Swarthmore SJP press release with student demands

📍The World

On May 1, International Workers Day, we take to the streets. A coalition of labor and student organizations has committed to heed the call shared by the The Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions in Gaza in which the PGFTU urges the labor movement to move words into action, reaffirming our commitment to Palestine, increasing pressure to end the genocide, advancing the People’s Arms Embargo and BDS resolutions toward the goal of Palestinian liberation.

In their appeal on September 11, 2024, the PGFTU expressed, “We, with our souls and bodies, continue to resist the death that is imposed upon us, and we trust that you will continue to raise the banner of solidarity and struggle to stop the aggression and to live a dignified life for a freedom that is not negotiable and for a justice that does not bow to anyone.”

Organizations can sign on in solidarity with the May Day call to reaffirm our commitment to Palestine at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJUVnNz8gg_A7tsSDnOBWAqavc80sGV0etoUAGxzsXi7QVRg/viewform

Here are some of the countless actions happening today:

NYC:


3:30PM, NW corner of Foley Square - Join the Labor for Palestine pre-rally ahead of the big May Day union march at 5PM!


LA:

4PM, MacArthur Park – PYM Arab Youth Contingent meetup before LA May Day Rally


SF Bay Area:

4PM, SF Civic Center Plaza – May Day in the Bay/ Immigrant & Workers Rights: One Struggle, One Fight

First of May, 1982, via the Palestinian Poster Project Archive.

📍Los Angeles, CA

Over the past several days, UCLA has escalated its ongoing violence and repression against students in solidarity with Palestine. April 30th marked the one year anniversary of when a Zionist mob, with the full and blatant support of UCLA police, brutally attacked students at the UCLA Gaza Solidarity Encampment. On April 30, the day before yesterday around 2PM PT, 6 UCPD officers detained a student wearing a keffiyeh outside of the Powell Library and placed the student in a squad car.

Later that night, students gathered on Bruin Plaza for a screening of the documentary film, “The Encampments.” Soon after, police arrived and swarmed the audience, trying to snatch screening gear. Students marched to De Neve Plaza to resume the screening, only to face an attack by 60 police officers in riot gear. Brandishing batons and weapons they dubbed “less lethal,” police ran into the student audience on foot; some police even drove into the audience on motorcycle. Officers confiscated equipment and arrested two students operating the screening, shoving them in a “BruinCar,” a vehicle typically used to drive students home. As community marched to the UCPD station in solidarity for jail support, police blocked their access and continued to follow them on their return to campus.

May 1 morning, police detained eight students wearing keffiyehs during a traffic stop. All have been released, with seven cited for not wearing a seatbelt (note: not wearing a seatbelt in California is classified a minor infraction, less severe than a misdemeanor and normally met with a fine). Upon their arrest, students were forced by police to sit with their hands behind their backs on the floor of the Sunset Village parking garage for about an hour before they were released. The two students arrested at the screening have since been released. One of the students had to be treated in the ER for injuries from the police attack.

These events unfold in the context of the UC Police Department’s swelling investments in military equipment over the past year. At last September’s UC Regents meeting, regents unanimously approved such purchases as 3000 rounds of pepper munitions, 12 drones, nine “less lethal” launchers, and 500 rounds of 40mm impact munitions. While this vote transpired behind closed doors, riot gear-clad UC police barred public entrance to the building, forcing student and faculty protestors to give comment outside. This contravened California state law AB481, which requires public comment before a governing body approves purchase of military equipment.

Despite the repression, the student movement for a free Palestine grows stronger 🇵🇸

For further updates please follow Poppy Press, the student run movement news paper at UCLA: https://www.instagram.com/poppypress_

BASEL AL ARAJ POPULAR UNIVERSITY HAS JUST LAUNCHED, RECLAIMING BUTLER LIBRARY FOR THE PEOPLE

ALL OUT TO BUTLER NOW

📍 Columbia University

BASEL AL ARAJ POPULAR UNIVERSITY HAS JUST LAUNCHED, RECLAIMING BUTLER LIBRARY FOR THE PEOPLE!

WE REJECT AN IMPERIALIST ECONOMY OF KNOWLEDGE.

WE EVOKE THE LEGACY OF LIBERATION AND PHILOSOPHY OF DIRECT ACTION OF BASEL AL-ARAJ.

AS STUDENTS, RESISTING GENOCIDE IS OUR MORAL IMPERATIVE. ALL OUT TO BUTLER NOW

https://www.instagram.com/p/DJXUUGUR-CM/

📍NYC, NY

🇵🇸🚨Actionists at Columbia are being kettled by public safety and police and violent arrests have already happened as they try to maintain the Basel Al-Araj liberated zone. Anyone who can get on campus rally in front of Butler and if you can’t get on campus mobilize at 116th & Broadway NOW! Share widely!

