Colleges and universities across the US have turned into battlegrounds for the Palestinian solidarity movement, as students mobilize against their schools’ financial entanglements with the Israeli occupation. At UC Davis and Stanford, student-led struggles have made historic achievements. UC Davis activists recently passed a bill in student government to boycott and divest from all “corporations complicit in human rights violations against Palestinians.” At Stanford, students protesting their university’s complicity in the genocide in Gaza just ended the longest sit-in in the school’s history, camping out for over 120 days. The Real News speaks with student organizers on their recent achievements on their respective campuses, and how to keep the student movement in solidarity with Palestine going.
Studio Production: Maximillian Alvarez
Post-Production: Alina Nehlich
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Welcome everyone to the Real News Network podcast. My name is Maximillian Alvarez. I’m the Editor in Chief here at The Real News, and it’s so great to have you all with us. Before we get going today, I want to remind y’all that the Real News is an independent viewer and listener supported, grassroots media network. We don’t take corporate cash, we don’t have ads, and we never put our reporting behind paywalls. We have a small but incredible team of folks here, who are fiercely dedicated to lifting up the voices, from the front lines of struggle, around the world. But we cannot continue to do that work without your support, and we need y’all to become supporters of the Real News now. Please head on over to therealnews.com/donate and donate today. I promise you it really makes a difference.
Every day, Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza continues to erase whole families, communities, and neighborhoods off the face of the earth. We are recording this on Thursday, February 22nd, and just three days ago, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported that Israel has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians since October 7th, around two thirds of them, women and children. More than 69,000 Palestinians have been wounded in that time. As a full scale ethnic cleansing unfolds before our eyes, as the slaughter continues, as Israel’s government vows to continue the slaughter until quote, “total victory is achieved,” and as the US continues to be the number one supporter of this humanitarian calamity, people of conscience around the world continue to take direct action, with increased urgency. As we have covered, here at the Real News Network, college campuses have become a critical flashpoint of struggle and confrontation in this regard. Today we are returning to California, where students at Stanford University and UC Davis are continuing their fights for a ceasefire in Gaza, and for institutional divestment from Israel.
As Megan Fan Munce reported at the San Francisco Chronicle on February 14th, quote, “Pro-Palestinian students at Stanford University have camped out on campus for 120 days, to pressure the university to call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and to divest from Israel, among other demands. But the students will end their protests this week in exchange for meetings with university leadership to discuss their demands. On Tuesday, sit-in leaders announced on social media they had agreed to end the demonstration by Friday night, after university administrators pledged in a letter not to pursue legal or disciplinary action against any demonstrators, and to meet with representatives about their demands. For more than 100 days, dozens of Stanford students, at any one time, studied and slept in outdoor tents in White Plaza, even weathering a recent barrage of strong storms, by using sandbags, and physically holding down their tents.”
“Last Thursday, the university ordered the protestors to stop camping overnight, citing concerns about safety, and confrontations between pro-Palestine and pro-Israel groups. When students didn’t comply, the university issued a new deadline to clear out by Monday night, but the demonstration continued instead. Sit-in representatives offered to disband in exchange for amnesty, and the opportunity to discuss their demands with university leadership,” end quote.
As Rivers Stout reports, at the UC Davis student paper the Aggie, quote, “On February 16th, the ASUCD Senate passed Senate Bill 52, which implements an ASUCD boycott of, and divestment from, quote, ‘corporations complicit in human rights violations against Palestinians,’ end quote, According to the bill’s language. This boycott is in accordance with the boycott divestment in sanctions, or BDS movement, a nonviolent global campaign promoting boycotts against Israel, and organizations that they have deemed, quote, ‘complicit in Israel’s actions over the past few months, including Intel, Disney, Starbucks, and many more.’ Prior to the Senate meeting, where the bill was considered, UC Davis Students for Justice in Palestine, or SJP, encouraged students to attend and speak during public comment in support of the bill, through an Instagram post, which had more than 1400 likes at the time of publication,” end quote.
