As University of Washington police pried a protesting student’s clasped hands apart and dragged them from their nine-hour-long sit-in in the Office of the Vice Provost, the surrounding pro-Palestinian student activists held onto each other tight, screaming “SPD, KKK, IDF, you’re all the same.”
After hours of sit-in, cops pry pro Palestine protesters out of the office of the vice provost in Gerberding Hall, UW Seattle https://t.co/RhoYj8L2bM
— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) December 8, 2023
By 9:30 pm Thursday, UWPD had “removed” 36 protesters one by one from their occupation in Gerberding Hall, which houses University President Ana Mari Cauce’s office. Even as the last protester emerged from the building, greeted by a heavy Seattle Police Department presence, the protester did not cower. She stood on the steps of Gerberding, wrapped in her keffiyeh, and yelled “Free, free Palestine… Within our lifetime!”
Student activists at the University of Washington are not afraid to stand up for Palestinian liberation—or if they are, they can’t afford to show it.
VIDEO: Footage of the final protester exiting the building. pic.twitter.com/O2AgfRCqSz
— The Daily of the University of Washington (@thedaily) December 8, 2023
Throughout the two-month escalation of Israel’s reign of terror on Palestine, pro-Palestine advocates have faced doxxing, harassment, stalking, blacklisting, and state condemnation. Last month, a white man shot three Palestinian college students in Vermont in an alleged hate crime that left one student paralyzed from the chest down.
But with support for the Palestinian cause growing in recent weeks, recent UW graduate and Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return (SUPER UW) Jonah Silverstein said advocates feel less and less afraid of Zionists’ usual tactics of suppression.
And so, on the steps of Gerberding Hall Thursday morning, a student wrapped in a keffiyeh told more than 100 student protesters that they needed to escalate. Israel’s bombardment has leveled more than half the homes in Gaza, displaced 1.8 million residents, and killed at least 17,000 Palestinians, which exceeds the carnage of the Nakba, or the “catastrophe,” in 1948. So far, marches and vigils, however moving, have not stopped Israel’s genocide, nor have they pressured UW to meet the student’s demands: Divest from Israel, cut ties with Boeing, and stop suppressing pro-Palestinian sentiment from students and faculty.
The speaker said, “[Our] power is useless if we only ever operate within the bounds of the university and the state allows us to operate.”
The organizers laid out the risks of their sit-in. With the stated intention to stay in Gerberding until the cops kicked them out, the organizers said participants could face arrest.
About 100 students joined SUPER UW and United Front for Palestinian Liberation in hunkering down in the Office of the Vice Provost. The protesters left a clear mark: hanging flags, sticking Post-its on the walls, even leaving notes in desks for a personal reminder that “while you’re working, bombs are dropping.”
Throughout the action, Cauce’s Chief of Staff Margaret Shepherd and UWPD Police Chief Craig Wilson tried various tactics to break up the anti-genocide action.
Protesters are met by @amcauce chief of staff who says she’ll take a message, but the president is not available. She says police will enforce fire code. The students, after a pause, resumed chanting and chief of staff went in her office pic.twitter.com/VE3Fxj4Z7R
— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) December 7, 2023
For her “good cop” part, Shepherd offered them a meeting with Cauce the following day if they left, calling it their “opportunity for an audience.” Organizers asked for a phone call that day. Later that afternoon, Shepherd said Cauce would call them if they left the building first. Not wanting to give up their post without any real concessions from the University, the students decided to stay put.
For his “bad cop” part, Wilson and another officer attempted to remove and threatened to confiscate flags. One organizer said, “We have plenty of flags, we’ll just keep putting them back up.” “And we’ll just keep taking them down,” Wilson responded.
A cop tries to take down their demands, organizers easily stop him, and put it back up. “UWPD, KKK, IDF, You’re all the same!” They chant pic.twitter.com/e6dmfkZG5T
— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) December 7, 2023
Most boldly, Wilson lifted a student while they sat in an office chair in an attempt to remove them. Students told The Stranger that Wilson has made a lot of enemies with student organizers, but they are not surprised. UWPD exists to crush student activism, one organizer said, noting the department originated in response to anti-war protesters during the Vietnam War.
FORCIBLE REMOVAL: UWPD Chief Craig Wilson just tried to remove this protesters from their chair. They stuck it out for about 7 minutes. They did stand up eventually… to celebrate when the cop left. pic.twitter.com/8TEvInNQTK
— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) December 7, 2023
While Wilson’s effort to remove the student failed, Shepard told the protestors that UWPD would “enforce fire code” and start citing participants for trespassing at 5:15 pm. Video from participants shows cops dragging protesters away from the action. Participants claim that the cops took their pictures one by one before escorting them out of the building. UW did not respond to my request for comment.
