SJP at Univ of Maryland Wants to Commemorate October 7

University of Maryland, College Park

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Palestine Legal, acting on behalf of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at the University of Maryland, College Park, has asked a federal judge to overrule the university's decision to cancel an SJP-sponsored "vigil" on October 7. The court hearing was held yesterday, and a decision is expected sometime today. Here is a report from the Maryland Reporter.

Here is how the campus newspaper, The Diamondback, is reporting the issue. According to their wording, the vigil on October 7 would be to honor Palestinians killed in Gaza since October 7. In the Maryland Reporter article, the wording says that the purpose of the vigil is to "commemorate the lives lost in the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the past year". I seriously doubt that SJP would pay any homage to the Israeli victims of October 7.

Any vigil held on October 7 should be to honor the innocent Israelis who were massacred or taken hostage on that dark day last year. Choosing this date to honor Palestinians who have died in the resultant fighting between Israel and Hamas would be obscene. It would be a celebration of October 7 and an act of pouring salt into the wounds of Jewish students.

We await the court's decision.

*Update: Just minutes ago, the judge ruled in favor of SJP.