Screenshot taken from the Cornell SJP’s Instagram.
The Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Cornell University in New York “faces suspension” after interrupting an event at the Ivy League university.
The event in question, “Pathways to Peace,” was a panel discussion that took place on Monday featuring a dialogue between officials including former Israeli Vice Prime Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad.
The panelists discussed “regional politics, power dynamics, and the historic and ethnic conflicts that have shaped the region, as well as potential paths forward for the people of Israel and Palestine.”
Two days before the event, the SJP called on its followers to protest the discussion, dubbing the event “Pathways to GENOCIDE” and urging a “[w]alkout to protest Cornell University’s decision to invite war criminals to our campus.”
The event was disrupted several times by keffiyeh-clad students who chanted anti-Israel slogans and shouted over the speakers, as well as making other disruptions. Police officers eventually had to arrest some of the disruptors.
Following the incident, Cornell University Interim President Michael Kotlikoff released a statement on Tuesday denouncing the “disappointing disruptions.”
He revealed that the school’s chapter of SJP “faces suspension as a registered campus organization” for “advertising and organizing this disruption.”
“The ability of speakers to present opinions and ideas, and to engage in thoughtful dialogue with the university community, is critical to the educational process and fundamental to university life. Individuals attempting to shout down speakers and disrupt dialogue seriously compromise our values. Those who disrupted the Pathways to Peace event were swiftly removed,” he wrote.
[RELATED: Swarthmore College SJP activists hold 11-hour sit-in for anti-Israel divestments]
Kotlikoff stated that campus security identified 17 individuals involved in the incident. He added that nine students “will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards for appropriate action,” and could face suspension from the university.
Cornell faculty and other staff who were part of the protest could also face discipline, and protesters who are not members of the Cornell University community will be banned from campus.
Several other universities, including Tufts and Columbia, have also suspended their chapters of SJP following similar disruptive conduct.
A Cornell University spokesperson directed Campus Reform to Kotlikoff’s statement cited above, and a Cornell Chronicle article on the panel.
This article was originally published at campusreform.org
Author
