On Wednesday, a group of extreme pro-Palestinian protesters took control of a tower at the University of California Berkeley, only after administrators and activists reached a resolution to stop a weeks-long “encampment.”
The , Daily Californian, the UC Berkeley student news, reported:
A group of pro-Palestine protesters broke in and stormed into Anna Head Alumnae Hall on Wednesday evening.
The protesters — gathering in a group of about 30 by 3: 15 p. m. — hung up the Israeli flag as well as board reading” Free Gaza” and” Avenge Al Shifa”. ]Al- Shifa is a doctor in Gaza that was taken over by jihadists, and where the Israel Defense Forces ( IDF) killed and arrested hundreds in fights last month, with zero human casualties. ] Additionally, according to photos that are circulating on Instagram, that appear to be activists inside the house.
…
A speech in the house said,” We are occupying the house because saying “free Palestine” is insufficient. You must set words in context with actions.
The school claimed that the students who took over the tower did not adhere to the campaign’s terms.
Pro- Palestine activists take over a unoccupied UC Berkeley owned building at Channing Way and Bowditch Street in Berkeley, Calif., on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. ( Photo by Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images )
The protesters previously agreed to end the encampment in exchange for the university’s promise to review its broad investment plans, though not especially from Israel, according to the , Daily Californian.
The , Daily Californian noted:
In exchange for the decampment, Chancellor Carol Christ agreed to” assistance a complete and thorough assessment of our assets and our socially responsible investment technique.”
The deal, which was first signed and sent to camp negotiators in early May, included Christ’s plan to obtain the UC Berkeley Foundation to launch a broader platform for social investment strategies, a request to the Chair of the Regents Investment Committee to develop a broader framework for social investment strategies, and the creation of a UC Berkeley Divestment Task Force made up of students, faculty, and staff.
As part of the agreement, the Foundation’s Environmental, Social, and Governance, or ESG, Committee will hear community concerns on specific industry sectors including weapons manufacturing, mass incarceration and surveillance industries. According to the agreement, the committee will convene a divestment task force in consultation with students and the administration if the ESG Committee determines that” the issue is serious enough to consider divestment.”
However, in a separate letter, UC Berkeley Chancellor Crist explained to the academic senate that divestment from Israel was” not permissible”:
I agree that the UCB Divest Coalition demands a total divestment from Israel. As stated by the University of California Office of the President, such divestment is not permissible. In no way may any established standards establish a cap on how much money can be invested in businesses based on whether or not they conduct business in Israel or Israel.
Due to concerns about academic freedom, the University of California as a whole has opposed selling off of Israeli universities or boycotting them. However, as Breitbart News has pointed out elsewhere, boycotting or divesting from Israel may also be unlawful under California’s anti- “boycott, divestment, sanctions” ( BDS ) laws.
The nation has seen a wave of pro- Palestinian — and often pro- Hamas, pro- terror, and antisemitic — campus protests, which have taken the form of “encampments” in which students have seized university property and stayed overnight.
Up until Wednesday evening, UC Berkeley was one of the several universities where pro-Palestinian activists agreed to end their camps after reaching agreements with administrators. Some witnessed police intervene to remove and arrest protesters, while others witnessed encampments simply disappear without their demands being met.
Several instances, like the one at Columbia University, showed how activists used their tactics by threatening to take over buildings.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor- at- Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p. m. to 10 p. m. ET ( 4 p. m. to 7 p. m. PT ). He is the author of the recent e- book,” The Zionist Conspiracy ( and how to join it )”, now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e- book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U. S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
