University of Maryland to allow anti-Israel rally on anniversary of Hamas Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack

The University of Maryland will allow an on-campus protest by the anti-Israel Students for Justice in Palestine on the anniversary of Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed. 

Rabbi Ari Israel, the university's Hillel chapter director, told The Daily Wire he expressed his concerns about the protest to university leadership.

SJP hosted a similar event on campus Tuesday, the university's second day of the semester. SJP set up 15,000 flags on campus to "honor the 150,000+ martyrs who have lost their lives within the past year."

Although Hamas estimates 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since the terror attack and Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza, SJP used the larger figure of 150,000 because "the health ministry has been unable to keep count of the dead."

"We are approaching 11 months of genocide against the Palestinians," the University of Maryland SJP posted to Instagram. "It has been almost a full year of genocide and terror as death tolls continue to rise."

"The zionist entity has committed some of the most egregious criminal acts of our century," the group claimed.

Rabbi Israel told Jewish parents with students at the university, "We did voice our concerns with senior UMD leadership" and "apprised them of the emotional load SJP’s callous behavior will bear on our Jewish community if they protest on the greatest Jewish day of mourning and tragedy since the Holocaust."

The University of Maryland SJP chapter did not respond to a Daily Wire request for comment. The university did not provide SJP's application materials for the event or a justification for allowing the event.

Gerard Filitti of the Lawfare Project, which fights campus anti-Semitism, demanded the university cancel the event. Filitti, a lawyer, claimed the event violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

"No campus should permit SJP or any similar organization to hold any kind of event on October 7th," he said. "Would any university allow a student organization to burn crosses on its campus to celebrate the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.? To celebrate the anniversary of 9/11 by calling for new Al Qaeda attacks? We all know the answer to those questions is an emphatic no."