New Orleans, LA – Starting at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, October 23, pro-Palestine students at Tulane University quietly entered the library and took up space at nearly every table on the first floor. Almost all the students wore keffiyehs and taped signs to their laptops. Some slogans read, “Tulane divest from genocide”, “While we’re learning, Lebanon is burning”, and “Our tuition funds genocide.” Food, coffee, keffiyehs, signs, and books on Palestine were provided to any student who wanted to join.

The action, called a “study-in”, drew attention from Tulane’s administrators, university police, and pro-genocide students. Usually open to the public, the library required student IDs to access that week. Police and administrators stood around throughout the 24 hours. Several pro-genocide students arrived and occupied a table, wearing Israeli flags and attempting to speak to students trying to study. They also frequently recorded pro-Palestine students without their consent, often getting very close to their faces. When reported to the library administration, they replied that there was no policy to stop students from recording without permission.

Despite the intimidation attempts, pro-Palestinian students maintained the study-in for 24 hours. At times, more than 50 students were participating. The action was a resounding show of Tulane students’ support for Palestine. The message from the students was clear, “Tulane divest from genocide.”

#NewOrleansLA #Tulane #StudyIn #StudentIntifada #FreePalestine

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

Since last fall SDS and the UMN Divest Coalition have been demanding the UMN administration divest from Israel. After months of protests, die-ins, a campus-wide resolution that won by 75%, and continued silence on the genocide from UMN administration, an encampment was set up to pressure the administration to meet our demands. During the encampment that occurred last spring, students banded together to demand 1. Divestment from Israel and all companies complicit in their crimes 2. Ban these companies from hosting workshops and job fairs where they poach our best and brightest to run their war machine 3. Sever all ties with Israeli universities 4. Disclose all University investments and spending 5. Release a statement supporting the Thawabit, and 6. Ensure amnesty for all students and staff involved in the Palestinian liberation at the University of Minnesota. These demands were agreed to by Interim President Ettinger. It has been six months since then, and Ettinger did not follow through on his promises when he left our campus in the hands of Rebecca Cunningham.

Shortly after President Cunningham started working at our university, she and the Board of Regents held an emergency meeting, a week before students returned to campus, where they passed a policy of neutrality for the UMN endowment. Regent Jamie Meyron introduced the institutional neutrality policy declaring the University’s endowment funds “politically neutral”, effectively making it impossible for students to campaign for the University to divest from certain companies. In this same meeting, they resurrected restrictive protest policies, including banning unpermitted protests of more than 100 people and the use of more than one sound amplification device, and put size limits on signs and banners. To enforce these rules, administrators have followed any pro-Palestine protest around with clipboards, taken pictures of protesters without their consent, and repeatedly threatened students with suspension.

While any sort of speech about Palestine has been repressed on campus,  Cunningham and the board of regents have been preaching about how our university is a beacon of inclusivity in public while saying heinous things in private, supporting the genocide of the Palestinian people to appease Zionist shareholders and ultimately increase their bottom lines. SDS could not in good conscience let this continue and after months of attempted negotiations, our only choice was to escalate our actions. As we had promised during the encampment negotiations with Interim President Ettinger, we would be back.

This lack of urgency shown by the administration shows both a disregard of student voices as well as a disregard of the rapidly worsening conditions in Gaza. While we attend classes and debate policy, horrific images and stories have been coming out of Northern Gaza. Israel is now believed to be carrying out the “General's Plan” to forcefully starve the remaining population of north Gaza, according to a former Israeli National Security Council deputy director. For the first two weeks of October, the entirety of North Gaza was cut off from any aid by Israel. Aid continues to be severely restricted. As of 10/25, the last remaining hospital in Northern Gaza was raided by IDF soldiers, leaving the entire population of north Gaza without access to any medical treatment.

On October 21st, student protesters entered Morrill Hall and occupied it as a form of protest. When entering the building protesters made it abundantly clear to all those inside they were free to leave and were in no form of danger.  Our people explicitly left the central door on the west end of the building open for those who wished to leave. All others stayed willingly. Additionally, our protesters did not vandalize any property, and any damage was done either by police or in self-defense.

