The Darden School of Business’ event that took place Saturday for prospective students in Tel Aviv, Israel, drew condemnation from the University’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine in a statement released by the group Friday.
The event, characterized as an “informal” discussion, took place at the 65 Hotel in southern Tel Aviv from 4-6 p.m. Israel Standard Time. The discussion was intended to give Darden faculty and alumni an opportunity to “connect with fellow prospective students” abroad and answer questions about Darden’s full-time Masters of Business Administration program. Attendees included Assoc. Business Administration Prof. Pnina Feldman and a group of several Darden alumni. It is unclear how many Darden alumni attended the event.
In an email statement to The Cavalier Daily, University Spokesperson Bethanie Glover clarified that the event held was not a panel discussion, as described in SJP’s written statement, but rather an “informal, coffee chat-style gathering.”
Friday, the University’s chapter of SJP released a statement on social media condemning the event and calling for its cancellation. SJP is a student-run organization on Grounds that advocates an end to “Israeli occupation” through the dissemination of information about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Palestinian culture.
SJP asserted that Darden’s presence in Israel, 44 miles north of the Gaza governate, legitimizes ongoing genocide and “scholasticide” — the systemic destruction of educational institutions — in Palestine and other elements of Israel’s foreign policy.
“At a time when Israel stands guilty of genocide against the Palestinian people, the ethnic cleansing and annexation of Southern Lebanon and the war on Iran, there is no such thing as apolitical engagement,” the SJP statement reads. “We condemn, in the strongest terms, Darden Business School’s event with faculty and alumni in Tel Aviv.”
Glover explained that the discussion in Tel Aviv was one of several events abroad intended to spread awareness about “the value of a Darden education.” According to Darden’s website, similar informal gatherings will take place this summer in Delhi, India, Beijing, Budapest and Hungary.
Following Hamas’ attack in southern Israel Oct. 7, 2023 — resulting in the deaths of more than 1,200 Israelis — Israel waged an offensive campaign in the Gaza Strip which has resulted in approximately 73,000 Palestinian deaths, according to figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Many more are believed dead under Gaza’s 68 million tons of rubble. The Israel-Hamas war is currently under a ceasefire in accordance with the Trump administration’s “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict," though Israeli airstrikes in the region continue.
The International Association of Genocide Scholars, the UN Human Rights Council and Israeli Rights organizations including B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, have asserted that Israel’s actions constitute a genocide. Under Article II of the United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide is an effort to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, racial, ethnic or religious group.
These organizations cite the mass killing of civilians, statements made by senior Israeli government officials, the blocking off of aid and destruction of Gaza’s healthcare, civilian and educational infrastructure as the basis for the characterization.
Israel denies the characterization, and asserts that it is fighting a war of self-defense to root out Hamas in the region.
SJP’s statement Friday primarily highlighted the destruction of Gaza’s educational system by Israel’s government as a major point of concern with the Darden event. The statement argued the University’s “shameful complicity” through its presence in Israel is out of line with its “stated commitment” to supporting the principle of an accessible education for all.
When asked about the existence of a statement affirming the University’s commitment to “education for all” as mentioned in SJP’s statement, Glover referred The Cavalier Daily to the University’s mission statement. While the mission statement does not explicitly contain this language, it recognizes the University’s responsibility toward the “Commonwealth of Virginia, the nation and the world” in developing responsible citizen leaders.
SJP noted that, prior to October 2023, Gaza was home to 12 Universities, 450 schools and one-third of its population were students. It cited findings from the United Nations’ Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory that Israel has damaged or destroyed 97 percent of Gaza’s schools and Universities since the three-year conflict began.
By early 2024, the Israeli government had destroyed all 12 institutions of higher learning in the Gaza Strip. At the close of 2025, a report by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics had found that 63 university buildings remained completely destroyed, while 1,399 university students and 241 staff and researchers had been killed since October 2023.
A separate UN Commission of Inquiry statement SJP cited also noted widespread destruction of Gaza’s primary schools, and detrimental long-term effects of the destruction of Gaza’s education system on students. One recent study led by the University of Cambridge in January warned of a “lost generation” of learners in Gaza believed to be five years behind in their schooling, following the COVID-19 pandemic and then the subsequent conflict. SJP’s statement asserted that the widespread destruction is “necessary to the settler colonial campaign” to forcefully erase a Palestinian identity in the region.
“What colonial occupiers understand, and what the University has time and again failed to grasp, is that education is not merely a gateway into professional life, but a weapon for resistance — reinforcing culture, identity, and collective memory,” the SJP statement reads. “To bomb a school is to do more than kill or disrupt; it is an attack on survival in the deepest sense.”
SJP also noted Israel’s damage to at least 340 schools in Southern Lebanon since its ground invasion in March 2026 to support their claims of scholasticide on the part of the Israeli government. It concluded with calling for the event’s cancellation, and the University’s full divestment — “economically, academically and institutionally” — from the state of Israel.
SJP did not respond to The Cavalier Daily’s requests for comment. The Cavalier Daily also sent a separate inquiry to Darden’s communications team, which deferred to Glover’s comments.
In SJP’s statement, it affirmed its continued commitment to the mission of promoting the Palestinian identity.
“Despite Israel’s bombardment and U.Va.’s shameful complicity, the heart and mind of Palestine thrives,” the SJP statement reads. “We reject the notion that a panel held in Tel Aviv can ever be separated from the occupation that surrounds it.”
The event took place Saturday as scheduled.
Luca Bailey is a third-year Politics student from Free Union, Va. As a staffer on the news and video desks, he has covered topics ranging from the General Assembly and state elections to local politics and University governance. He is also The Cavalier Daily’s beat writer for the Charlottesville City Council.
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