To talk about all of this and more, I’m honored to be joined today on the Real News Network podcast, by a group of students at Stanford and UC Davis, and we’re going to introduce you to them right now. I’m so grateful to you all for being here, and I want to just start by going around the table and asking if y’all could first introduce yourselves, and tell us a little more about who you are, how you got involved in this fight, why it’s important, and tell us more about what the political scene looks like on your campuses right now, in this moment, when Israel’s war on Gaza is intensifying, and those tensions are really boiling over into the political realm, here in the United States. What does that look like for you all, as students at these campuses?
Malik:
Hi, my name is Malik, and I’m the treasurer of SJP. I joined SJP, because I wanted to create a real change on campus, as a Palestinian myself. In terms of the climate on campus, we have a very Zionist administration. Our own chancellor sits on the board of Leidos, which provides surveillance weaponry to Israel. We don’t feel supported on campus because of this, and we have a pretty good Zionist student groups on campus and presence. We’ve been surveilled, we’ve been stalked, we’ve been verbally harassed because of this, but there is an overwhelming majority of Palestinian students that do support us. We saw this when we passed BDS, how many people showed up to support us, and there was hundreds giving public comment. It shows that even though administration might be Zionists, the overwhelming majority of students do support Palestine.
Batul:
Hi everyone, my name is Batul and I’m the Vice President of SJP here, at UC Davis. The reason that I got involved with SJP, and just student organizing in general, is because I’m Palestinian. I’ve lived my entire life within this struggle, and this liberation movement. I felt that when I came to this campus, I was able to join a group that made actual change, and that was something that I had been wanting to do. I just never really knew how to directly get involved in that, and SJP was my way of doing that when I transferred over here. The political climate on this campus, in terms of the student body, is predominantly Palestinian allies. I mean, we’ve seen that with this new phase of the most recent genocide in Gaza. I mean, post October 7th, we’ve had an overwhelming amount of support from the student body, in ways that through my experience last year on SJP, I never saw anything like this.
It’s really clear that people are pushing for change. The narrative, in terms of the Palestinian occupation, in general is shifting. People are a lot more educated, they’re a lot more aware of what’s going on. I think that with the urgency, and how dire the situation is in Gaza, people are fed up with hearing the same things, whether that be from our Zionist institution here on this campus, or our Zionist government living in America, and people are sick of just receiving the same. They’re sick of hearing the same things over and over again, and they’re more inclined to do what’s in their power to make change, in any way that they can.
We do have a Zionist student body who is really intense in what they do. Like was mentioned earlier, we are constantly harassed. We’ve received death threats numerous times, from Zionist students on this campus. They know who we are and they directly target us, in numerous different ways. But despite that, we are not going to fall victim to Zionist tactics. We’ve seen this before. We see it on the ground in Palestine. These tactics of intimidation do not slow us in our movement. They do not stop us in our movement, and we just are always reminding ourselves to remain steadfast, and confident in what we do. Because at the end of the day, we’re fully aware that while our university, and our administration, might not back us up, we’re not doing this for them, we’re doing this for the people in Palestine. That is what keeps us steadfast in our movement.
Cena:
Hi, my name is Cena. I’m the president of SJP here at UC Davis. I got started in this movement on UC Davis campus three years ago, in my second year, here at Davis. But I’ve been a part of the Palestinian liberation movement ever since I could remember, being Palestinian myself. I watched my own father be detained in front of me, when I was eight, and then a year later I had to experience the martyrdom of my cousin Milad. Ever since that moment, I had become radicalized in my politics, in the ones of wanting to see a liberated Palestine, and to ensure human rights, for not only my family, but every single Palestinian living there, as well in the diaspora with the right to return home. As for the political climate on this campus, I will say it is overwhelmingly Palestinian-based allyship in our student body.
