GUPS Statement in response to SFSU’s Independent Review of Jerusalem Mayor Protest
On April 6, students at SFSU protested the mayor of occupied Jerusalem, Nir Barkat who came to speak on campus. We have been under investigation for nearly five months for our protest. The administration hired an outside investigator to interview participants, professors, and students who were present. SFSU released the investigator’s report on September 1st. The following is our statement:
The investigator’s report vindicates the protestors on three key points: (1) our protest targeted the Mayor of Jerusalem for his policies (which favor violence, colonization, removal of indigenous Palestinians and land theft). (2) We did not target students, and we did not target anyone because of their race, ethnic or religious identity; (3) there was no threatening behavior by protesters.
The report highlighted that Hillel-affiliated students felt hurt by our protest, but it failed to include that we, as Palestinians who are targeted by the Mayor’s policies, felt erased by the Mayor’s presence. The report also did not mention that GUPS members were targeted with death threats, rape threats, online profiling and in-person harassment in the wake of our action.
The report finds that our protest was disruptive, but for students of conscience, the real disruption was the Mayor of occupied Jerusalem coming to campus. His explicit agenda is to remove Palestinians from the city and he was given a platform to whitewash and propagate his policies. Not only were we subjected to this hate monger, but we were investigated for months and publicly smeared as violent and anti-Semitic. The report proves that these allegations are false.
Justice and truth shows us that liberation stands with those who struggle.
