The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
"Pro-Palestine" Groups Rally Behind Man Convicted of Three Violent Antisemitic Attacks in NYC
If you think Students for Justice in Palestine would at least pretend not to support antisemitic violence to make its cause look better, you would be wrong.
Anti-Israel activists in the US have rallied behind Tarek Bazrouk, a New York resident who confessed to carrying out antisemitic attacks against three Jews.
In June, Bazrouk, 20, pleaded guilty in a federal court in New York to attacking the individuals because of their Jewish or Israeli identity. The victims of the attacks, which took place surrounding anti-Israel protests in 2024 and early 2025, were all wearing Jewish or Israeli symbols or were otherwise identifiable as such.
According to SJP, Bazrouk is a "political prisoner." Rather than being a perpetrator of antisemitic violence who deserves a long prison sentence, Bazrouk is instead a victim of "repression" by the United States government as part of a campaign "to silence the movement for Palestinian liberation."
Lest you charitably suspect that SJP only wishes to ensure that Bazrouk not receive a disproportionate sentence for political reasons, SJP pledges "unwavering support of him and demands his immediate liberation."
And it's not just SJP that is cool with attacking random Jews on the street: "Other prominent activist groups that have backed Bazrouk include the Palestinian Youth Movement, Within Our Lifetime, Pal-Awda, the anti-Israel campus coalition Columbia University Apartheid Divest, and other student groups around New York City."
What more do we know about Bazrouk?
A US Justice Department statement said Bazrouk self-identified as a "Jew hater." He wrote to acquaintances, regarding Jews, "They are worthless," "Allah get us rid of them," derided a Jewish man as a "Fucking Jew," and threatened to shoot Jews. He also told a friend he was "mad happy" to find out he has family who are Hamas members while he was visiting the West Bank and Jordan.
On Instagram, he posted a video of a Jewish child, told his followers to "get him," and posted the name of the child's Jewish school.
If for some reason you doubted that SJP and its allies are antisemitic hate groups, this should erase those doubts.