Although we have an explicitly Zionist administration, as well as fully moving up the ranks of the UC region to the governor overseas, I mean, myself as well as 12 other students have been arrested at a UC Regents meeting. Our administration is wholeheartedly not only complicit, but actively committing these acts of genocide with their wallets. At the end of the day, we’re here on campus to provide a space where people can come and get educated, and learn about the proper history of Palestine. I think that’s super vital, especially since a lot of our curriculums do not properly teach what’s happening in Palestine, and the history of what it’s been. SJP provides a space for people on campus to come learn, get educated, and spread awareness, on everything going on back home.
Farrah:
Hi, my name is Farrah. I’m a second year student at Stanford. I am Co-President Of SJP. The main reason, I guess why I got involved in this type of work, I’m Egyptian. This cause is something that I was introduced to as soon as I knew about politics, or the political climate. Palestinian liberation was something that was never questioned in my mind, and was more at the forefront. I think part of the reason why I personally got involved in SJP, Stanford’s activism climate was completely dead, prior to the start of this year. Our SJP actually did not exist until October 8th. We really had nothing going on, on campus. After October 7th, there was a need for the student body to be informed, because we were living on a completely Zionist campus, run by Zionists with their money, and also their beliefs. Our curriculum is completely centered around Zionism. My involvement in SJP, while it does mean that I have personal connections, because I’m not even Muslim. At my core, the reason why I’m involved in this type of work, is because it is the right thing to do.
I believe, especially being at a university like Stanford, which is not only complicit, but active in the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, and active in this occupation, it is my responsibility to amplify the voices of Palestinians. There’re only 10 Palestinians, and Palestinian Americans combined, living on Stanford’s campus, who attend this university. There may be less than 10. The need for an organizing space was very present, and the need for education was very present. I believe it is my responsibility, as a Stanford student, and also just as a human being, to make sure that this work gets done.
Hanna:
Hi, I’m Hanna. I’m one of the organizers with the Student to Stop Genocide. I got involved with the sit-in on the first day or second night, I guess, on October 21st. I think that the value, greatest value that the sit-in has provided is, as Farrah mentioned, Stanford was politically dead. Stanford is a campus where the vast majority of students are STEM majors, and they’re quite disinterested and disconnected from any global struggles for human rights, for liberation, or at the very least, they were, prior to Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
What we have been able to do, through our work as a sit-in, and also by collaborating with various other student groups like SJP and JVP, is really transformed the political conversation on this campus. The sit-in was on White Plaza, which is a very central space on Stanford’s campus, and hundreds of people pass by every single day. Through that we were able to provide a physical reminder of the ongoing atrocities, and we were able to really educate Stanford student body, and pull them into this cause. The sit-in’s petition eventually amassed around 3,500 signatures. When Stanford’s administration threatened to take the sit-in down, which they did not once, but twice, Stanford’s community rallied behind us, in order to keep the fight going.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Hell, yeah. Well, let’s talk about the sit-in and the divestment bill. Let’s really unpack for folks listening, what’s going on here, right? Let’s talk about how these movements got started, how they evolved on your respective campuses, and yeah, just take us there to the heart of the action. Over 120 days camping out on campus can’t be easy, or marshaling this mobilization of students to come and vote, to basically demand that the student government fully divest any financial ties whatsoever to Israel. Tell us more about that, unpack that for folks who maybe just be hearing about these struggles now, or who maybe heard about them a little while ago, but haven’t gotten a chance to hear directly from folks like y’all, who have been there on the front lines.
Farrah:
Yeah, I can hop in. I think, at least on Stanford’s campus, given that the organizing scene just was so non-existent prior to October 8th, the way that it evolved was it began with a really, really big push for education. It was really obvious that there were students on this campus, and still to this day, there’re most definitely students on this campus, who were completely unaware of the genocide of Palestinians going on, and the occupation, which has been going on for 75 years. That level of ignorance is something that we really put an effort into, to try and get rid of. After that initial push for education, I think one of the biggest signs that we knew we were doing work that was meant to be done, and one of the biggest indicators that we were getting our message across in the way that we intended, was the amount of anger that we saw from folks who were Zionists, and pro-Israel, and very evidently were not on the side of Palestinian liberation.
