Berkeley’s Free Palestine Encampment Draws on Legacy of Palestinian Protests

Students and faculty set up a tent encampment in front of Sproul Hall on the UC Berkeley campus on April 22, 2024, in Berkeley, California.Following the arrest of over 100 students at Columbia University on April 18, Palestine solidarity encampment protests have multiplied across the US. Police crackdowns have occurred at other schools as well, including Northeastern University in Boston, where about 102 protesters were arrested.

On the evening of April 25, 36 people were arrested at Ohio State University when police violently attacked a line of protesters who had locked arms to form a protective wall around Muslim protesters who were gathered in prayer. Ohio Rep. Munira Yasin Abdullahi described the incident in a statement, saying, “They surrounded us at a moment when we were supporting students who were conducting prayer. I was grabbed by my headscarf. I was pushed toward the ground onto students.

Berkeley students also erected a mock shanty town outside Sprout Hall in 1986 as part of a campaign demanding that the university divest from apartheid South Africa. That campaign eventually won a historic divestment of over $3 billion. It is, however, worth mentioning that Occupy protesters at Berkeley were met with fierce repression in 2011 when dozens were arrested, and some protesters were

Ever since October 7th, we’ve had numerous protests. We had a 3,000-plus-person walkout, which was the biggest pro-Palestine student protest on campus in Berkeley’s history. We’ve had numerous sit-ins and disruptions, as well as this encampment. UC admin has not deployed law enforcement or things like that.

We are in communication with organizers across the nation and have been coordinating with them, whether it be offering advice or legal observing or just strategy. Quite frankly, we’re seeing a militant response to student organizers across the nation. We have had our comrades at IU in Ohio State have snipers brought in. Our comrades in New York are experiencing threats of the National Guard being deployed as well as faculty, and they’re being arrested.

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