UC Berkeley students stage walkout to demand end to Gaza war
By Maliya Ellis, Hearst FellowOct 8, 2024 (SFChronicle.com)
UC Berkeley students walked out of class to demand a cease-fire in Gaza while counterprotesters wave an Israeli flag on Tuesday.Adahlia Cole/Special to the Chronicle
Hundreds of UC Berkeley students walked out of class Tuesday afternoon, protesting Israel’s war on Gaza as the conflict reached a grim one-year anniversary.
More than 300 students, many draped in keffiyehs and holding protest signs, congregated at Sproul Plaza, where speakers mourned Palestinian victims and urged students to continue organizing efforts.
“One year of genocide and one year of resistance,” an organizer told the cheering crowd, speaking into a megaphone in front of a banner that read “Strengthening steadfastness” in black and green letters. “We need to continue fighting for a complete cease-fire and rebuilding of all of Gaza.”
The mood at the protest was both solemn and defiant, as speakers called attention to the war’s immense bloodshed — more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. Israel declared war following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, in which the militant group killed some 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 250 people.
Demonstrators on Tuesday vowed to keep protesting.
“We are absolutely not going to stop gathering, stop making noise, until the genocide ends,” said Whitney Sparks, a Berkeley community organizer who attended the protest. “The university is complicit — they need to divest.”
The walkout, organized by a coalition of activist groups at the university, kicked off an afternoon and evening of programming including a teach-in, spoken word poetry performances and multilingual prayers. Protesters called on the university to sever ties with Israel, including ending foreign exchange programs and cutting any financial holdings in the country.
Faculty members also attended the protest, including a tenured professor who said she walked out of her classroom to protest the university’s administration, which she said has suppressed her attempts to teach about Palestine.
“It’s a McCarthyist moment for us, where the mere mention of Palestine in our syllabi and in our lectures is enough to initiate this investigation process by the administration into our teaching,” said the professor, who said she has taught in the UC system for two decades and declined to give her name.
The war has laid bare deep divisions in the university’s student body. On Monday, Jewish students held a memorial to grieve hostages and victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7, attack.
Last week, UC Berkeley’s student senate voted to join a coalition of students who support the “boycott, divest and sanction” movement, as student newspaper the Daily Californian reported.
At Tuesday’s rally, a group of about 10 counterprotesters chanted “Bring them home” and held up Israeli flags. Pro-Palestinian organizers moved to obscure their flags with Palestinian ones, while attendees chanted “Go home, Zionists.”
A speaker urged the crowd to keep attending pro-Palestinian protests, “even if your voice shakes, even if you’re reprimanded. … We do not want you to leave here feeling defeated,” she said. “We need to humble ourselves and hold on to hope.”
Reach Maliya Ellis: maliya.ellis@hearst.com
Oct 8, 2024
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Maliya Ellis, originally from New Haven, Conn., is a recent graduate of Harvard University, where she studied Social Studies and edited the Harvard Crimson’s weekly news magazine. Her summer newsroom internships — on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s features desk and the Boston Globe’s metro team — have confirmed her passion for deeply reported local news. In her free time, Ellis enjoys long runs and word games. She is excited to explore a new coast and a new city.
