sinwar firing a gun—the mastermind of the October 7 attacks—and slogans from the Second Intifada, a series of mass murders of Israeli civillians. Such rhetoric should alarm any university that claims to uphold principles of academic integrity, campus safety, and the rule of law.
More than that, it is absurd to pretend that students who have paraded posters of an impaled Uncle Sam or whose leaders have openly stated their opposition to the very existence of the United States have any respect for the freedoms and order this country upholds. One cannot demand the protections of a system they seek to dismantle while rejecting its authority whenever it becomes inconvenient.
Take, for example, their actions just two weeks ago. During finals week, SJP occupied a campus building, damaged security cameras, and defaced university property with paint—leaving facility workers to clean up their wreckage. Yet, despite this blatantly illegal conduct, no students were punished. And still, they cry censorship, insisting the university is silencing them—even as they continue staging the very protests they claim are being suppressed.
Yet each time SJP’s actions invite even the mildest response from the university, they cry censorship and claim that their free speech rights are being impinged upon. SJP attempts to have its cake and eat it too: it claims the right to make national news by violating federal law but demands immunity from the consequences inherent in such actions. As such, SJP seeks a voice at the adult table but demands to be treated with the immunity of a group of children.
But civil disobedience, properly understood, is not about immunity from consequence. It is about exposing the injustice of a law by willingly accepting its penalties. If SJP wishes to claim that tradition in the name of their extremism, let them abide by its consequences.
Now, National Students for Justice in Palestine has escalated its defiance, calling for an “Unbreakable Week of Rage” from March 31 to April 4. In a social media statement, they declare: “During this week, we reaffirm that we will continue to challenge university administrations, resist state repression, and counter right-wing attacks while dealing critical blows to the Zionist machine: we assert that the Student Movement is also unbreakable!” By labeling their call to action as “unbreakable,” SJP is not simply rallying supporters, it is openly touting its disregard for rules, consequences, and institutional authority.
If history is any guide, UCLA’s SJP will once again heed the call. In the past, they have unflinchingly followed National SJP’s directives, from previous “Weeks of Rage” to broader calls for mobilization. There is little reason to believe this time will be any different.
If UCLA’s SJP participates in the Week of Rage, UCLA must issue consequences to students participating, including arresting them if they break laws and punishing students who violate the terms of the suspension. UCLA cannot continue to issue empty pronouncements while allowing a rogue student organization to run roughshod over campus order. It must enforce its own rulings, not just on paper, but in practice.
Cover image via Wikimedia Commons
The views expressed in this post reflect the views of the author(s) and not UCLA or ASUCLA Communications Board.
