Photo credit to The Diamondback.
On July 31st the University of Maryland Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) group reserved the entire McKeldin Mall for an invitation only event for 25-50 people on October 7th, from 7 am to 11pm.
The university approved this request which granted SJP exclusive use of the mall on October 7th. By doing so, the university blocked all other groups from using the mall on October 7th to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the largest murder of Jews since the Holocaust.
The nine-acre McKeldin Mall can accommodate thousands of students, yet SJP stated their event would include only 25-50 persons. Clearly their event did not require use of the entire mall. The university could have approved use of only part of the mall, to allow other groups access to the mall on October 7th, but chose not to.
While UMD SJP has stated they “reject any form of hatred and discrimination against any religious or ethnic group” , they have been publishing social media posts which attack Jewish and Israeli students. These include “ Zionists on this campus celebrate the death and destruction of Palestinian life”, the Jewish observance of October 7th is a “genocidal celebratory event”, anyone who opposes their Oct 7th event is racist and Islamophobic, and the false claim that “over 186,000 Palestinians have been murdered”.
Apparently, the university is fine with SJP targeting Jews and Israelis, even though this might violate Title VI. The VP of Student Affairs stated in an affidavit “communications received by the university demanded that SJP be shut down completely despite the lack of any legitimate basis for doing so”.
Now that the university has rescheduled SJP’s event for October 8th because of threats of violence, UMD SJP is suing the university for violating their free speech right to hold an event on October 7th which would have blocked other groups from using the mall on that day.