Once students took the building, they hung a banner renaming it in honor of Medo Halimy. Medo Halimy was a 19 year old Gazan student who was brutally murdered by Israel; he posted on social media about his ‘tent life’ and the lives of thousands of other people during the ongoing genocide. Halimy deserved an education and life just as much as the students at the University of Minnesota.

About two hours into the occupation of Halimy Hall, Safe U notifications were sent out causing fear and confusion around campus. This in combination with an exponentially heightened police presence -over 30 UMPD, MPD, State Patrol, and SWAT cars along with a helicopter- made the wider population of students uneasy, but nonetheless our protest persisted.

UMPD, in conjunction with the Minneapolis Police Department, and Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, forcibly entered HalimyHall through the tunnels, using a battery ram to break through barricades, yelling, and pointing guns at protesters. They demanded them to get on the ground, and even after this order was complied with, multiple people were still physically restrained and dog-piled by police. They went from door to door until they had arrested eleven protesters and detained a member of the press who had been reporting, despite them wearing a vest clearly dictating their role; when press started taking photos of their colleague being detained, cops tried blocking the camera. Everyone was held in the basement, including members of the press, until 7:35; two hours after the police had entered the building. During this time, we were unable to determine the location of the protestors and were concerned for their safety. The belongings of the protestors inside, including those of the press, were subsequently confiscated. The press member was eventually able to collect their belongings on Wednesday, but the arrestees have not yet received their belongings and have not been given a concrete timeline of when they will get them back. This is despite the fact that some of the belongings collected are essential to their safety, including glasses, prescription medications, and house keys.

The arrestees were then brought to Hennepin County Jail. It wasn’t until 4 AM that they all were processed. They were held under a probable cause hold, which has a maximum limit of 36 hours. Protestors were held under this supposed “36-hour” hold from late Monday night until 5:30 on Wednesday when the last protestor was processed to be released. While they could have been released anytime within the 36 hours – we were hopeful they would be- the University Police did not send over the charges. There was no transparency for us or the arrestees on how long they would be kept. During this time, protesters had to endure insults from law enforcement, inadequate food, the release of dead names to the public, and were separated and put in blocks despite their gender identities. Trans women were put together in a men's cell and kept in there for 23 hours a day without knowing what time of day it was. During the 36-hour hold, arrestees were interrogated by UMPD, as well as the FBI. One arrestee’s processing was delayed by 5 hours, meaning that they stayed in custody hours after they should have been released despite not being charged. Protestors had to continually remind officers and guards that they were being kept past the 36-hour hold they were supposed to be held for. Our students dealt with these dehumanizing conditions with grace and bravery, but this suffering though could have been far shorter if the University police had sent through complete charges sooner. Instead, they dragged their feet and let their students suffer for merely for exercising their constitutional right.

While all eleven arrestees were released without bail and without charges, as of yesterday one arrestee, Robyn Harbinson, received word that they were charged with fourth-degree assault. Robyn's first court date is on November 7th, look out for a court rally for our brave protestor. Additionally, all students who were detained received an email that they had been placed under immediate interim suspension. Not only does this mean that they can no longer attend classes, but students who relied on student housing and food plans were left scrambling to find new accommodations for the foreseeable future. These emails also included blatant misinformation, citing incorrect dates of arrest stating people were arrested on September 21st instead of October, and stating that protestors had prevented staff from leaving Halimy Hall, a point that has been disproven by staff members themselves.

While our students were in jail President Cunningham sent out an email to the student body claiming our protesters caused intentional property damage and held staff in the building against their wills, statements which are factually incorrect and actively defame our brave protesters.

That leads us to our current situation where all 11 of our arrestees may still be unjustly charged for their heroic actions. We as SDS need the support of our community now more than ever to bring our brave students back to campus to receive the education they deserve. More importantly, the people of Palestine, Lebanon, and Yemen need your support more than ever as they are bombed, starved, dehumanized, and burnt alive.

They may arrest us, jail us, suspend us, and evict us but we will never stop fighting for our university to divest from Israel and we won't stop fighting until there is a free and liberated Palestine.