We had been harassed, and assaulted, and verbally assaulted, and physically assaulted, almost every single day for the first three weeks of the sit-in. Then I would say since then there has not one day of those 120 days has gone by, to where we have not had some incident, or some hate speech directed at us. This is not just directed at Arabs and Muslims or Palestinians, it’s also very much directed at our allied supporters, as well. We have a lot of antisemitism that goes on. A lot of our anti-Zionist Jewish friends, who are lead organizers of the sit-in, have received some of the most vile comments that I have ever heard, as it relates to the way that this movement progressed. There’s a lot of work that we tried to do, with especially just trying to teach people what not to believe in, and what not to read, and that the Western media was very evidently trying to teach them something that was completely untrue.
The university also has just been very, very transparent about the way that they responded to the ongoing genocide on Gaza, saying that they are very aware that their response has been absolutely asymmetric towards Zionists, and Israelis, on campus. Now where we’re at, is making sure that all the energy that we’ve built up, and making people angry, and making people remember what is going on, is just one very small step forward. Now we are trying to do, and actually are very inspired by our friends over at UCD, for this push for divestment. It’s something that we are fully launched into, especially through our coalition called Stanford Against Apartheid in Palestine, which I’m sure Hannah can talk about more, but yeah.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Yeah. Hanna, why don’t you hop in and round out the Stanford side, and then we’ll throw it to the UCD gang.
Hanna:
As Farrah mentioned, administration has said explicitly that they’re aware that their response has been asymmetric, that they have completely abandoned the Palestinian community on campus. When administration wanted to shut down the sit-in, they shrouded this action in language of concern for student safety. But that excuse falls completely flat when we’re faced with the fact that students were there continuously for 120 days, through New Year’s Eve, through Christmas, and through storms, during which it was not the Sit-in to Stop Genocide tents or canopies that collapsed, and posed a threat to other students. It was in fact the very AstroTurf-ed camp that was blue and white tent, that was set up by pro-Israel groups on campus, right across from us. The fact of the matter is that the university is much more interested in promoting this both sides narrative, in which we can all just have rigorous academic intellectual debate about this, and then not making any meaningful institutional changes.
This is not to say that the pressure on Stanford’s campus hasn’t led to any tangible changes. The sit-in has been able to secure some accommodations for Palestinian students, and also the creation of the Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim Students Communities’ Committee, which is meant to investigate the experiences and challenges that these communities are facing, and recommend ways in which Stanford can improve. But unfortunately, these recommendations are not binding, and so administration is not under any obligation to follow those recommendations.
Obviously, the fight is not over, and as Farrah also mentioned, we are now transitioning into a fully fledged divestment campaign, under the umbrella Stanford Against Apartheid in Palestine. As we know, every major human rights organization in the world, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories in the United Nations, they have all come to the conclusion that Israel is committing apartheid. This is a crime against humanity in international law. Stanford, by its own document of investment responsibility, is bound to divesting from entities that are complicit in crimes such as genocide, and apartheid. We see this as a student movement that is going to have longevity, because even when this assault on Gaza ends, Israel’s apartheid will continue, just as it has in the past 75 years.
Cena:
Then transitioning into what’s been going on at UC Davis, with SB52, having been passed this past Thursday, which is now a week ago today, the whole process of the creation of this bill, and the idea, was something planted by not only myself, but the rest of my Board. It was a goal we had since the beginning of the year. We were able to bring it into fruition, when there was one day where we finally sat down, and we thought it was time to basically accumulate all of the ideas, and the basis that we wanted for this bill, and create it into a final doc. Working alongside many other students, who also are not part of the SJP Board, they’re just allies and community members, as well as other senators, we were able to create this bill.
Myself being the author, and another board member having been the co-author, as well as a senator, at our student government, we worked intensely in having meetings, and understanding all of the logistical ins and outs of how our student government worked, and how this would look like if implemented, since we were going to be the first university to institutionally boycott over 30 plus companies on the BDS list. Moving forward from that initial phase, it took about a month or more of planning out how we were going to make it as quote, unquote, “Bulletproof as possible.” Because at the end of the day, when we brought it up to all of our student government, we didn’t want it to be shot down due to a logistical reason. We took advantage of the current climate phase we are in, of the genocide happening in Gaza, and there’s no time left. There’s no time left to waste, and sit around, and just allow for words of resolution to be accumulating. We had to just turn our words of resolution into actions, of an institutional boycott.
