ASU Cancels SJP Event Featuring Rashida Tlaib, Not ‘Properly Registered’

“Organizers of events using ASU facilities must be properly registered with ASU and must meet all university requirements for crowd management, parking, security, and insurance.

“Accordingly, that event will not take place today on the ASU Tempe campus.”

The event was to have been sponsored by ASU’s campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.

Congresswoman Tlaib, the only Palestinian in Congress, was censured last week in Congress for among other things, embracing the phrase “from the river to the sea,” which is a call for the elimination of the Jewish state. She has been a frequent critic of Israel, and has recently declined to accept US intelligence stating that it was a wayward missile fired from the Gaza strip by Hamas linked militants that hit a hospital in Gaza. More than 20 of her fellow Democrats joined the vote to censure the sole Palestinian in Congress.

This week, Fox News revealed that Tlaib has been a member for six years in a secret Facebook group where acts of Hamas terrorism are applauded and praised. According to Fox, “The group’s founder, Maher Abdel-qader, who has extensive ties to Tlaib and has also been linked to other liberal politicians, has come under fire in the past for his antisemitic social media posts, including questioning if the Holocaust ever occurred.”

Arizona radio host Seth Leibsohn shined a light on the Students for Justice for Palestine toolkit that the group published last month in the immediate aftermath of the attacks by Hamas on Israel. They characterized the killing of 1200 nearly all civilians, as “a historic win for the Palestinian resistance: across land, air, and sea.” The document also reads, “We as Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement.”

Liebsohn notes Arizona law that reads “It is unlawful for a person to intentionally or knowingly do any of the following: Solicit, incite or induce others to promote or further an act of terrorism.” He quotes 13-2308.01 which defines terrorism and includes a prohibition against “Provide advice, assistance or direction in the conduct, financing or management of a terrorist organization.”

Hamas, which conducted the raids on Oct 7, is on the US State Dept official list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). It is hard to conceive how Students for Justice for Palestine cheering the “historic win” of a group officially listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization could not be deemed to “promote or further an act of terrorism.”

Still on schedule is Congresswoman Tlaib’s planned appearance as the host of the annual banquet for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The event has had to be moved. It was originally to be held Saturday at the Wrigleyville West Sheraton in Mesa. According to CAIR, the Sheraton canceled the event and “terminated their contract to the event due to alleged threats targeting the hotel, its staff, CAIR-AZ and American Muslims.”

The brouhaha at ASU comes on the heels of an exceptionally ugly event that took place earlier this week when supporters of Palestine threw rocks at a building where the student government was holding a meeting. Jewish students trapped inside had to be escorted home by campus police.