#MinneapolisMN #UMN #FreePalestine #SDS #UMNSDS #HalimyHall #StudentIntifada #Divest #Feature

On October 7, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at Wayne State University joined the National SDS Student Walkout to remember one year of genocide, resistance, and student struggle against our administrations all over the country. We hoped to be able to protest without the threats of repression and violence by the Wayne State Police Department (WSU PD). However, this was not the case. 

At 2 p.m., we marched from Gullen Mall to the Admin Building without using amplified sound. Within minutes of standing outside, we were surrounded by WSU PD. Officer Daniel Williams approached one SDS member, telling them to immediately disperse. When asked why, he cited a new, anti-democratic policy, claiming, “protests must be registered with the school.” This is a policy SDS was never informed of at our prior two protests. Furthermore, the policy cited is difficult to locate on the Wayne State website, nor are all its stipulations localized. Specifically, the policies regarding the use of amplified sound and what activities do or do not require a reservation are inaccessible, contradictory, and confusing. The unpredictable enforcement of these policies violates students’ rights to know the rules by which they are governed. These rights have been in place since 1967, meaning Wayne State administration is violating some of its oldest principles. 

More than violating our rights as students, Wayne State Administration and WSU PD denied our constitutional right to assembly and speech under threat of violence. After informing us of the policy, Officer Williams threatened our members, saying to one, “This is your first warning to disperse or leave campus, I’ll give you a second warning, and if I have to give you a third, I’ll use force.” These threats are unacceptable, but they are shamefully common. Over the past year, Wayne State Police have met students with immense violence, which has been left unchecked by the administration. This is shameful, seeing as Wayne State is a public university that claims to support freedom of speech. Instead of uplifting student voices, they resort to police intimidation and unconstitutional policies to silence us. 

SDS stands proud in the history of the student movement. We draw inspiration from the Chicano, Black, and Asian student walkouts in 1968, the student strikes of 1969, the historic struggle against the war in Vietnam, and the struggle against South African apartheid. Like the students in those times, we also stand in solidarity with the national liberation movements taking on the U.S. empire. New SDS was founded in the wake of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and since then, SDS has never shied away from standing up to the U.S. war machine. It is our duty to resist from within the belly of the beast.

 The Wayne State PD and Admin want to intimidate us and stop us from continuing our struggle for Wayne State to Cut the Ties with the IOF, but instead, they have hardened our resolve. We must continue fighting for change on campus. Because of the repression experienced on Monday, we issue the following demands to counteract threats of brutalization from WSU PD:

A. An end to the policy requiring registered protests, which undermines the spirit of freedom of speech and right to protest.

B. End the threats of brutalization from police by designating a staff of trained, unarmed, non-PD admin liaisons to communicate with student protesters rather than police. 

C. Issuing a resolution enshrining the right to student led protests on campus without restriction.

D. And once again: Cut the Ties Between the “israeli” Occupation Forces and the WSUPD

As we represent the one year of struggle against the ongoing genocide, Wayne State University students stand together to demand justice. We will not allow WSU PD or any other institution to silence us. Our fight for justice continues, and we will remain united against oppression.

#DetroitMI #WayneState #WSUPD #WSUSDS #WSU #SDS #SDSWSU #Divest #BDS #FreePalestine #StudentIntifada #PoliticalRepression #Repression #StudentMovement

Orlando, FL - On Monday, September 23, several student and community groups rallied at the University of Central Florida (UCF) to demand justice for a Palestinian protester targeted by university administration.

The protester, a recent UCF alumna planning to begin graduate classes in the fall, had been trespassed from the university after participating in several peaceful pro-Palestine demonstrations on campus in the beginning of the summer. She was singled out by university police, who followed her to her car after she and several others had passed out flyers after a graduation ceremony. She was also the only person involved in these demonstrations to face any sort of disciplinary action. She did not know this was going to happen, it was sprung on her after a July academic advising appointment. The student was then told by UCFPD that she is prohibited from attending classes or setting foot on university property, indefinitely.

The group of about 30 demonstrators who gathered on Monday evening near the Reflection Pond demanded that the university drop the trespass charges and allow the student to attend classes again. They also demanded disclosure of the university’s investments, and for the university to divest from weapons manufacturers and Israeli companies involved in the genocide in Gaza and the occupation of Palestine.

