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Occidental College’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) has begun the academic year by promoting campus meetings with a graphic that appears adapted from historical photographs of Fatah guerrilla recruits studying Chinese communist ruler Mao Zedong’s writings.
The posts come as the chapter’s current recognition status remains unclear. Occidental’s public organization directory does not list Oxy SJP among recognized student groups, although the chapter continues advertising events under the university’s name. The chapter signed the accompanying post, “Until liberation.”
The armed image appears to be adapted from a well-known series of photographs of Palestinian guerrillas studying Maoist literature in Jordan around 1970. Photographs show Fatah guerrilla recruits reading Arabic translations of Mao Zedong’s Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung, commonly known as the “Little Red Book,” while undergoing commando training near the Israeli border in Jordan.
SJP Missing From Occidental’s Current Club List
Oxy SJP’s new activity comes with an unresolved institutional question. The current Occidental clubs and organizations roster, published alongside the Fall 2026 involvement fair, lists more than 100 organizations, but does not list the Oxy SJP chapter.
The college’s student-organization policy, last reviewed July 1, requires recognized organizations to register with Student Leadership, Involvement, and Community Engagement, provide updated officers each semester and maintain at least two student executive-board members and a faculty, staff or administrative adviser. It also states that it does not oversee or condone the activities of groups that are not recognized by the college.
Occidental was still dealing formally with Oxy SJP mid 2024, when the chapter and Oxy JVP submitted a joint divestment proposal targeting Boeing, Elbit Systems, Caterpillar and Lockheed Martin.
Oxy SJP’s publicly available pages do not identify its current officers or executive board.
A 3 A.M. Protest at a Trustee’s Home
The uncertainty follows a series of increasingly confrontational actions by the chapter.
On March 30, Oxy SJP, Midnight Books LA, and LA SJP protesters traveled to the private San Marino residence of former Occidental Board of Trustees chair Lisa Link at approximately 3 a.m. for what organizers described as a “wake-up call” in relation to the join divestment proposal. Protesters banged pots, blew whistles and chanted outside Link’s residence.
One participant told the newspaper that the demonstration represented an effort to “extend pressure beyond Occidental campus” and warned that punitive measures would lead protesters to develop more “creative means of resistance.”
Several Oxy SJP figures have emerged as public representatives of the chapter. The Los Angeles Times identified Evan Zeltzer as a participant in the chapter’s 2025 hunger strike, while Tobias Lodish was identified as an SJP organizer and later as a spokesperson for both Oxy SJP and Oxy JVP
Longtime Oxy SJP Adviser Invokes Israel as an Example of Terrorism
For more than a decade, Oxy SJP’s faculty adviser was English professor Warren Montag, who retired in spring 2025 after 38 years at Occidental. Montag has described himself as Jewish, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace and SJP’s faculty adviser for approximately 12 years.
Montag signed a 2024 faculty letter accusing Israel of waging a genocidal war in Gaza, writing:
“We referred to Israel as a colonial settler regime that had embarked on a genocidal war against the population of Gaza…”
In a 2025 interview about the Kurdish movement and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Montag discussed the PKK’s designation as a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union. During the interview, he connected his views on the PKK to his previous involvement in pro-Palestinian activism, saying he had been “very active in the movement supporting Palestine” and that during the 1982 Lebanon War he allegedly worked closely with figures from Palestinian organizations, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
“If I were associating with them today, I could probably be arrested or something similar would happen,” Montag said, referring to those groups. He called the PKK’s terrorist designation “absurd” and said the group had waged a “legitimate armed struggle.” He also criticized the broader system of terrorist designations, stating: “If you want to talk about terrorists, you could talk about Israel to start.”
The U.S. State Department has designated the PKK as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997. Montag’s retirement leaves an unresolved question as Oxy SJP begins a new academic year over who, if anyone, now serves as the faculty or staff adviser required under Occidental’s recognition rules.