The Students for Justice in Palestine at San Diego State welcome everyone interested in learning more about the issues surrounding the current situation in the country.
The club was founded during the 2008-09 school year. It is one of the many clubs of its kind throughout the country.
The organization’s first meeting for the semester was held on Sept. 8. Members of SJP gathered at Metztli in the Student Union.
One the missions is to inform and educate those who wish to learn more about the history of Palestine and its current situation from of people who are familiar with it.
“I feel like there’s a lot of people here that don’t know about this stuff or are not aware of it” said, junior business management student Rubina Popal.
Popal said she heard about the organization through friends.
Popal said she is hoping to learn more about Palestine through her involvement in SJP.
Sophomore computer science major Farris Nabulsi is a member of the SJP board. He said he heard about the club through his older friends.
“I’m a local in San Diego and my older friends and mentors have always been involved in SJP,” Nabulsi said. “I was always at the events and they kinda just handed it off to me. I was actually involved last year and then during the summer we kind of put together this board and started working on stuff to plan out this year.”
Nabulsi said SJP is an important organization.
“I tend to visit when I can and it’s really hard, so ever since I was little I would go to Palestine and I would see these things with my own eyes so it kinda has a special place on my heart,” Nabulsi said. “Even though I’m here across the world, it’s my way of feeling like I can actually do something for the cause.”
As a member of the club, Nabulsi said he hopes to meet more people, educate others and get more knowledge about Palestine himself.
“There’s a lot of things that some people know that I don’t know and it’s not just introducing your ideas. It’s about getting different perspectives to look at things,” Nabulsi said.
Senior psychology major Halima Eid, said the club is important at SDSU.
“I’m Palestinian American,” Eid said. “I want to help bring awareness to the Palestinian cause and occupation.”
She has been part of the organization for almost a year and is now the events coordinator of the board.
“Our main goal is not to tell them to go for Palestine or go for this or go against,” Eid said. “Our point is for them to know what is going on by themselves, so they can know the facts, know what’s going on and hear it from a Palestinian, the people that have experienced it.”
SJP meets every Tuesday at 4pm in the Metztli suite in the Conrad Prebys Student Union.
