DEFENDING FREE SPEECH, DEMANDING FREE PALESTINE! 5/6 Berkeley Courthouse Demonstration.

Photo: B. Marsh - subbrian3 [at] yahoo.com
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DEFENDING FREE SPEECH, DEMANDING FREE PALESTINE!
5/6/02 Berkeley Courthouse Demonstration.

Solidarity rally in support of the 79 arrested on April 9th in Wheeler
Hall, UC Berkeley campus.
Organized by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

Defendants and supporters gathered at the downtown Berkeley Bart
Station and marched to the Berkeley Courthouse – rallied to defend
Pro-Palestinian Activism, defend Free Speech, and Demand:
Free Palestine!

One of many speakers at the rally - Berkeley City Councilperson
Kris Worthington said that he will introduce a resolution that requests
UC Chancellor Berdahl to drop the suspensions for the April 9th
student protesters and requests the District Attorney to drop the
charges for participating in the demonstration and protest rally.

Former Berkeley Mayor Gus Newport, who played an important role
in Berkeley’s divestment from Apartheid South Africa, spoke in
support of those arrested for demanding that UC Berkeley divest from
Apartheid Israel.

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Most of the following text is excerpted from SJP Press Release dated (5/5/02):

BERKELEY, CA – On Monday, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)
and a coalition of progressive community groups rallied in support of
79 protesters arrested and facing a pre-trial hearing. 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 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 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 (by paying taxes and school tuition), be heard."
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Students for Justice in Palestine, Berkeley, California
http://www.justiceinpalestine.org

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More photos of this event by z:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2002/05/126368.php