Students at several Bay Area universities kicked off the fall semester Thursday with coordinated pro-Palestine demonstrations that were passionate in tone but adhered to the zero-tolerance standards that the University of California and California State University systems have pledged to strictly enforce this school year in hopes of preventing the disruptive tactics that roiled campuses for much of last spring.
At the University of California, Berkeley, about 200 students gathered at Sproul Plaza, a central gathering place that last spring was the site of a sprawling encampment that grew to more than 180 tents at its peak. The protesters did not disobey UC rules banning camping and blocking walkways, but they made clear that they intend to keep their opposition to the war in Gaza and their concerns about the plight of Palestinians as central themes in the new school year.
For 90 minutes, protesters waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans accusing Israel of apartheid. Keynote speakers spoke out against the violence in Gaza and accused President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of genocide for not cutting off aid to Israel.
Outside the core of the protest group, most of the students walking through Sproul Plaza paused only a moment to take in the spectacle before hurrying off to class.
Across the Bay Bridge, about 100 students from San Francisco State University held a parallel rally at Malcolm X Plaza, across from a courtyard where students set up camp for two weeks last spring. They were joined by pro-Palestinian students from UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz and a handful of other Bay Area campuses.
Featured speakers at Thursday's rally at UC Berkeley spoke out against violence in Gaza and accused President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of genocide for failing to cut off aid to Israel.
(Hannah Wiley/Los Angeles Times)
“We have to come back stronger than last year,” said a student who gave her name as Zainab. She spoke from a makeshift stage, standing in front of signs decorated in the colors of the Palestinian flag — black, red, white and green — that read: “There is no future without Palestine.”
“We are going to have marches, people are going to try to shut us up, silence us,” she said. “This will be the first of many demonstrations this year.”
The renewed protests are a sign of the continued determination of many students to take a stand against the war in Gaza, despite threats of disciplinary action under stricter enforcement of policies banning conduct that led to campus division, lawsuits and, in some cases, violence last school year.
Earlier this month, UC President Michael V. Drake ordered chancellors at all 10 campuses to strictly enforce rules against camping, blocking access to buildings and hallways and wearing masks to conceal someone’s identity while committing an infraction.
New University of California, Berkeley, Chancellor Rich Lyons had said he would respect free speech rights but also ensure those rules were followed.
“There are hundreds of places on the Berkeley campus where students can express their right to free speech,” he told The Times last week. “We are a university that stands for free speech, but if we intentionally break the rules … we are in the world of civil disobedience and we are going to think about the consequences.”
CSU Chancellor Mildred A. Garcia and 23 CSU campus leaders also issued a systemwide statement on the protests. The university said campuses “must maintain an environment in which their work can be conducted without disruption.”
Prohibited activities include “camping, holding nighttime demonstrations, or loitering at night” and “constructing unauthorized temporary or permanent structures, walls, barriers, barricades, furniture, or other objects.” Illegal activities include “vandalism, damage to property, trespassing, occupying a building or facility, refusing to disperse in violation of law,” and promoting violence.
Protests at the University of California, Berkeley, and San Francisco State University stayed within those parameters Thursday. Still, some protesters said they are willing to risk disciplinary action to continue demonstrating against what they describe as an international humanitarian crisis.
Yousuf Abubakr, a graduate student in mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, said harrowing images on social media of the suffering of Palestinian civilians prompted him to join the movement.
“We are not going to allow the president and the UC regents to dictate what we should do,” said Abubakr, a Sudanese-born Muslim. “We will not be content until we see the liberation of Palestine. Many of us are confident in our ability to educate and bring about change.”
Still, he said, the camps were just a “negotiating tool” and organizers will likely move on to other tactics as they assess what is effective and safe.
Last year's demonstrations represented the largest student activist movement since the Vietnam War. Pro-Palestine supporters set up tent encampments on several California campuses and, in some cases, occupied buildings and sprayed graffiti to protest Israel's sustained military assault on Gaza.
The war broke out on October 7, when Hamas militants attacked and killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel and took about 250 Israelis and foreigners hostage. Israel's retaliatory attacks have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
In April, UC leaders rejected a key demand that has fueled student protests: a call for UC to divest from companies that do business with Israel.
At the University of California, Berkeley, protesters removed tents outside Sproul Plaza at the end of the spring semester after reaching an agreement with then-chancellor Carol Christ. Under the agreement, Berkeley rejected calls to directly attack Israel through divestment or academic boycotts but promised to review complaints about discrimination against Palestinians and other groups in academic partnerships such as exchange programs.
CSU leaders also say they have no plans to target Israel for divestment.
But after reaching an agreement with protesters in May to dismantle their encampment, San Francisco State University President Lynn Mahoney said she would host talks to discuss shifting investments from the San Francisco State Foundation, the university's fundraising arm.
The foundation said last week it had drawn up a “regionally neutral plan” — which would not single out Israel — to “eliminate investment in any company whose revenues come from weapons manufacturing.”
San Francisco State University can “exemplify how student activism can create positive institutional change,” Jeff Jackanicz, the foundation’s president, said in a campus-wide letter. Jackanicz was not available for comment Thursday on which businesses were affected by the policy change.
James Aziz, a student who took part in the talks, said four corporations were on the list: Lockheed Martin, Italian defence company Leonardo, Palantir Technologies and Caterpillar.
“We don’t know how much money was in those companies,” Aziz said. “But it’s not about how much money there was, it’s about setting a precedent for other institutions to follow suit.”