We had passed a BDS resolution here at UC Davis in 2021. There’s also alumni who were working on trying to pass BDS here at Davis from 20 years ago. We were just the Board that were finally able to compile it, and put it together, and bring it to our student government, to have a vote. We were met with such a beautiful picture of community, and we were overwhelmed by the support. Not only did the bill pass, but it passed overwhelmingly with a 12 out of 14 Senate vote, voted yes. That’s as good as it could have gone for us, and we couldn’t be more grateful that we got it to pass. Now we’re in the works of working alongside the committees, and seeing how we’re going to finally get into the phases of taking things like Sabra or Starbucks drinks off the shelves of our marketplace.
Batul:
I think just to touch a bit more on what it actually meant for us to pass this BDS bill on our campus, speaking from my personal experience, we are constantly asked and expected to put our trauma on display, for people to understand what we’re going through. That is not something that should be the standard. Palestinians are the only oppressed people who are constantly expected to worry about the feelings of their oppressor, and make them comfortable. When we do things such as relive our trauma in public spaces, that’s showing that we don’t care if this makes people uncomfortable. Because at the end of the day, if it makes you uncomfortable to hear this, imagine how uncomfortable it was to live it, and experience it. You should also be asking yourself, why are you uncomfortable listening to these stories that people have experienced?
It’s because you don’t want to take accountability and acknowledgement in your ignorance, and you are trying to avoid and divert from the fact that you, let’s say for example, student senators on our campus, or our chancellor, you’re trying to look away and turn away from the fact that you have the power to institutionally do something on UC Davis’s campus that actually means something. Because when we were able to thankfully pass this bill, we had an overwhelming number of people from other campuses, across the country, reaching out to us and asking how we were able to do so. When one university or one individual does something, that sets the precedent for other people to follow suit, and do the same thing. Now all these other universities and students who are pushing for divestment, or boycotting from their campus, are able to say, “You can no longer tell me that this is not something that’s possible, because it is possible, because we saw UC Davis do it.”
That’s why I think it’s so important to acknowledge the historic-ness of what happened. Thankfully it happened on our campus, but if it were not to be us, it would’ve been someone else. The fact that it happened sooner rather than later, just pushes for other people, to push for the same thing on their campuses, because it has officially happened with us.
Malik:
To add, the bill was a huge material victory for our liberation movement, here at Davis. During public comment, something we saw was that a lot of Zionists were making arguments that this bill would cause a rise in antisemitism. But one week later, we’ve already seen five explicit acts of anti-Palestinian racism to not only Palestinians, but to our allies who are being recognized in public by Zionists, and being verbally harassed, because they were seen at this public comment.
Batul:
If I could really quickly add something on top of her point. Speaking just a little bit more on the increase in anti-Palestinian racism, post October 7th, there was a rise in it, in general. But post the passing of this BDS bill, we have seen such explicit acts of anti-Palestinian racism. Five incidences in seven days is not normal, and we have not seen any acknowledgement from our administration for the past four months, and we don’t expect to see any acknowledgement from our institution moving forward, with what’s been happening for the past week. That’s why it’s so important for us to expose these incidences, because our administration is not going to do that for us. Zionists need to be held accountable, and they need to be called out on what they’re doing to Palestinians, because when they make claims that we do the same things to them, which we do not, we receive consequences from our administration. That same standard should be applied to them, especially when the acts that they engage in are number one, true, they’re things they actually do, and number two, they are explicit forms of harassment.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Well, I could talk to you all for days, and I know that this is not the end of the story, and we can and will do more follow-ups with y’all, with more student activists on campuses around the country, as well as the different labor groups, the different advocacy groups, different folks from across higher ed, who are coming together to fight this fight. To everyone listening, we will be following up on this. But since I only have y’all for just a couple more minutes here, I want to do a final turn around the table and just ask what happens next? What can folks, listening to this… this is going to come out on Thursday, February 29th. What can folks, on your campuses, alumni, faculty, students, staff, but also folks listening to this around the country, what can they do to get involved? What can they do to help, and where can they find y’all?
