Anti-Israel Group at Mt. Holyoke College Advocates Violence, Expelling All Jews From Israel

By Matis Glenn

An anti-Israel group at a women’s Massachusetts college has called itself “militant” and advocates for violence to achieve an exclusively Arab state in what is now Israel.

The group, 1837SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) is an unofficial student club at Mount Holyoke College and has posted inciteful messages on its social media pages, according to a report in the Daily Wire, citing social media posts that have since been made private.

Among the posts was an affirmation of an altered, expanded version of the 1977 “Thawabit” principles, adopted by the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

The group, which also referred to itself as “militant for good,” in January, posted an image last week of five – as opposed to four in the PLO’s laws – beliefs that it adheres to, which add ethnically cleansing the entire land of all Jews, belief that armed struggle is “the only way to liberate Palestine,” and a conspiracy theory that “the Zionist entity is a constant source of threat for peace in the Middle East and the whole world.”

The PLO, which represented the vast majority of Palestinians at the time, engaged in many acts of murderous terrorism, but did not explicitly rule out a future recognition of Israel.

In late December, the 1837SJP group posted an image of a man masked in a keffiyeh, a Palestinian scarf, with the words “May Israel fall Inshalla-h.”

The national Students for Justice in Palestine movement – a large body of university organizations which itself has made numerous statements made in support of the Hamas terror group and the Oct. 7 massacre, but has not made public statements openly calling for violence – did not return a request made by a reader who asked if the 1837SJP organization is a part of the group.

Antisemitic incidents at the college have spiked since Oct. 7, including a discovery by an alumnus of a poster of a Star of David being thrown in the trash, and a chalkboard with the words  “Zionists are not welcome here” and “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free” etched onto it.

The university says that it launched an investigation into the incident, and its president, Danielle R. Holley, issued a statement condemning antisemitism and Islamophobia.

“When made aware, the College responded immediately, and the chalking that violated College policy was removed,” Holley said in a statement. “Public Safety and Service began an investigation right away,” Holley added. “With investigations of this sort, we are constrained in what and when we can communicate.” Holley added that the missing posters were not found; other posters were removed from campus which violated the school’s guidelines.

“Last week, we removed posters from campus locations that violated the posting policy….Today, we observed and removed outdoor chalking, the manner of which violated our guidelines,” she said.

But the college’s antisemitism issues do not end with students.

Mount Holyoke’s Jewish Chaplain, Amelia Ender, proudly wore a keffiyeh, a scarf associated with Palestinian violence, in the cover photo of her biography on the college’s website. She is also the Program Coordinator for Community and Belonging.

In addition, the 1837SJP group posted in November that Mount Holyoke College had agreed to host a College-organized “vigil for the martyrs,” after the group held such an event on its own weeks before.

When asked by Hamodia about what the college will do in response to the club, what the consequences would be for students who make inciteful statements will be, and what the college is doing to make Jewish students feel safe, Holley’s office responded with the following: “Thank you for writing to the President’s Office. President Holley and her staff appreciate your engagement.”