On April 6, students at San Francisco State University (SFSU) protested the Israeli mayor of occupied Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, who came to speak on campus. For nearly five months, the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) was under investigation by the SFSU administration after the protest. SFSU released the investigator’s report on Sept. 1.

Fight Back! interviewed Laila Zeytouna from the General Union of Palestinian Students about Palestine solidarity in the student movement, political repression by university administrations, and the SFSU investigation against GUPS.

Fight Back!: Why did students protest the campus speaking event of Israeli mayor Nir Barkat? Why should the student movement engage in this type of direct action to end U.S. support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine, instead of engaging in dialogue with pro-Israel groups or working with university administrations?

Laila Zeytouna: We protested Nir Barkat because of his role as an Israeli politician working within a system that aims to ethnically cleanse and oppress Palestinians. Nir Barkat promotes racist, pro-war policies and he is the mayor of occupied Jerusalem, where Palestinians who live in the West Bank cannot enter without applying for permits from the Israeli military. This blocks their right to pray in sacred holy sites, to obtain necessities like food and medicine, see their families, and have a right to a historical city that has so much value to Palestinians. Mayor Barkat also urges Israelis to arm themselves against Palestinians. Why would the administration welcome such a man to speak on campus? With that being said, we should not dialogue with figures like him, because Barkat is a direct contributor to the occupation – he is a part of the terrorization of our people and land. At the end of the day, there is nothing we can say to each other to make the situation better, until there is a complete end to the occupation.

Fight Back!: After the action, how did the SFSU administration and pro-Israel organizations react?

Zeytouna: The very next day after the action, President Leslie Wong sent an email to the entire student body condemning the protest and announcing that an investigation will be launched. The pro-Israel organizations were furious and published articles right away. A lot of them were lies, saying we were threatening Jewish students, calling for their death, and singled out GUPS when there were numerous student organizations participating. We were not there to protest the Jewish students; we were protesting a horrible Israeli politician.

Canary Mission, a McCarthyist blacklist site, singled out two Palestinian women as the leaders of the protest and many of the people who attended. SFSU administration reached out to the people who got listed on Canary Mission and offered help through the University Police Department and counseling services. But the most important thing the administration could have done to protect the students targeted with harassment would have been to publicly denounce the false accusations. They did not do this, instead, Wong’s statement condemning our protest before any of the facts were investigated, made us more vulnerable to backlash.

Fight Back!: Do you think this follows a pattern of university repression against student protests for Palestinian rights across the country?

Zeytouna: Of course it does. As soon as we criticize Israel for their disgusting treatment towards Palestinians, our ‘freedom of speech’ is suddenly taken away. It is no secret that universities receive enormous funding from Zionist donors and institutions. SFSU tries to pride itself as being a haven of social justice and student activism, but their actions speak louder when the administration launches an investigation on students for protesting a politician. We have murals on our campus projecting Malcolm X, Cesar Chavez and Edward Said. The university’s attempt to silence us goes against everything these leaders fought for.

Fight Back!: What were the findings of the investigation conducted against your organization, and is it a student victory?

Zeytouna: The investigation confirmed that our protest was aimed at the mayor and his policies and not Jewish students. The report was not a perfect one. For example, it did not include the longtime repression against Palestinian students who organize on campus nor the harassment we endured as a result. It also included many irrelevant comments from people who disagreed with the form of our protest, telling us that dialogue would be more productive, even though this has no bearing whatsoever on whether policy violations occurred. But overall, the report is a victory because the facts demonstrate clearly that we did not target Jewish students, but that our protest was political. Zionists constantly try to victimize themselves and say that us protesting Israel is anti-Semitic and hateful. This is a complete distortion of our views and a distraction from the policy issues we are raising. We want human rights and justice for the Palestinian people – how is that anti-Semitic? At the end of the day, we find it a student victory for all Palestinian and pro-Palestine students at universities across the country who also face endless Zionist and university backlash. Truth shows us that justice stands with those who struggle.