Cena:
As for what the future looks like for UC Davis, when it comes to organizing, and what we want to do with this historic passing of the BDS bill, we’re working alongside national SJP to try and make this a national movement and call to action, to encourage other student governments to start institutionally boycotting these companies complicit in the ongoing genocide happening in Palestine. As for us here at Davis, we have a lot of events planned, especially revolving education, and we’re really just hoping to keep having these conversations, keep putting our administration in uncomfortable positions, until they have to listen, and they have to do something with our demands. They hopefully will eventually, institutionally, divest as a whole, because the UC’s as a whole, is directly complicit in so much weapons manufacturing that it makes me absolutely sick to my stomach, knowing that I’ve lost family in Gaza, and I’m still here attending an institution that is directly funding the weapons being dropped on them.
But at the end of the day, moving forward, all we can do is not only enjoy this victory, because being part of a liberation movement, a lot of times we don’t see these material victories. It takes a long time for us to see material victory. As of right now, we’re enjoying it. We’re trying to spread awareness, and spread the word to other chapters, and we’re really looking forward to spreading more education, and events throughout campus.
Malik:
Then to add on, we are focusing on helping other campuses with their divestment, and how they can go about [inaudible 00:30:26] of their campuses, and letting this be a domino effect for other campuses, across the nation. In regards to events, we’re going to be having an anti-Zionism week, in March, in collaboration with National SJP, where we’ll be having a lot of informational events, and teachings with speakers.
Batul:
Then to discuss, moving forward, what we’re going to push for not only on our campus, but just in general. I think the number one thing is that we need to keep going, because over the past four months, while we did see a rise in mobilization and turnout for SJP at UC Davis’s campus, the most recent couple of months, I want to say, we have seen a decline from that original mobilization and turnout. That’s because people, whether that be, they don’t care as much as they originally did, whether it be the fact that they moved Palestine low on their list of priorities, people simply do not care as much as they did post… directly when October 7th happened. That’s horrible, because people in Palestine are begging us daily to continue talking about what is happening to them.
At the end of the day, when there are people in Gaza, and Palestine as a whole, being genocide-ed thousands being genocide-ed every week, we do not have the room to stop, and slow down, and be fatigued, because we owe it to them to do everything in our power to advocate for their liberation, to advocate for a permanent ceasefire, to advocate for a free Palestine, from the river to the sea, because that’s what they’re asking us to do. We need to listen to them, and do what they need us to do, as people in the diaspora.
Hanna:
I think that here at Stanford, just as everywhere else, we were very inspired by the UC Davis success, of passing the institutional boycott. I think that we’re very interested in also replicating that success. Even though the sit-ins tents are no longer standing, our movement will continue to push for Stanford to divest from corporations that are complicit in Israel’s crimes. Our ultimate commitment was never to the physical space of the sit-in, but always to the fight for Palestinian liberation. I encourage all Stanford students, alums, parents of Stanford students to follow up with us on our social media, either on Stanford SJP, or the Sit-in to Stop Genocide, because we will be posting about our future actions. Also, to join the coalition Stanford Against Apartheid in Palestine, because we will be trying to make that movement as broad, and as all encompassing as possible, in order to affect the most change.
Maximillian Alvarez:
All right, gang, that’s going to wrap things up for us on this installment of The Real News Network Podcast. I want to thank our guest, Batul, Malik, Cena, Hanna, and Farrah. I want to thank you all for listening, and thank you for caring. One last time, before you go, please head on over to therealnews.com/donate and become a supporter of our work, so we can keep bringing y’all important coverage, and conversations just like this. This is Maximilian Alvarez for The Real News Network. Take care of yourselves, take care of each other, solidarity forever-
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.