📍Brooklyn, NY

🚨🚨🚨ALL OUT TO BROOKLYN COLLEGE RIGHT NOW‼️‼️‼️
2900 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11210—In front of main gates on Bedford Ave

CUNY students HAVE TAKEN OVER THE EAST QUAD LAWN and demands Brooklyn College comply with the CUNY 5 Demands. As CUNY continues to fund and support genocide, and continues to refuse to drop the charges on their own students who have protested genocide, Brooklyn College and CUNY students demand 5 things: 1.) Disclose+Divest 2.) Boycott 3.) Solidarity 4.) Demilitarize 5.) A People’s CUNY

CUNY students have named this liberation zone after Hassan Ayyad, the 14-year-old martyr from Gaza who died on an empty stomach and under the military weapons and bombs WE PAY FOR.

THEY NEED YOUR SUPPORT! WEAR KUFFIYEHS AND MASKS! BRING FLAGS! AND COME IN GROUPS! BROOKLYN COLLEGE IS IN A HEAVILY ZIONIST NEIGHBORHOOD SO BE ON HIGH ALERT‼️🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

https://www.instagram.com/p/DJZjp8Nu1tw/

On Nakba Day, we release the first English translation of Basil al-Araj’s essay “The Wounded Memory of the Nakba”. In harrowing detail, it describes several theaters of extermination during the Zionist colonization of Palestine in 1947-49.

https://newyorkwarcrimes.com/the-wounded-memory-of-the-nakba

Translated by Alex Jreisat, the text was generously provided by Safarjal Press, who in consultation with al-Araj’s family and friends have edited a full English translation of al-Araj’s I HAVE FOUND MY ANSWERS (2018), where this essay was first published in Arabic.

Find an excerpt in print with the latest issue of the New York War Crimes—the Nakba Day edition, or download the full issue here:
https://newyorkwarcrimes.com/print-issue-vol-ii-no-17

📍 New York

Writers Against the War on Gaza: Columbia president Claire Shipman's commencement address is drowned out by protestors chanting "Free Mahmoud" and "Free Gaza."

REMINDER:
ALL OUT TO COLUMBIA, TOMORROW WE DISRUPT COMMENCEMENT!
WEAR A MASK + MAKE NOISE
Columbia University 116th/ Broadway, Wednesday, May 21st
10:00 AM

Inbox: Anonymous individuals smashed the windows to Columbia University's Public Safety building & sprayed "ACAB" across the facade in protest of Public Safety & NYPD aggressively mass arresting a recent student protest inside a campus library. That demonstration advocated for Columbia University to divest from genocide profiteering.

Note: No tagged accounts are affiliated with this action, just topically relevant.


via IG @mxtaliajane

📍 Dublin, Ireland
🇵🇸🇮🇪 TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN DIVESTS FROM ISRAEL 🇵🇸🇮🇪

Trinity College Dublin will divest from Israeli universities and companies headquartered in Israel, the college announced today, after students staged a 5-day encampment last May calling on the university to cut ties with companies operating in Occupied Palestine. This will include ending all investments, commercial relationships, academic and research collaborations, and TCD will no longer facilitate Erasmus+ exchange agreements with Israeli universities.

TCD Students’ Union President Jenny Maguire said the university “had to be forced by student direct action to acknowledge Israel’s genocide.”

University professor David Landy said, “This is a significant day for Trinity and for Irish-Palestinian solidarity, and reflects the resolve of student and staff campaigners. However, it is difficult to feel glad when Israel’s genocide in Palestine continues.”

WE PROTECT US: Last night, outside Delaney Hall ICE Detention Facility in Newark, New Jersey, dozens of community members came out in solidarity with the abducted immigrants imprisoned there. Run by the GEO Group, one of the largest private prison companies in the US, the facility has become a notorious clearinghouse for New York and New Jersey prisoners of ICE. Due to the inhumane conditions a number of detainees rioted yesterday, breaking down a shoddily constructed prison wall. Outside, protestors rose to meet the moment, blockading the entrances to prevent the unmarked ICE vehicles from arriving or departing by standing up barricades and linking arms with one another.

As a result of this concerted resistance, an ICE vehicle swerved and careened into the detention facility’s chainlink fence, rendering it inoperable for more than two hours. The protestors held the line while the ICE squad were forced to wait for repairs, facing taunts and jeers from the inspirited crowd. After finally fixing the gate, ICE forced its way through the blockade, wielding batons, spraying mace, and running over the makeshift barricades.

The deportation machine was delayed because of this simple yet creative emergency action. The profligate system terrorizing communities all across the United States was met with disciplined and brave community action demanding ICE out of our cities and streets.
One woman came out to support because her husband was inside the facility. At one point she yelled out to the crowd that her husband was safe. What may have been possible last night with more bodies and with an expanded plan is a future to be seized. What may have been may well be—if we continue to fight for it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DK2zhNZSeIM/