#SanFranciscoCA #AntiwarMovement #Palestine #PeoplesStruggles #Jerusalem #PoliticalRepression #SFSU #SanFranciscoStateUniversity #NirBarkat

“With the unwavering commitment to social justice that is central to the work of the university, SF State prepares its students to become productive, ethical, active citizens with a global perspective.” -SFSU Mission Statement

On April 6th, 2016 Nir Barkat, the mayor of occupied Jerusalem, gave a speech sponsored by Hillel San Francisco State University (SFSU) chapter titled “How is a visionary from the high-tech sector leading a diverse and scrutinized city?” The event has led to scrutiny in the blogosphere and by the SFSU administration because of the protests that ensued.

Why we protested

The protest was led by a coalition of students representing a multiplicity of communities, ethnicities, and backgrounds that stand in solidarity for the freedom of Palestine. We protested Mayor Barkat because of his role as an Israeli official, who enforces violence and occupation against our communities on a daily basis.

Providing a platform for Barkat on our campus erases the violent and brutal realities faced by Palestinians. The Israeli technological sector underpins and makes possible the Israeli military occupation, the structures of apartheid in Palestine and denying the right to return for Palestinian refugees. Technological infrastructures within Jerusalem are at the center of the destabilization of Palestinian society and contribute to the daily and entrenched forms of humiliation of indigenous Palestinians including the vast system of military checkpoints, forced dispossession and home demolitions. As ethical and active students with a global perspective, committed to social justice and anti-colonialism, we objected to the event that served in justifying and whitewashing apartheid and normalizing violations of international law. Barkat’s message and tour reinforces Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism globally. Examples of policies implemented and/or run by Barkat include:

• The Jerusalem Master Plan, an official city policy that calls the Palestinian presence in the city “a demographic threat.” The Plan implements ethnic cleansing policies with an intended 70% Jewish and 30% Palestinian demography by the year 2020.
• Calls for the raiding and demolishing of homes, shootings of gas canisters into residential areas, arrests of children, blocking off roads for Palestinians, and the building of illegal settlements in East Jerusalem.
• Revoking citizenship of Palestinian families whose family members were killed by Israeli forces in the recent Palestinian intifada or uprising, in October 2015.
• Supporting policies that forbid Palestinians from renting housing in Jerusalem and policies that oust Palestinians from Israeli Universities.
• Denial of Palestinian neighborhood access to municipal services such as waste removal, which in turn threatens public health.

As students, we are deeply disturbed that our University, which claims to advocate for social justice, is actively involved in creating safe spaces for hate speech and the promotion of international law violations by offering a stage for Barkat. It is our responsibility as student leaders for equality to act ethically and stand up against oppression wherever it may occur, including in Palestine.

Clarifications on meanings behind slogans used during protest

“Long Live the Intifada!” The term “intifada” emerges from the Palestinian anti-colonial struggle, referring to a “shaking off” of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Claims that it means the eradication of a Jewish presence in Palestine, or condones violence against Jews, are unfounded. This is not how we used it. Students participating in the protest consciously use the term within the “shaking off” framework of anti- colonial struggle. To us, intifada means the struggle for freedom, justice and equality for all people.

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” It envisions a liberated Arab world free from colonial and racist reigns. The statement does not condone or warrant anti-Semitism. We, social justice minded students, recognize combating anti-Semitism as central to the struggle in fighting for justice and freedom of all people. The term refers to a liberation of Palestine and centers the importance of a right of return for the near 6-million Palestinian refugees in exile.

On the Administration’s Response

On April 7th, president Wong sent an email to the university titled “Civil Discourse” calling for an investigation of the protesters. Such acts criminalize anti-racist speech on campus, which voice an end to the occupation of Palestine. The attack on pro-Palestine protesters sends the message that anti-Palestinian hate speech is protected and tolerated as freedom of expression by the SFSU administration, but freedom of expression for social justice is systematically criminalized and condemned. President Wong at the Arab Cultural and Community Center in 2013 promised to break the cycle of double standards, censorship and criminalization of Arab, Muslim and Palestinian student centered activism on campus. Today, we demand that he stay true to that promise, emphasizes the safety of his students by condemning threats from 3rd party organizations and stand with the students united for social justice and a liberated Palestine.

La Lucha Sigue, The Fight Continues, Long Live International Solidarity, Free Palestine!

-SFSU students who protested Jerusalem Mayor

#SanFranciscoCA #Palestine #GeneralUnionOfPalestinianStudents #SFSU