American Muslims for Palestine Takes Aim at High Schools

The virulently anti-Israel organization, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), held its first high school educational training session of 2012 at the Islamic Foundation School in Villa Park, Illinois.

The training session was attended by some 200 students from grades 10 to 12 and consisted of a half-day workshop on a variety of topics, including the Islamic significance of Palestine, according to AMP’s Web site. One session was led by AMP Director of Media and Communications Kristin Szremski on steps students can take to utilize the media in their activism. Szremski was a featured speaker at the University of Pennsylvania BDS conference earlier this month.

AMP promotes its extreme anti-Israel views through various public events designed for students and non-students alike. For example, during its session at the December 2009 MAS-ICNA convention, speakers called on “all Muslims to liberate all of Palestine from the North to the South from Al Quds to the sea” and described Jews as “the worst kind of people.” 

AMP has announced that it will embark on similar events for high schools in Chicago and Milwaukee. Facilitating student activism was the central theme of AMP’s 2011 national conference, where a number of sessions were dedicated to ways students can discuss the issue of Palestine in schools.

AMP has also made a concerted effort to engage in advocacy on college campuses and facilitate increased collaboration among anti-Israel students, in particular the activity of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a student organization that’s a primary organizer of anti-Israel events on campus.