Advocating against US-backed genocide can have real consequences as Silverstein told The Stranger before the sit-in Thursday. But the harassment, fear of doxxing, and threat of police have less “impact” on advocates in recent weeks, he said.
Knowing they could be arrested for their action, participants told The Stranger, they “don’t care” if their whole face shows up on front page news. Organizers told The Stranger they still proudly put their affiliations with pro-Palestine groups on their job applications. One protester introduced himself to Chief Wilson by his full name, shook his hand, and immediately went back to yelling “Shame on you, shame on you,” inches from his face.
“They’re grasping at straws to try and minimize our movement, to doubt our integrity,” Silverstein said. “But we know that we’re strong when we’re together, and that we’re going to keep fighting no matter what gets thrown at us.”
@39: You asked me a direct question, and I attempted an indirect answer. I apologize. Here is your direct question, followed by my direct answer.
“is what Gazans
are going thru
right fucking
Now fucking
terrorism?”
Indirectly, yes. Israel is responding to Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel by trying to prevent the future attacks Hamas has promised. Therefore, responsibility for civilian deaths in Gaza rests primarily with Hamas.
Directly, no. Israel is fighting a war in Gaza. The civilians dying there are caught between Hamas, who is cowering behind civilians in Gaza, and Israel, who is trying to prevent Hamas from realizing its promise to attack Israel again. Responsibly for civilian deaths in Gaza therefore rests primarily with Hamas.
@68: “Freedom here refers to the fact that Palestinians have been denied the realisation of their right to self-determination since Britain granted the Jews the right to establish a national homeland in Palestine through the Balfour Declaration of 1917.”
Then that slogan is based on a lie. The legal basis for Israel comes from the United Nations in 1948, and went into effect after, and only after, the British Mandate in Palestine ended that year. Saying Israel is based on the Balfour Declaration is a bit like saying the United States exists because of the Treaty of Westphalia, instead of the peace treaty Britain signed at the end of the American Revolutionary War.
nyt:
A Fraught Question for the Moment:
Is Anti-Zionism Always Antisemitic?
From the halls of Congress to
America’s streets and universities, a once
largely academic issue has roiled national discourse,
inciting accusations of bigotry and countercharges of bullying.
Yet some critics of Israel say they equate Zionism with a continuing project of expanding the Jewish state. That effort animates an Israeli government bent on settling ever more parts of the West Bank that some Israelis, as well as the United States and other Western powers, had proposed as a separate state for the Palestinian people.
Expanding those settlements, to Israel’s critics, conjures images of “settler colonialists” and apartheid-style oppressors.
Many Palestinians and their allies recoil just as fiercely: The equating of opposition to a Jewish state on once-Arab land — or opposition to its expansion — with bigotry is to silence their national aspirations, muffle political dissent and denigrate 75 years of their suffering.
Laila el-Haddad, a Palestinian activist and author, called it “a chilling attempt to punish and silence voices critical of Israeli policies.”
But perhaps nowhere is the question more fraught than among Jews themselves. Younger, left-leaning Jews, steeped in the cause of antiracism and terms like “settler colonialism,” are increasingly searching for a Jewish identity centered more on religious values like the pursuit of justice and repairing the world than on collective nationalism tied to the land of Israel.
–by Jonathan Weisman; Dec. 10, 2023
more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/10/us/politics/anti-zionism-antisemitism.html
continually Bombing
your open-air prison’s
not gonna win you a lotta
support in the Long Run, BiBi
but it Will
keep your ass
outta Prison. for Now.
END the Madness.
and Save Israel
and Palestian Lives
from the Reactionaries.
@68
“That chant doesn’t mean that to the leftists chanting it.
They want Palestine to be free and self ruling without being in an apartheid society.
They don’t say it as a mutually exclusive decree for the end of Israel and its right to exist.
That’s what the people accusing them of antisemitism say it means to fit their narrative.”
Bingo.
“@70: You asked me a direct question, and I attempted an indirect answer. I apologize. Here is your direct question, followed by my direct answer.
‘is what Gazans
are going thru
right fucking
Now fucking
terrorism?’
Indirectly, yes.”
then let us be Direct:
“There
is no justify-
cation for terrorism. Ever.”
tensorna on December 8, 2023 at 8:44 AM
well
at Least
we Agree
on One thing:
reigning Terror
on Palestiians
CANNOT BE
JUSTIFIED.
end the
madness
while
Israel Still
has a Chance.
@73: Yes, Hamas’ terrorism, and their pledge to continue their terrorism, is the root of the current conflict. When Hamas renounces terrorism, the current conflict can end.
I’m glad to see we agree on this.
