{"id":29414,"date":"2023-10-27T13:29:02","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T20:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=29414"},"modified":"2023-10-27T14:22:58","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T21:22:58","slug":"uc-berkeley-students-walk-out-of-class-call-for-cease-fire-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/10\/27\/uc-berkeley-students-walk-out-of-class-call-for-cease-fire-in-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"UC Berkeley students walk out of class, call for cease-fire in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/a>Kevin Fagan<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oct. 25, 2023 Updated: Oct. 26, 2023 12:24 a.m. (SFChronicle.com)<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hundreds
Hundreds of  UC Berkeley students walked out of their classes on Wednesday, calling for a cease-fire and an end to Israeli occupation in Palestine. The students are among thousands who have walked out on campuses nationwide as fighting between Israel and Hamas continues in Gaza.Bront\u00eb Wittpenn\/The Chronicle<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Waving placards and filling the air with cheers, hundreds of students walked out of their classes at UC Berkeley on Wednesday to call for a cease-fire in Gaza and an end to military support for Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid chants of \u201cFree Palestine\u201d and \u201cOccupation no more,\u201d dozens of speakers exhorted the crowd in English and Arabic to urge the university to divest itself from companies such as Lockheed Martin that manufacture arms they said wind up in Israel. They lamented the thousands of civilians who have died in Israel\u2019s bombing of Gaza and said anyone who backs Israel is supporting genocide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am a great-granddaughter of a (Palestinian) freedom fighter whose fingernails were plucked from his fingers with pliers,\u201d UC Berkeley law student Zara Kaye told the crowd, to cheers of sympathy and support. \u201cStop funding the murder of innocent Palestinians today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rally was part of a nationwide protest organized for 100 colleges by groups including the Arab Resource and Organizing Center and, locally, campus groups including Bears for Palestine and Law Students for Justice in Palestine. Several faculty members also joined the walkout for the afternoon protest, including Hatem Bazian, an ethnic studies professor who urged the crowd to support an end to Israeli control of Palestine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want an immediate cease-fire, recognition of Palestinian rights, an end to occupation and an end of U.S. aid to Israel,\u201d he told the Chronicle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the U.S. really wants to be even-handed, they should insist on implementation of international law, follow the Geneva Conventions and call for implementation of U.N. resolutions on Palestine calling for resolving conflict through peaceful means and the end of occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protest was the first big rally over the Gaza-Israeli conflict on campus in more than a week, but tensions have been building on campuses throughout the Bay Area since Oct. 7, when the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel, killed 1,400 Israelis and abducted more than 200 people. Israel has responded by bombing Gaza in attacks the military says target Hamas but which also have killed more than 5,000 civilians, according to the United Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the chants pouring from the crowd Wednesday was, \u201cFrom the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,\u201d a chant that calls for an end to the state of Israel and reversion to the Palestinian area that existed before Israel\u2019s creation in 1948. Another chant was, \u201cWe don\u2019t want no two states, we want all of \u201948.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both chants and the anti-Zionist atmosphere disturbed the dozen or so Jewish counterdemonstrators who stood silently to one side holding Israeli flags. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re calling for the annihilation of the Jewish state, and I personally feel very unsafe on campus,\u201d said one of the counterprotesters, junior Simone Beilin. \u201cI\u2019m scared for my family and friends in Israel, and they\u2019re saying this here? This rally is pro-terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daryanna Lancet, a UC Berkeley graduate, was there with other members of Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist group, in support of the rally, and she said she did not see the chants as calling for violence against Jews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere needs to be a cease-fire,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m not supporting the elimination of Israel \u2014 I just want no more death. It\u2019s not safe for the Jewish people to have a state that keeps people down in occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protesters and advocates for Palestine say they\u2019ve been doxxed and harassed online and in person by pro-Israeli students, and the pro-Israeli students fling back the same accusations. Some say they are afraid on campus, particularly when demonstrations are held, and the campus has hired extra security to keep the peace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are not here to be violent, and we are the ones who feel afraid,\u201d said graduate student Haleema Bharoocha, one of the Wednesday rally\u2019s organizers. \u201cWe are here simply to say, \u2018Stop the genocide.\u2019 It shouldn\u2019t be a political thing to say, \u2018Stop bombing apartment buildings.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom a human perspective, this is hurting all of us.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday\u2019s rally went peacefully, though there was a brief scuffle when several pro-Palestinian protesters tried to take an Israeli flag from one student, and one hit the student in the head with a metal water bottle. The protesters said the student was waving the flag in their faces, and the student said the attack was unprovoked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reach Kevin Fagan: kfagan@sfchronicle.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written By Kevin Fagan<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kevin Fagan is a longtime, award-winning reporter at The San Francisco Chronicle, specializing in homelessness, enterprise news-feature writing, breaking news and crime. He has ridden with the rails with modern-day hobos, witnessed seven prison executions, written extensively about serial killers including the Unabomber, Doodler and Zodiac, and covered disasters ranging from the Sept. 11 terror attacks at Ground Zero to California\u2019s devastating wildfires. Homelessness remains a core focus of his, close to his heart as a journalist who cares passionately about the human condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"San<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\"HEARST\u00a92023 Hearst Communications, Inc.<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kevin Fagan Oct. 25, 2023 Updated: Oct. 26, 2023 12:24 a.m. (SFChronicle.com) Waving placards and filling the air with cheers, hundreds of students walked out of their classes at UC Berkeley on Wednesday to call for a cease-fire in Gaza and an end to military support for Israel. Amid chants of… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1288],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29414"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29414"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29422,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29414\/revisions\/29422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}