Students for Justice in Palestine announced in a social media post Sunday that the Registered Student Organization had been suspended from the University of Wisconsin campus for violating university policies at an April protest.
SJP protested an event held by the UW La Follette School of Public Affairs that hosted former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield. Thomas-Greenfield had vetoed four U.N. resolutions that called for an immediate cease-fire to the Gaza war in the months after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
In the post, SJP said the event was a “flagrant” display of support for genocide and had to be meet with opposition. Accordingly, SJP organized a protest outside of the event venue, which escalated after UW-Madison Police Department officers removed a few Madison community members for disturbances to the event.
UW held a RSO committee meeting July 1 to determine whether SJP violated university policy following the UWPD’s confrontation with the Madison community members. It was determined that SJP violated five policies — including unauthorized distribution of flyers, obstruction to Park Street doors, use of excessive sound, disorderly conduct and breach of probation.
“The fact of the matter is that the RSO [SJP] did have an event that brought people to the vicinity that night and as many attendees of their event, including members of the RSO’s leadership team, left the area of the planned RSO event to attend to the disruption occurring following the removal of individuals from Shannon Hall,” the Hearing Committee wrote in the Dean of Students Designee decision.
The committee determined that SJP will face suspension until Jan. 15, 2026, which will be followed by an approximate four-month probationary period.
SJP criticized the committee’s decision in the social media post, claiming that UWPD routinely escalates events with protestors.
“Rather than providing clear information to protesters and organizers, they opted to call in reinforcements and threaten mass arrest,” SJP wrote. “The university is therefore attempting to punish SJP for the reasonable reaction of crowd members whose goal was to keep people safe in the face of unwanted aggression.”
SJP had previously faced probation from UW regarding its involvement in the 12-day encampment protest in May of 2024.