Hamas and Bibi: a plague on both their houses
@74
(& 76)
so you Support
Eradicating
HAMAS to
the Last
Gazan.
got it.
the
World
will NOT
stand for it.
buckle up
buckos.
Hamas can end this today.
Release all the hostages.
And surrender.
There, problem solved
@77:
“ so you Support
Eradicating
HAMAS to
the Last
Gazan.”
No, I support eradicating Hamas to the last Hamas terrorist.
If the world wants this war to stop, it can start demanding Iran and Qatar defund Hamas, that bankers and governments freeze Hamas’ accounts, that every country harboring Hamas’ terrorists hand them over for trial. The world can also demand Hamas disband, as @77 implied.
Hamas is root of the problem here. All else is just details.
@78
so you Support
Eradicating
HAMAS to
the Last
Gazan.
“No,
I support
eradicating Hamas
to the last Hamas terrorist.”
ah, Yes.
the olde
Distinction
without a Difference.
@80: It’s Hamas — sorry, the Gaza Health Ministry — which, in the casualty figures the Stranger has unquestioningly accepted, draws no distinction between Gazan civilians and Hamas’ terrorists. So, you can take that up with them.
If we want to save civilian lives in Gaza, we need to shut Hamas down. Let’s flood the streets with people demanding that resolution to this conflict.
if we need to Save
Palestinian LIVES
we need to shut
down BiBi Nutn-
yahoo and End
his Desperate
Keep-Outta-
Prison gig
if not for Gazans
who cannot be Actual
Human Beings if Israel’s
allowed to Slaughter 17,000
of them in Retaliation for their
Unforgivable Terrorist Attack on Oct/7
then for
Israel’s sake
whose War Crimes
are turning the Planet
stupidly irrationally against
Israel.
for how Long will
the Ethnic Cleansing
be Allowed to Continue?
the Planet’s
Patience is
wearing
Thin.
@Will
sorry @80
shouldda been
directed @ tentsey.
@82: “…Israel’s
allowed to Slaughter 17,000
of them in Retaliation…”
What is your evidence for this? That you say so? That you want to believe it? If the IDF was targeting civilians In Hamas in retaliation for Hamas’ attacks, then that would indeed be barbaric and inexcusable. (And the death toll would be far, far higher by now.) But that is not what is happening.
Israel is attacking Hamas, to prevent the repeats of 10/7, which Hamas has explicitly promised. Hamas is hiding behind the civilian population of Gaza. Hamas is using the civilian population of Gaza as human shields. That is why the civilian death toll in Gaza is as high as it is.
Therefore, if you want to reduce the death toll, demand Hamas surrender. Demand Iran and Qatar defund Hamas. Demand an international freeze on Hamas’ assets. Demand countries which harbor Hamas terrorists or leaders hand them over for trial. Demand sanctions on countries and leaders which refuse to take the above actions.
@69 I didn’t answer the question? I have stated more than once I DO NOT IN ANY WAY SUPPORT ZIONISM. Just as I don’t support white supremacists. Just as I don’t support any white people on the face of this earth that believes they have more of a right to life than any other people on the face of the earth. You keep pretending you have somehow tricked me into saying I am an anti-Semite. I am not. Nor are the millions of Jews worldwide (including those who chained themselves to the fence of the White House this morning) demanding a cease fire, because they, too, do not in any way support Zionism.
No matter how many times you say it, your words do not mean what you believe they mean.
Anti-Israel, Anti-Zionism DOES NOT EQUAL Anti-Semitism. Not now. Not ever.
@84 One can demand all those things and still believe that Israel is behaving in a way that will prove severely detrimental to its own security, material interests, international standing and national character.
That said, I think The Stranger should remove the word “Zionists” from the subhead of this article. As these comments illustrate, its meaning (like that of “terrorists”) is far too contested and emotionally fraught to be useful in journalism outside of pure opinion pieces. Many people who consider themselves Zionists are aghast at this war.
@86: Sure, but the point is the protesters demanding a cease-fire either don’t understand how this situation developed, or they don’t care, or both. A cease-fire simply gives Hamas time to recover and steal more aid, and then this all repeats after Hamas’ next attack. (75 years into this overall conflict, I doubt anyone’s minds will have changed much, once this is no longer the topic of the moment.)
The Stranger should learn what the term “genocide” actually means.
I’m always confused by protests like this that target someone with absolutely no ability whatsoever to make change. It makes it seem like the location of the protest was selected solely for the convenience of the protestors, rather than to maximize the impact of their message.
ok. a little
Levity:
The House recently passed a Republican-led resolution declaring that anti-Zionism is antisemitism. The Onion asked politicians why criticizing Israel should be illegal, and this is what they said.
