The Algemeiner reports that a ring of anti-Israel students at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville (UTK) has created a “cesspool” of anti-Semitism and racist behavior:

Canary Mission — a secretive group that monitors anti-American, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activities on college campuses — said it has uncovered a “disturbing trend” of extreme Jew-hatred and other forms of bigotry at UTK. This, it says, is being spread by members of the school’s branches of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Muslim Students Association (MSA).

A Canary Mission representative noted that

“We know that SJP nationally has an anti-Semitic agenda to remove Israel from the river to the sea. However, they usually attempt to clothe their hatred with a thin veil of human rights. In the case of the University of Tennessee, there is no veil, just raw bigotry.” 

The watchdog group named six individuals at UTK responsible for the dissemination and active promotion of anti-Semitic and racist ideologies: Eyad Hijr, a 2016 graduate with ties to the MSA; Mohamed Ali, a sophomore and member of SJP, MSA and the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement; Hesham Annamer, a sophomore affiliated with MSA; Stori Nuri, a junior who is the president of SJP, co-president of MSA and a supporter of BDS; Jordan Welsh, a BDS-supporter who recruits members to the UTK SJP’s Facebook page; and Afeef Youssef Kamah, a student connected to MSA.

Canary Mission described the UTK chapter of SJP as an “echo chamber of hate speech” from which offending posts are disseminated through social media. “We have never seen such a like-minded group of bigots,” the watchdog group declared.

According to UTK SJP’s mission statement on Facebook, the group "opposes any form of prejudice or discrimination; but SJP "rejects attempts to equate principled criticism of Zionism, or of the character or policies of Israel, with antisemitism.”

Canary Mission points out that this is simply anti-Semitism hiding behind a mask of human rights activism, with open Jew-hatred and bigoted slurs found in the Twitter postings of key members of UTK’s SJP and MSA groups.

In 2012, for example, UTK SJP member Ali proudly praised Adolf Hitler in a tweet:

In 2014 Hijer used foul language in a series of tweets to attack a Jewish social media user:

Hijr subsequently spewed, “…I already hate you. You dirty filthy Jew. All your people do is f***ed s*** up. Wish hitler was still around to show you guys.”

That same year, UTK MSA’s Annamer — a 2016 nominee for the position of UTK MSA board member — tweeted that we need a Hitler in the Oval Office:

In 2015, UTK SJP head Nuri tweeted:

Canary Mission discovered that the members were racist toward blacks and whites as well:

In 2014, Hijer tweeted this from fellow UTK student Jesse West:

Canary Mission noted that UTK’s SJP and MSA members were supportive of Islamic terrorism as well. In 2013, Amira Sakalla, the founder of UTK SJP, tweeted:

In February 2014, Canary Mission said, UTK SJP and MSA member and anti-Israel agitator Drost Kokoye met radical anti-American Islamic cleric Zaid Shakir with SJP co-founder Hatem Bazian and others.  

In a report by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Shakir “defends terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and hopes for a day in which America is a Muslim country ruled by Islamic law… He suggests that ‘Zionist’ forces and the FBI were behind the February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.”

UTK SJP’s Welsh was especially noted for promoting violence and radical anti-American and Communist beliefs, as well as bragging about his collection of assault weapons. Welsh has shared photos of himself on Facebook dressed in army fatigues and sometimes a Soviet military beret, aiming various rifles. 

“We all have an obligation to publicize this vile bigotry. If we ignore it, it will grow, it will become something more dangerous. Canary Mission has a duty of care to let the  general public know what is going on in universities across North America. None of us can close our eyes to the growth of hate speech and the dangerous rhetoric that is accepted and encouraged in radical organizations like SJP.”

H/t The Israel Group