- Alden Waldeck, Melody Seraydarian
- Oct 8, 2024 (DailyCal.org)
Hundreds of students, faculty and community members took part in a walkout on Sproul Plaza this afternoon to support Gaza and Lebanon.
The demonstration was part of nationwide protests a year after the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, and Israel’s subsequent war on Gaza.
At the walkout, which was organized by several pro-Palestine campus organizations, speakers called for a ceasefire and divestment from Israel. Pro-Israel counter-protestors briefly attempted to interrupt the walkout about 30 minutes after it began.
Israel launches probe into Hezbollah drone attack that killed 4 Israeli soldiers
close
The walkout follows last spring’s Free Palestine Encampment, which lasted for almost a month until former Chancellor Carol Christ promised to review campus’s investments, among other agreements, in exchange for disbandment.
Despite the agreement, Yousuf Abubakr, organizer with Students for Justice in Palestine, or SJP, one of the groups that organized the walkout, alleged that “barely any advances” were made by campus, which has left the organization feeling “betrayed by the university.”
“We’re not here to combat or instigate fights with Zionists. We’re here to address the university officials who are the real people who have power to acknowledge the genocide and to make a significant change,” Abubakr said at the protest. “We’re here to tell the university we’re not going to go away.”
The protest was organized by a variety of student groups in addition to SJP, including Bears For Palestine, Law Students for Justice in Palestine, Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine, Palestinian Public Health, Muslim Students Association and Jewish Voices for Peace.
Several other organizations were present at the walkout.
Members of the Revolutionary Student Organization, or RSO, held a large banner stating “Long live the Al-Aqsa Flood,” in reference to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.
Sharon Knafelman, a pro-Israel counter-protestor and executive boardmember of Students Supporting Israel, said that the “normalization” of statements, such as the RSO’s banner, “directly leads to Jewish students feeling unsafe.”
Knafelman and approximately 10 counter-protestors donning the Israeli flag arrived at 1:55 p.m.They stood behind speakers at the top of Mario Savio Steps and chanted “bring them home.” While several pro-Israel protestors remained for the duration of the walkout, both groups remained relatively peaceful.
The crowd thinned out around 3:30 p.m., with the walkout fully dispersing at 5 p.m.
The protest is part of a week of planned action in response to Israel’s war, including speakers, a Palestinian film series and a vigil.
“The goal of SJP is to … fundamentally change the vocabulary of all the students, the faculty on this campus to make sure that Palestine is integrated into our everyday thoughts, our everyday language,” Abubakr said at the protest.
Aarya Mukherjee contributed to this report.
