URGENT APPEAL from Students for Justice in Palestine -- UC Berkeley

As you may have heard, Students for Justice in Palestine at UC Berkeley helped to plan and organize a demonstration on April 9th, 2002 in solidarity with the Palestinian people and to demand that the University of California divest from all of its assets connected to Israel and the Israeli military.

More than 1200 students participated in this rally and demonstration – one of the most exciting events on Berkeley this semester.

During the course of the demonstration, students and community members also took part in a non-violent sit-in in Wheeler Hall. Seventy-nine people were arrested for sitting-in. All face criminal charges; students will face student conduct charges. A few of the students may also face suspension for up to one year, according to the Office of Student Life at Berkeley.

Furthermore, as a consequence of organizing the demonstration and sit-in, the University of California at Berkeley has decided to suspend Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) as an organization on campus pending an investigation. This means, that as long as the investigation continues, SJP is functionally barred from holding events on campus, tabling, distributing literature, and organizing. It could also potentially mean that SJP may be banned as a student organization at Berkeley.

Please note, that while the University of California is “investigating” and “only considering” suspension, these measures are a prelude to worse sanctions, not to mention only applied to SJP (even though many student groups have participated in and conducted civil disobedience on campus).

These actions against SJP are unique and unjustified. No other student group that has participated in non-violent civil disobedience has been
suspended and no students have faced charges of this severity in the past several years at UC Berkeley. We believe that this is a systematic attempt to silence pro-Palestinian voices on campus and to intimidate students from being activists.

In fact, the policy that makes SJP subject to these charges (the Chancellor’s so-called ”zero tolerance” policy) was implemented only a few days before the protest, specifically to make SJP subject to higher
standards and harsher consequences.

It is also an attempt to attack one of the strongest proPalestinian student organizations in the country in order to make it easier to attack other pro-Palestinian students organizations across the country.

We need your help.

Please take a few moments and write to the Chancellor and the Student Judicial Affairs Office (addresses and phone information below) and tell them that you believe that these penalties are unwarranted and unjust.

Especially at Berkeley, where there are memorials to Free Speech movement of the 1960s all over campus (the Mario Savio steps and the Free Speech
Movement Café), these kinds of attacks on free speech and civil disobedience are not only an attempt to roll-back the activist gains won on this campus, but also in defiance of the university’s mission to promote free speech and debate.

We have included some talking points below that you may want to include in your conversation orcorrespondence with the administration at UC

Berkeley.
Please do email us at justiceinpalestine [at] hotmail.com with any
correspondence
that you send so that we can keep a record of the letters that the
administration receives.

We urgently need your help. Please lend your support to pro-Palestinian student activists and activists who are fighting for social justice by letting the administration know that their actions are not supported by members of the community, students, alumni, faculty, and staff.

Sincerely,
Students for Justice in Palestine at UC Berkeley
justiceinpalestine [at] hotmail.com


Please contact:

Chancellor Robert Berdahl
MAIL: 200 California Hall #1500
Berkeley, CA 94720-1500
TEL: (510) 642-7464
FAX: (510) 643-5499

Assistant Chancellor John Cummins
EMAIL: jcummins [at] uclink4.berkeley.edu
MAIL: Office of the Chancellor
200 California Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-1500
TEL: (510) 642-7516
FAX: (510) 643-5499

Vice Chancellor Genaro Padilla
EMAIL: gpadilla [at] uclink4.berkeley.edu
MAIL: Undergraduate Affairs
130 California Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-1504
TEL: (510) 642-6727

Student Judicial Affairs Officer Rajmaira
EMAIL: osc [at] uclink4.berkeley.edu
326 Sproul Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
TEL:(510) 643-9069
FAX:(510) 643-3133

TALKING POINTS
1) Students should not face charges or suspension for participating in non-violent civil disobedience.

2) Activists should be allowed, freely, to speak and protest on campus without harassment from the University or its officers.

3) Pro-Palestinian groups are unfairly targeted for higher sanctions, a reflection of the bias in the way that the administration hands out sanctions.

4) Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is a non-violent organization that promotes education and activism and should be allowed to organize
on campus.

5) Student activists fought for the right to organize on this campus in the 1960s and should be allowed to continue to organize.

6) The University of California should divest from all its holdings in Israel and the Israeli military.

7) Sit-ins and protests are not opposed to theacademic mission of the University of California, in fact, they enhance the education received at Berkeley.