Protest in Berkeley Against Repression in Palestine and the US

This Monday and Tuesday, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and a coalition of progressive community groups will come out in support of 79 protesters arrested and facing a pre-trial hearing at a rally at the Berkeley City Court House at 1PM . These 79 students and community members were arrested at a non-violent civil disobedience sit-in on the University of California, Berkeley campus at a demonstration calling for an University divestment from the state of Israel.

The charges against the protesters, which the rally contests the legitimacy of, range from "trespassing" to "disturbing the peace" to "resisting arrest." The District Attorney has refused to drop charges on the protesters, and all 79 pleaded not guilty at the April 30 arraignment. A legal team consisting of various progressive law groups, including the National Lawyer's Guild and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, is representing the students.

SJP and other community groups, including as Jews for a Free Palestine and the ADC-SF, are protesting these charges, viewing the charges as part of a multi-faceted assault on the rights of free speech and SJP's message questioning University and government complicity in oppression of the Palestinian people.

"All aspects of this case reveal that this is a political trial, and SJP is being made an example out of" says Maryam Ghavari, an SJP student who was arrested on April 9. "D.A. John Adams and the University are trying to hand-in-hand to silence those students and activists who are standing forth with a message that they do not like, that their investments are funding a racist, apartheid regime that crushes human rights on a daily basis. No other activists have faced such reprisals for a non-violent civil disobedience. "

The University of California is also raising separate student judicial charges against the 41 protesters who were students, which are carried with the unprecedented threat of academic suspension for up to one year for some students. Many students and community see this as a coordinated effort targeting the group, especially disheartening in Berkeley, a place commonly known as a center of freedom of speech.

"D.A. John Adams is taking the same line as Chancellor Berdhal and company, a line which does not even stand up to the facts," says Hoang Phan, a graduate student at UC Berkeley and SJP member. "They would like for everyone to believe that they are pursuing this case because we disrupted the academic mission of the university. Yet, even dozens of faculty supporters, who know best the academic mission of this university, have stepped forth and agree that our acts on non-violent civil disobedience are protected speech and important contributions to the educational goals and intellectual vitality of this university."

"In Berkeley, of all places, free speech has become nothing more than a cliché given lip-service to and crushed behind-the-scenes," said Chris Cantor, a member of SJP. "We follow in the tradition of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., and we will stand up like them to demand that our voices against oppression in Palestine, which we fund on a daily basis, be heard."

Students for Justice in Palestine, Berkeley, California
http://www.justiceinpalestine.org
justiceinpalestine [at] yahoo.com - (510) 496-1269 x1948 - vm/fax