Anti-Israel Students at UC-Santa Barbara Endorse ‘Armed Resistance,’ Share Images With Pistol, AK-47
by Algemeiner Staff
The anti-Zionist group Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) published a series of images on Monday that appeared to condone violent attacks.
The Facebook post included a photo of a Palestinian woman holding a pistol, as well as a cartoon — drawn in an outline of Israel and the Palestinian territories — depicting a woman with an AK-47 assault rifle.
Another photo featured Leila Khaled, who helped hijack two planes in Europe on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, armed with both a knife and gun. The Marxist-Leninist group is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the United States.
“Solidarity is the weapon and armed resistance is the catalyst,” SJP captioned the post. “Support all mujeres taking arms against imperialism.”
In response to criticism, a moderator of the page appeared to defend “the justified methods of those Palestinians seeking liberation from fascist Israeli occupation & apartheid.”
SJP said in a comment published below the post that it did “not condone bigotry against any group of people no matter their race, ethnicity, religion, class position, and/or gender & sexual orientation, etc.”
The original post was shared by SJP at the University of California, Santa Cruz, as well as a number of Facebook users who expressed concern about its content.
A spokesperson for UCSB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.