{"id":262141,"date":"2024-05-13T12:00:58","date_gmt":"2024-05-13T11:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=262141"},"modified":"2024-07-02T08:49:29","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T07:49:29","slug":"listen-to-the-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/05\/listen-to-the-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Listen to the Students!"},"content":{"rendered":"

8 May 2024 – Hopefully, the political movement on US college campuses will be a game changer in stopping Israel\u2019s U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Columbia University encampment tribute to the martyred. Flags have names of those killed by Israeli forces, some have family members together, 23 Apr 2024.
(Pamela Drew, Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

The author delivered these remarks on Sat 4 May 2024 at the 55-year reunion of the Stanford University antiwar movement, in which she participated.<\/p>\n

On April 3, 1969, an estimated 700 Stanford students voted to occupy the Applied Electronics Laboratory (AEL), where classified research on electronic warfare was being conducted at Stanford. That spawned the April Third Movement (A3M), which holds reunions every five to 10 years.<\/p>\n

The sit-in at AEL, supported by a majority of Stanford students, lasted nine days. Stanford moved the objectionable research off campus, but the A3M continued with sit-ins, teach-ins and confrontations with police in the Stanford Industrial Park.<\/p>\n

*************************************<\/p>\n

This reunion comes at an auspicious time, with college campuses erupting all over the country in solidarity with the Palestinian people.<\/p>\n

Once again, 55 years later, Stanford students are rising up for peace and justice. They have established a \u201cPeople\u2019s University\u201d encampment and they are demanding<\/a> that Stanford:<\/p>\n

(1) explicitly condemn Israel\u2019s genocide and apartheid; (2) call for an immediate ceasefire, and for Israel and Egypt to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza; and (3) immediately divest from the consumer brands identified by the Palestinian BDS National Committee and all firms in Stanford\u2019s investment portfolio that are complicit in Israeli war crimes, apartheid and genocide.<\/p>\n

At this moment in history, there are two related military occupations occurring simultaneously \u2013 5,675 miles apart. One is Israel\u2019s ongoing 57-year occupation of Palestinian territory, which is now taking the form of a full-fledged genocide that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians.<\/p>\n

The other is at Columbia University, where the administration has asked the New York Police Department to occupy the school until May 17. Both occupations are fueled by the Zionist power structure. Both have weaponized anti-Semitism to rationalize their brutality.<\/p>\n

The students at Columbia are demanding that the university end its investments in companies and funds that are profiting from Israel\u2019s war against the Palestinians. They want financial transparency and amnesty for students and faculty involved in the demonstration.<\/p>\n

Most protesters throughout the country are demanding an immediate ceasefire and divestment from companies with interests in Israel. More than 2,300 people have been arrested or detained on U.S. college campuses.<\/p>\n

Israel has damaged or destroyed\u00a0every<\/a>\u00a0university in Gaza. But no university president has denounced Israel\u2019s genocide or supported the call for divestment.<\/p>\n

\n

Stanford students build 2nd Gaza solidarity encampment since the Gaza wa… https:\/\/t.co\/O6ESexbPBG<\/a> via @YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

— Irene Vautour (@irenevautour) May 2, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n