UC BERKELEY TAKES A GIANT LEAP BACKWARD ON FREE SPEECH.

UC BERKELEY TAKES A GIANT LEAP BACKWARD ON FREE SPEECH.

WHO: National Lawyers Guild
American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
Students for Justice in Palestine, Berkeley
WHAT: Press Conference

WHERE: Outside Berkeley-Albany Municipal Court
2120 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way
Berkeley, CA

WHEN: Tuesday, April 30
1 p.m.

PRESS CONTACTS (not for public release):

(April 29, 2002) Berkeley, CA --The University of California-Berkeley has
clamped down on peaceful protesters in a repressive move that betrays its
history. Long known as the spawning ground for student activism and the
Free Speech Movement, Cal is threatening year-long suspension for students
engaged in peaceful protest, and has suspended the student group Students
for Justice in Palestine.

More than 40 students face administrative discipline for an April 9 sit-in
at Wheeler Hall, in which demonstrators demanded the University divest from
Israel, in protest against the unlawful military occupation of Palestine and
apartheid system in place within Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.
In all, 79 protesters were arrested, but under a newly minted policy put in
place by Chancellor Robert Berdahl two days prior to the protest, students
who took part face serious academic punishment as well. A student
organization, Students for Justice in Palestine, has been suspended from
campus organizing, "pending investigation."

Seth Chazin, a member of the National Lawyers Guild, will represent the
students at their arraignments on Tuesday, April 30 at the Berkeley-Albany
Municipal Court and at their upcoming UC Berkeley Student Judicial Board
hearings. The National Lawyers Guild has a 65-year history of defending
people of conscience engaged in civil disobedience, from the labor movement
fights of the '30s, to the civil rights and anti-war struggles of the '60s,
to the antiglobalization movement of the '90s. The repression of civil
rights following 9/11 is but another battle for the Guild to take up in its
ongoing fight for justice and equality.

"As an alumnus of the University of California, I'm appalled that students
taking principled, non-violent action would face such draconian measures,"
said Dave Saldana, Regional Co-Vice President of the NLG. "When people are
dying half a world away with credible reports of massacres and flagrant
disregard for human rights, the University should be nurturing the moral
character it takes to stand up and say, 'Not in my name, and not with my
money.' Instead, the University is using an iron-fist rule to tell the
students 'Sit down and shut up.' What a terrible, terrible shame on this
place."

The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, a national civil rights
organization dedicated to advocacy for the Arab-American community, strongly
condemned the suspension of Students for Justice in Palestine. "SJP has
established itself as one of the foremost political voices of the of the
local progressive community and a central leader of the student movement
throughout the nation. The University's attempt to silence these students is
an example of the racist targeting of groups and individuals in this country
who stand up for justice and human rights for Palestinians," said Osama
Qasem, President of the San Francisco chapter of the American Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Students for Justice in Palestine challenges the UC administration's
clampdown on freedom of speech as invalid and refuses to abide by the
administration's edict. "We will continue to organize, to struggle, and to
exercise our democratic right to challenge this university's complicity in
ethnic cleansing. I am proud to follow in the tradition of Rosa Parks,
Martin Luther King, Jr., and other Americans who have refused to accept
injustice," said Hoang Phan of Students for Justice in Palestine, a graduate
student who was arrested at the April 9 demonstration.

"In a time of great historic and political importance, where repressing free
speech is the undercurrent of an all-out government war, we are outraged at
the historical amnesia that has overtaken the UC Berkeley administration,"
said Maryam Gharavi, a UC Berkeley undergraduate. "We have to ask
unflinchingly if 1964 has simply slipped from memory, if 'free speech' has
become nothing more than an overused and misrepresented saying, if the Free
Speech Movement Cafe on campus is nothing more than an upscale watering
hole, if the hardwon battles of the anti-apartheid and anti-sweatshop
movements have vanished from the collective psyche."

Despite being suspended, Students for Justice in Palestine plans to continue
to have an informational table on Sproul plaza, to organize on campus, and
to hold demonstrations on campus. Their next campus rally is planned for May
2 at noon on Sproul Plaza.

