Firefighters work to put out a fire in an open field, following a mass-infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, near a hospital in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: Reuters/Amir Cohen

Several nonprofit organizations are imploring higher education officials to “exercise moral leadership,” unambiguously condemn Hamas’s terrorist campaign in Israel and honor their legal obligation to protect the civil rights of Jewish students, urging them as well to use Thursday’s national “Day of Resistance” called for by the national Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organization as the springboard.

“SJP chapters on campuses across the country are sharing marketing materials for this campaign which shamefully depicts a cartoon drawing of a Hamas terrorist paragliding into Israel — an image that celebrates the murder of more than 260 young people at a desert rave,” AEN, which promotes academic freedom in higher education, wrote in an open letter. “This hateful speech and activities on our campuses cannot be ignored.”

AEN added, “At a time like this we urge university leaders to provide moral leadership for their campuses.”

The Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), a nonprofit that promotes education about Israel, released its own missive, signed by 59 lawmakers, as well. It noted that SJP has issued a “Day of Resistance toolkit” that includes counsel on how to describe Israel’s existence as “settler colonialism” and “imperialism” and contains images celebrating the Hamas terrorists who paraglided into a music festival and murdered 260 young people attending a peace event.

The group said, “These actions and statements cannot be ignored and must condemned — by all members of the university community.”

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law joined the chorus of groups calling on universities to oppose Hamas and antisemitism. Their letter — signed by the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, Combat Antisemitism Movement, Jewish on Campus, and others — entreated universities to abide by the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) guidance on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act which mandates that universities preempt or disrupt behavior that “is subjectively and objectively offensive” and prevents students benefiting from educational programming and activity. The Brandeis Center argued that “Day of Resistance” meets the standard set by OCR.

“Events that celebrate Hamas’s cold-blooded murder of Jews are ‘subjectively and objectively offensive,” the letter said. “Given the likelihood of harassment during these events, you may not simply look aside. You must take action now, including ‘prompt and effective steps reasonably calculated to end’ any hostile environment that may form on your campus.”

The Brandeis Center made five recommendations of action colleges can take right now, including condemning Hamas, ensuring that no events cheering their terrorism are affiliated with the university, protecting spaces used by Jewish and Israeli students, and denouncing any antisemitic remarks that are uttered during pro-Hamas events.

The National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organization issued its call for a “Day of Resistance” on college campuses across earlier this week and distributed propaganda aimed at re-framing the conversation surrounding Hamas’ crimes against humanity.

The group’s “Day of Resistance toolkit” contains a document, titled “What Is Zionism: A Short Introduction on the Colonization of Palestine,” which equates the migration of Jews to their ancestral homeland after World War II to the Nazi’s invasion of Poland in 1939.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.