Groups present included the UCF Divest Coalition, Healing our Homeland, Central Florida Queers for Palestine, Orlando for Peace, and UCF Students for a Democratic Society.

“Many students on campus are involved in organizing for our collective liberation, and yet the university and the UCF police department chose to target one of the only Palestinian organizers on this campus,” said Reem Elkhaldi, a local attorney and executive director of Healing Our Homeland.

Elkhaldi continued, “We have to realize that the weapons we are supporting on this campus – that they are pushing the students on this campus to go and build when they graduate, those weapons are being tested on my family and friends in the Gaza strip. We refuse to accept genocide as normal. We will not surrender to immoral administrators and state agents and accept the oppression of others in exchange for new sporting equipment and endless cupcakes at the holiday parties.”

The rally came just days after the Orlando Police Department brutalized and arrested eight pro-Palestine demonstrators in downtown Orlando after a march for Lebanon, and days before the UCF board of trustees is set to vote on new protest regulations. These regulations include a ban on masks at rallies and a requirement for all individuals on university property to identify themselves to university officials and law enforcement.

The speakers condemned the ongoing repression. “Our administration will go through all of this effort to silence our demands and will at the same time pat themselves on the back for listening to the student body,” stated Marcus Polzer, an organizer with UCF Students for a Democratic Society.

Polzer continued, “Our administration is repeatedly demonstrating to us that they are actively hostile to what we are demanding. They would like to just sit by and profit off the genocide while banning students from campus indefinitely for speaking out and demanding divestment. Our university does in fact care about what we say, and they want us to shut up, but we’re not going anywhere.”

As the rally grew in size and energy, students made clear that the intensified repression and intimidation would not deter the spirit of the student movement for divestment and the freedom to protest. Students chanted, “Shame on you, UCF! Feeding the machine of death!” One sign read: “We are not going anywhere! Disclose and divest!”

As the rally came to a close and students were getting ready to disperse back to their vehicles, the sprinklers were turned on around the Reflection Pond, but only on the side where the rally was taking place. While a few signs were destroyed, this laughable display of hostility had no real effect. The student movement continues to grow in size and strength, and a week of action for Palestine has been planned.

#OrlandoFL #FreePalestine #StudentIntifada #PoliticalRepression #Divest #UCFSDS #SDS

Tampa, FL - On Saturday, July 27, the pro-Palestinian community of Tampa held a rally on 56th and Fowler. Around 50 members of the community were present, including the organizations Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Tampa Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (TAARPR) and Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).

The Palestinian community of Tampa has been vocal in their demands for the University of South Florida to disclose their investments and pull any funding that supports Israel in their ongoing attacks on Gaza.

The demands for USF to drop their suspension and expulsions against students Victoria Hinckley and Joseph Charry was also voiced at this protest as the university continues to issue conduct charges hold hearings months after the Gaza encampments.

In addition to conduct charges, USF recently proposed new, more restrictive policies surrounding protest and free speech on campus.

Victoria Hinckley, a member of SDS who was expelled after the encampment said that USF is , “banning statements being read by people who have been banned from campus, banning the use of fliers on campus, and limiting just about every function of student organizations.”

The rally included a march around the block near USF campus, halting traffic and chanting for divestment, a free Palestine, and directing calling out USF faculty members, “Dean McDonald shame on you, student voices matter too!”

McDonald is dean of students at USF and was a major witness to multiple student conduct charges as she was present on all three days of the solidarity encampments.

Simon Rowe, a member of FRSO, also called out faculty members Melissa Graham, dean of student conduct, and President Rhea Law. Rose asked the protesters, “Are you on the side of Melissa Graham, who prosecuted students for the crime of putting up pro-Palestine fliers on campus because one Zionist complained, or Rhea Law, who calls protests violent to justify police brutality and tear gassing?”

The crowd would shout back “No” in response, a sentiment that carried on through the event as people marched with the demands of divestment, conduct charges being dropped, and support for the Palestinian people.

#TampaFL #TampaBaySDS #SDS #StudentIntifada #USF #FRSO #TAARPR