###
===FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE===

PRESS CONTACTS (not for public release):

WHO: Students for Justice in Palestine, UC Berkeley
WHAT: Rally in defense of free speech and for UC divestment from Israel
WHERE: Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley campus
WHEN: Thursday, May 2, Noon


PRO-PALESTINIAN STUDENT GROUP DEFIES UNIVERSITY SUSPENSION:
Students for Justice in Palestine Rallies in Defense of Free Speech at Cal,
Human Rights in Palestine

(April 29, 2002) Berkeley, CA -- Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a
UC Berkeley student group organized in solidarity with the Palestinian
struggle for human rights and self-determination, will be holding a rally in
defense of free speech and to urge the University of California to divest
from Israel this Thursday on the University of California, Berkeley campus.
The May 2 rally, entitled "Free Palestine! Free Speech!," will be SJP's
first direct challenge to the university adminstration's suspension of the
student group and ban on its public assembly.

Long known as the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement, Cal is threatening
year-long suspension for students engaged in peaceful protest, and has
suspended the student group Students for Justice in Palestine. More than 40
students face administrative discipline for an April 9 sit-in at Wheeler
Hall, in which demonstrators demanded the University divest from Israel, in
protest against the unlawful military occupation of Palestine and apartheid
system in place within Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.

In all, 79 protesters were arrested, but under a newly minted policy put in
place by Chancellor Robert Berdahl two days prior to the protest, students
who took part face serious academic punishment as well. A student
organization, Students for Justice in Palestine, has been suspended from
campus organizing, "pending investigation," preventing them from
distributing literature, setting up informational tables, assembling, or
reserving rooms on campus.

Students for Justice in Palestine challenges the UC administration's
clampdown on freedom of speech as invalid and refuses to abide by the
Administration's edict. "We will continue to organize, to struggle, and to
exercise our democratic right to challenge this University's complicity in
ethnic cleansing. I am proud to follow in the tradition of Rosa Parks,
Martin Luther King, Jr., and other Americans who have refused to accept
injustice," said Hoang Phan of Students for Justice in Palestine, a graduate
student who was arrested at the April 9 demonstration.

Throughout the week of April 29, SJP will carry out an organized literature
and tabling effort in coalition with many other University political and
cultural groups outraged at the suspension. National advocacy and civil
rights groups have also come out in support of SJP.

"As an alumnus of the University of California, I'm appalled that students
taking principled, non-violent action would face such draconian measures,"
said Dave Saldana, Regional Co-Vice President of the National Lawyer's
Guild, the progressive law organization defending the arrestees before the
court. "When people are dying half a world away with credible reports of
massacres and flagrant disregard for human rights, the University should be
nurturing the moral character it takes to stand up and say, 'Not in my name,
and not with my money.' Instead, the University is using an iron-fist rule
to tell the students 'Sit down and shut up.' What a terrible, terrible
shame on this place."

The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, a national civil rights
organization dedicated to advocacy for the Arab-American community, strongly
condemned the suspension of Students for Justice in Palestine. "SJP has
established itself as one of the foremost political voices of the of the
local progressive community and a central leader of the student movement
throughout the nation. The University's attempt to silence these students is
an example of the racist targeting of groups and individuals in this country
who stand up for justice and human rights for Palestinians," said Osama
Qasem, President of the San Francisco chapter of the American Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee.

"In a time of great historic and political importance, where repressing free
speech is the undercurrent of an all-out government war, we are outraged at
the historical amnesia that has overtaken the UC Berkeley administration,"
said Maryam Gharavi, a UC Berkeley undergraduate. "We have to ask
unflinchingly if 1964 has simply slipped from memory, if 'free speech' has
become nothing more than an overused and misrepresented saying, if the Free
Speech Movement Cafe on campus is nothing more than an upscale watering
hole, if the hardwon battles of the anti-apartheid and anti-sweatshop
movements have vanished from the collective psyche."