By Alex Sorrells / The Jambar
Students for Justice in Palestine has been promoting Palestinian culture and history since late 2023.
The group holds meetings once a month in Williamson Hall, while also hosting bake sales and coffee hours. They encourage people to participate and learn about Palestinian history.
In an interview with a club member, who wished to remain anonymous due to privacy and safety concerns, they said it is important to teach the community about Palestine.
“SJP was created to inform the university community about the Palestinian issue and Palestinian history in all its various aspects,” the member said. “So our group is committed to upholding the human rights and liberation of the Palestinians.”
They said it is important to teach the campus about the culture and that Palestinians have been facing persecution for over 75 years, and it is important to learn about the culture to uphold their heritage.
“Most of the time, we start the semester with a coffee hour or with a board meeting where we talk about SJP. We give a presentation about history, culture and issues. We provide some coffee and sweets, and we just like to communicate with other students to let them know that we are active,” the member said.
The group also brings in guest speakers to talk about their experience with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza and political issues. They also collaborate with other universities in the area.
“We collaborate with [The University of Akron] and [Kent State University] SJP [groups], and we do events together where we get speakers to talk about Palestine, and we hold our dinner, then we allow the organization to collect donations for Gaza,” the member said. “They collected donations to provide waterproof tents for people in Gaza.”
Interested students can send a message to the group’s Instagram account, @sjpysu, or show up to an upcoming meeting to sign up. After signing up, members receive emails regarding upcoming events.
“We like to be welcoming — even if they do not agree with some of our stuff, even if they have different opinions, we always welcome everyone,” the member said. “We love to talk with everyone, even people who disagree with us. We like to … have respectful discussions. So, I think students should join and learn more.”
The club member said it is important to speak up on issues, as some countries don’t have the right to free speech as the U.S. does.
“I would like to add … a little thank you to everyone who supported us, who have always been with us, who always come to our events, and I think people should care about other people,” the member said.