“Well, really, criticizing anything that has power should be illegal.”
–Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)
“Making it a crime to criticize Israel should be obvious. What we really need to do is make it illegal to criticize a guy for covering up sexual abuse while acting as the assistant coach for Ohio State’s wrestling team from 1987 to 1995.”
— Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH)8
“It is my belief that criticism of anyone should be illegal.
Criticism in general is just plain mean.”
–Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA)
“Because it’s anti-Sem-
itic, duh. And why is it anti-Semitic?
Because it’s criticizing Israel. See how that works?”
— Rep. David Kustoff (R-TN)
“Hey,
whatever it takes
to keep dividing Democrats
like this before the 2024 election.”
–Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
more:
https://www.theonion.com/politicians-explain-why-criticizing-israel-should-be-il-1851082190/slides/11
one more
Two more:
“Criticizing anything
that gives us an ethnostate arm-
ed with nuclear weapons smack dab in an
oil-rich region should be punishable by firing squad.”
–Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL)
&
“If pro-Palestine supporters
want free speech, they can
form a corporation.”
–Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY)
she’s smarter
than she looks
from: Notes From The Edge
Of The Narrative Matrix:
Israel Apologists Are Psychopaths
I refuse to conflate the Jewish religion with the criminal activity of a government and its military, and I think it’s dangerous that people insist that I should.
Israel apologists are such psychopaths. In the last few days I’ve seen two separate articles attacking the idea that there are innocent people in Gaza, one from The Times of Israel titled “Innocents in Gaza? Don’t be naive” and another from Town Hall titled “There Are No ‘Innocent Palestinians’”.
Just as disturbing as seeing the endless stream of dead babies and children’s bodies blown apart by military explosives on my feed is having to read so many of my fellow humans defending these horrors in the most sociopathic ways imaginable.
One of the most braindead responses I get from Israel apologists all the time is “Just tell Hamas to surrender and this whole war ends.” Like that’s a thing.
Like Hamas are hanging on my every word and they’ll be like “Hang on you guys, one more white westerner just said we should surrender! Let’s wrap it up, fellas.”
Like even if you accept the pants-on-head moronic notion that these horrors are 100% the fault of Hamas and 0% the fault of Israel and everything it’s done since October 7 and prior to October 7, and even if you ignore
international law which says Palestinians have a right to defend themselves against hostile occupiers while Israel has no right to launch an attack to “defend” itself against people it is occupying, this argument still makes no sense.
Hamas, unlike Israel, has no political responsiveness to the demands of the west. They have no reason to listen to anything we say.
Westerners putting political pressure on our own governments to stop facilitating this nightmare absolutely does have an effect, and we’re seeing more and more signs that both Israel and its western allies are getting very nervous about the mounting international pressure from the public.
Pretending the same is true of Hamas, who has no motive whatsoever to heed western governments and their electorates, is just evading reality to advance an agenda.
And Israel apologists know this. They’re just throwing up every distraction and red herring they can think of to try and drag opposition to Israel’s mass atrocities off course.
“Tell Hamas to surrender” just means “Stop criticizing Israel’s actions. Look over there, not over here. Shut up. Be silent. Go away.”
The problem is not the words and phrases people use when protesting a genocidal massacre of civilians, the problem is the genocidal massacre of civilians.
If children are being slaughtered by the thousands in a horrific massacre and someone tries to make the conversation about what words and phrases you’re not allowed to use when opposing that massacre, the correct thing to do is to tell that person to shut the fuck up.
–Caitlin Johnstone; Dec. 11 2023
more:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-apologists-are-psychopaths?
A “free Palestine” would be a brutally oppressive, Islamic theocracy totally ruled by men.
Women’s rights would be non-existent.
Abortion would be outlawed.
Being gay would likely get you killed.
Music, literature, film and all other media would be severely restricted.
No separation of religion and state.
Renouncing Islam carries a death sentence.
Mocking Islam carries a death sentence.
Etc. Etc. Etc.
@91
perhaps.
but we’ll Never
know if they’re Never
given the
Chance.
END the
Genocide
& Maybe we’ll
find Out.
These campus kooks must be the new face of Nazism?
Such is the intellectual and social rubbish heap of the American Left and the scrambled academic egg heads who lead these children astray.
Why do the Democrats and these spoiled suburban students align themselves with the Satan-worshipping heretics of Hamas and its Iranian enablers?
The cause of Israeli sovereignty is just, and they were attacked first, so America should stand up and fight for these noble people, who apparently represent a sober anti-communist threat to the namby-pamby, morally adrift progressives.
America should be forever grateful to Israel for representing democracy among the pig-fuckers of the Arab world.