By Sue Byun, Assoc. News Editor -

This semester, several Boston College students have formed a new student activism group, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The group, which is still waiting for the administration’s approval of their constitution, plans to work closely with the Student Programs Office, along with other groups such as BC Hillel and the Arab Student Association, toward pursuing a just peace to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

SJP will focus on political and educational activism. Some of their plans include speaking events, documentary screenings, awareness and letter-writing campaigns, and also serving as a general outlet for discussion.

More specifically, SJP plans to push for an end to Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, address discrimination against Palestinians and establish a just solution for Palestinian refugees.

The mission statement reads, “As socially conscious people, it is our responsibility to incorpo¬rate all voices in the telling and changing of history and not sweep social injustices under the umbrella of fear, masking, or ignorance.” It calls for “. . .the embrace of an oft-overlooked narrative of a contemporary conflict, the Palestinian perspec¬tive.”

SJP’s mission statement gives a heavy nod to BC’s more general vision. It states the group’s commitment to the Jesuit values of service and education of the whole person, and to helping to form men and women for others.

Lindsey Hennawi, A&S ’11, Scott Jelinek, A&S ’10, Lauren Costello, A&S ’10, and Joanna Klekowicz, A&S ‘11, are some of the student leaders involved in the group’s inception.

Professor Eve Spangler, professor of sociology and instructor of the course “Social Justice in Israel/Palestine,” organizes an immersion trip to Palestine every winter break, working closely with her students as their advi¬sor. Inspiration for the students founding the group came largely out of their experiences from that trip.

“Some of things I saw there shocked me in ways I can’t even describe,” said Costello, who took Spangler’s class this past fall and went on the immersion trip over winter break. “I feel as U.S. citizens, we only hear one side of the story from the media, maybe because Israel is such an important ally to us, because of strategic govern¬ment interests. We constantly hear about suicide bombings and arrests, and it’s easy to think that all Palestinians are terrorists.”

As such, some of the group’s most immediate goals include giving the unheard Palestinians a voice and shedding light on some of the glossed over, but disturbing facets of the situation in Gaza.

In an article for The Boston College Chronicle, Spangler said that she finds it difficult to talk with the students about what they have seen in Israel/Palestine, when it seems to be so contrary to the very limited information provided by the majority of the mainstream media.

“SJP is new, and we’re really excited to get the word out there and start building support for what we consider to be a very important and worthy cause in the pursuit of social justice,” Hennawi, who is currently abroad in Morocco, said.

*A quote from the original article, published in print on Feb. 22, 2010, by Lauren Costello was removed. It was in regard to birth defects occurring in Palestinian territories. The quote should have stated that birth defects are occurring due to the Israeli government’s use of Depleted Uranium, in addition to white phosphorous in the Gaza Strip.