The University of Wisconsin is considering permanently banning a pro-Hamas student group that has repeatedly incited violence on campus.

Documents obtained by The Daily Cardinal reveal that UW administrators are investigating whether Students for Justice in Palestine violated multiple sections of the student organization code after some 50 protesters disrupted a Board of Regents meeting on December 5. The chaos ended with police arresting 19 students who had demanded the university financially and socially divest from Israel.

It marks SJP’s second major violation this academic year. SJP has been serving a 10-month probation since October as punishment for engineering an unauthorized “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” during spring semester. Internal documents show administrators cited the group’s eventual cooperation during that incident as a “mitigating factor” that saved them from full suspension.

Now facing potential termination of its official status, SJP must respond to the university’s request for an investigatory interview by December 15 and make arrangements for a formal hearing.

Unsurprisingly, SJP spokeswoman Dahlia Saba is claiming the university is suppressing “free expression” and subjecting its students to “police brutality.”

“SJP protested the business and finance meeting of the board of regents to demand that they disclose their investments and, in accordance with Wisconsin law, divest from companies complicit in Israeli apartheid,” Saba told the Cardinal. “Now, the university is again putting SJP through a disciplinary process to punish us for calling out the university’s unethical and illegal investment practices.”

The Wisconsin chapter’s troubles mirror escalating confrontations nationwide between university administrators and SJP chapters, which have led aggressive anti-Israel demonstrations since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.

In November, SJP members seized Sarah Lawrence College’s Westlands administrative building, vowing to hold it until boycott measures against Israel were adopted. The group urged supporters to wear “masks and indiscernible clothing” while amassing “as many bodies blocking doors as possible” in what they termed a “student intifada.”

“Westlands is occupied,” SJP wrote on Instagram at the time. “Students have occupied Westlands to demand immediate action on the genocide of Palestinians. Administration has failed to meet our disclosure deadline. Westland residents are safe: they can come and go at will. We need your support: Walkout to the south lawn, bring food donations, sign divestment proposal.”

At the University of Minnesota, seven pro-Hamas supporters were suspended in October after occupying Morrill Hall. Each faces roughly $5,500 in fines and must complete 20 hours of community service. Before seeking readmission, the students must write essays of up to 10 pages explaining the difference between vandalism and protest.