SSU pro-Palestinian student encampment erected on campus; scores attend peaceful rally

Pro-Palestinian students at Sonoma State University joined college students across the country this weekend in calling for an end to deadly violence in Gaza.

Despite some universities having turned to local law enforcement to remove demonstrators from their campuses, Sonoma State students set up the “SSU Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” at the Rohnert Park campus on Friday evening. Scores of additional demonstrators filled the encampment site through the weekend.

As many as a dozen tents had been put up at Person Lawn by Saturday, according to Albert Levine, 21, a third-year communications and media studies major.

Levine, a member of the Sonoma State chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, said the encampment is an effort to address the school’s “bystander effect.” In the process of organizing the encampment, some started asking “why didn’t someone do this sooner,” he said.

“Seeing and hearing how everyone felt that solidified that we’re in this together for the long haul,” he said.

Overall, according to visitors, people staying at the encampment and university officials The Press Democrat spoke with on Sunday, the gathering has been without incident.

SSU President Mike Lee, in a statement released Sunday morning, said, “The encampment has been peaceful.

“SSU staff and the Sonoma State University Police Department have been monitoring activities there since Friday ... and have not found it necessary to take any action at this time.”

He added that the university is primarily concerned about the “safety of students, faculty, staff and visitors; supporting the right to free expression by our community; and minimizing disruption to teaching, learning and working taking place.

“We understand the ongoing conflict in Gaza has ignited passions on all sides,” he said. “The politics and history of the region are complex, and concerns about the ongoing threat to human life in the region cannot be overstated.”

Referring to a prior statement he made following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which sparked the war, Lee reiterated, “There is no political, religious or cultural principle that merits the murder of the innocent, and the one battle we should all be engaged in is the fight for inclusion, respect, and freedom of all people, regardless of their background or identity.”

He concluded: “Let us remember that universities are repositories of knowledge and experience ideal for addressing expressions of protest and dissent, which are constitutionally protected. Our goal must be to ensure the safety of all members of the Seawolf community — and visitors to our campus — while encouraging civil engagement over passionately held views.”

In an effort to keep things orderly, organizers at the SSU encampment crafted an itinerary of activities on Sunday.

At 10 a.m., participants gathered for an “encampment meeting,” a kind of check-in to discuss the day’s happenings, which centered around the afternoon demonstration, which began at 2 p.m.

Though initially advertised as a “community protest” the event was more of a rally where attendees listened to speakers as they voiced their concerns about the Gaza war and the need for an immediate cease-fire.

About 250 to 300 people were in attendance. Many were visitors to the campus who were not staying at the encampment.

Chanting could be heard at times, “Disclose! Divest! We will not stop! We will not rest!”

There were also signs posted around the space that read: “Free Palestine” and “From the river to the sea.” There were also a number of people carrying and displaying Palestinian flags.

Besides students, Sunday’s rally included members of the Jewish Voice for Peace Sonoma County Chapter, as well as members of the North Coast Coalition for Palestine, which have both organized recurring demonstrations calling for a cease-fire that started soon after the war began in October.

Those local demonstrations were primarily held at the Old Courthouse Square in downtown Santa Rosa and in Petaluma.

Alyn Wolves, co-founder of the local Jewish Voice for Peace chapter, said,“... there have been detractors that keep showing up and trying to call us anti-Semitic and saying that we're against Jews and that would not make any sort of sense, because so many people doing this kind of organizing are Jews like myself, who care deeply about Palestinians and who recognize that Judaism has a long, long history of anti-Zionism.”

While there were no active counter-protesters on site Sunday, there were some people at the rally who took issue with the encampment and the messages of some of the speakers.

Gary Fox, who lives a few miles from the Rohnert Park campus and who said he attended SSU, said he stopped by Sunday morning to check out the encampment.

He said he believes the students have a right to protest and encouraged their effort in drawing attention to what is happening to civilians in Gaza. However, he said, he didn’t agree with the sign that read, “From the river to the sea.”

“They want to basically reclaim the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. And what's in the way of that?” he asked, indicating Israel. “The way I interpret it is they don't want Israel to exist. So, that's why you hear people say that slogan is anti-Semitic.”

Nathalie Hrizi, a guest speaker and magazine editor for the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s “Breaking the Chains” magazine, which has covered issues pertaining to Palestine, disagreed. She led a “teach-in” Sunday for those in the encampment.

“No one believes that Jewish people should be subjected to hate. The question of ‘From the river to the sea’ is a political rejection of apartheid, and of an occupation of Palestinian land,” she said.

Still, when another speaker questioned why it has been difficult establishing a cease-fire agreement, Linda Elyad a visitor, who is unaffiliated with any of the groups gathered to protest the war, shouted from the audience, “Ask Hamas!”

Asked about her comment a short time later, Elyad, who said she is Jewish and is a supporter of Israel, told a reporter that she believed the speaker was not acknowledging “the reality of that station” — that a cease-fire has to be agreed upon by both sides.

She added that she showed up at Sunday’s rally to “change some hearts and minds.”

For the foreseeable future, organizers said, local pro-Palestinian demonstrations will now be happening at the SSU encampment, which student organizers said will remain where it is until their demands have been met.

Protesting students across the country are demanding that their schools call for a permanent and immediate cease-fire; recognize Palestinian identity in academics, as with other ethnic and racial groups; divest from all entities that profit from and support the occupation of Palestine; and agree to an academic boycott that would shut down study-abroad programs linked to Israel.

The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, with at least two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza.

The war was sparked by an unprecedented Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel in which Hamas and other militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages.

Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.