Oct. 7 victims ask US AG to investigate Students for Justice in Palestine

Several American family members of October 7 victims have asked the US Attorney General Merrick Garland to launch an investigation against the National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) for violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), the Israeli Shurat HaDin Law Center announced Thursday.

“SJP is nothing more than the unregistered student wing of a foreign terrorist organization. They are Hamas’ chaos agents in the United States,” said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, president of the Center, which is assisting the victims.

The letter argues that SJP engages in unregistered political activities on college campuses across the country that are intended to influence US public opinion in support of Hamas, in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

The FARA statute is a 1938 legislation that requires any entity that engages in political activities or other activities in the US specified under the Act to register with the US government and make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with their foreign principal, as well as their activities, receipts, and disbursements in support of those activities.

SJP’s activities include clear support of Hamas agenda, including protests, “apartheid week” events, pushing Boycott, Divest, and Sanction initiatives, staging college encampments, and more. In addition, the families note that one of the most troubling pro-Hamas materials distributed by the SJP was the “Day of Resistance Toolkit,” which was distributed immediately after the Oct. 7 massacre, and provided guidelines on how to organize demonstrations and distribute propaganda supporting Hamas, writing that “We as Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement”.

 “While completely ignoring FARA, these student extremists and agitators have literally hijacked and brought US campuses to the verge of another October 7 and they are planning to continue their illegal activities unrestrained in the coming year,” said Darshan-Leitner.

The Department of Justice has increased its efforts in recent years in cracking down, targeting, and prosecuting unregistered American groups and individuals that it claims are working and disseminating information on behalf of foreign governments and overseas entities in violation of American law.

The letter sent to Garland argues that SJP has violated a multitude of the FARA obligations, including “Failure to Register in the US,” “Failure to file informational materials” – according to which materials such as the “Day of Resistance Toolkit” must have been filed immediately with the Attorney General, “lack of conspicuous statement” – according to which foreign agents must include a conspicuous statement indicating that the materials are distributed on behalf of the foreign principal, and clearly unlawful political propaganda.