Campers have left the UC Davis quad after six weeks of protesting the ongoing war in Palestine and the University of California’s investment “in a genocidal Zionist state.”
Before the decampment, spokespeople from the Davis Popular University for the Liberation of Palestine held a press conference on Wednesday stating the tents and fencing were coming down following “interference” and “obstruction” from the UC Office of the President and the UC Regents.
UCOP and the regents rejected the negotiated agreement, “completely prohibiting UC Davis from putting any agreement in writing, for fear of setting an example for protest movements at other UC schools in the future,” said PULP spokesperson Beshara Kehdi, a Ph.D. candidate in the cultural studies graduate group. Kehdi’s research interests include Arab American histories, social movements, Afro-Arab trajectories, and comparative slaveries.
Kehdi said PULP engaged in good faith at the negotiating table, recognizing that certain demands were beyond the scope of local authority and accepting UC Davis’s offer that would have dramatically increased funding and support for programming and staffing that would advance critical perspectives, discussion, and scholarly engagement on Palestine on this campus.
“UCOP’s authoritarian mission of resting control of this public university is out of local hands: the facade of this institution has cracked and revealed again the undemocratic rule over the UC by private elite Zionist hands that we call the Regents,” he said.
Over the course of these last 45 days, PULP has engaged in numerous conversations with top UCD administrators with the aim of coming to an agreement that partially fulfills some of the demands that were posted at the entryway during the first week that erected the encampment: Disclose and Divest: End UC Complicity”, “Total Academic and Cultural Boycott (Cancel Koret study abroad),” “Invest in Palestine, Arab American and Ethnic Studies,” “No repression, full amnesty, respect, free speech,” and for “Gary May to resign from Leidos or as chancellor.”
A review of the UC Davis veterinary school’s core exchange program has been underway to assess whether it complies with existing anti-discrimination policies with a commitment to resolve resolvable issues or end the program if they were irresolvable and an official acknowledgment of alleged “anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and Islamophobic harassment” that has occurred on the vet school campus, perpetrated by “racist Zionist faculty members,” according to PULP.
PULP stated that meetings between students and Jagdeep Singh Bachher, UCOP chief investment officer, began a process for soliciting and implementing student feedback on the UC Davis Foundation’s existing and potential future factors that could bar investments and military-industrial firms.
UC Davis spokesperson Bill Kisliuk said university officials engaged with encampment leaders several times and facilitated discussions on specific topics, including the University of California’s investment principles, research funding, and the School of Veterinary Medicine.
However, Kisliuk said the university did not present the encampment leaders with any written agreement.
In a statement on Thursday, UC Davis Chancellor Gary May affirmed that “since the encampment began May 6, university officials have met with encampment leaders several times to listen and engage in dialogue about the group’s concerns.”
He added that UCD “facilitated a meeting between PULP student leaders and UC Davis Foundation trustees, who provided information about the University of California’s investment principles and processes. In another meeting, representatives of the UC Davis Academic Senate provided insight into the ways faculty research is funded and the autonomy and academic freedom of individual researchers. In another meeting, leaders from the School of Veterinary Medicine shared the history and principles underlying the school’s collaboration with a similar school in Jerusalem.”
Over the past six weeks, counter-protesters, including some from the Davis October 7 Coalition, have heckled at the campers, waking them up at 5 a.m. on bullhorns; others have gotten in protesters’ faces, saying their videotaping is “journalism.”
In his statement, May expressed gratitude “to all who have worked hard to maintain a campus where members of our community can peacefully express themselves” and a redoubling of UCD’s “commitment to providing a safe environment for all, protecting peaceful, free expression, and assuring that our mission of teaching, research and public service continues without disruption.” He stated that students remained peaceful throughout the encampment and de-escalated challenging situations.
What happened at UCLA — using incitement from outside agitators to justify sweeping the camp there — did not happen at Davis.
PULP dedicated its security team to learning peaceful de-escalation. Support showed up with faculty and community members who are experts in confronting agitators with nonviolence – essentially by ignoring them.
There were faculty who showed up every night watching, keeping records in case counter-protesters tried to harass campers. PULP says there’s a “huge corpus of video of all of these people,” and they’re filing reports against these people, Kehdi said. “I think that, like really, the community, the campus, the students showed up to protect each other because this is so important here that that space could exist on campus that centered Palestinians and Arabs here and to advocate for this for so long, for this whole year for many years before ...
“This is like a really monumental thing that has happened, and that is only going to carry forward. You know, the lessons that people have learned are that they can actually see that this is their campus and that they can turn it into something that they believe is better, which is actually the best education that they never got in the classroom.”
On Friday, May 24, a UC Davis police officer fired a gun during the arrest of three people who have been charged with felony vandalism for the alleged spray painting of buildings with pro-Palestinian messages.
Kisliuk said that the officer has been assigned to administrative duties while the investigation with the Police Accountability Board is ongoing.
Talking about the incident during Wednesday’s press conference, PULP media liaison Stanford McConnehey, a newly minted King Hall graduate, brought the conversation back to the destruction in Palestine: “The life of one Palestinian person is more valuable than any piece of property. Before we talk about any property damage on this campus, we must acknowledge the fact that every university in Gaza has been intentionally reduced to rubble by the Zionist entity, robbing every student in Gaza of their education. For those students, we will never stop fighting. That is why we’ve been living on this quad doing the work of the popular university for the last six weeks.”
Students nationwide have already taken their case to the United Nations, meeting with experts in order to investigate over 100 college campuses and their administrations for human rights violations, Kehdi said.
Kehdi said the community at PULP and the larger movement for Palestinian liberation will continue to escalate in more material and more militant ways until the students’ demands are met. “The Popular University for the Liberation of Palestine has proven that the student movement refuses to be harassed, maligned, intimidated or criminalized into sacrificing its values and its vision for total liberation from the river to the sea.”
In April,UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türksaid he was troubled over a “series of heavy-handed steps taken to disperse and dismantle protests” across U.S. college campuses. “Freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly are fundamental to society — particularly when there is sharp disagreement on major issues, as there are in relation to the conflict in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel,” said Türk. “I am concerned that some of the law enforcement actions across a series of universities appear disproportionate in their impacts.”
The decision to decamp came just less than a week from UC’s announcement that an Orange County Superior Court ruled for an injunction against the United Auto Workers 4811 graduate student worker strike – an action taken by the UC after the Public Employees Relations Board denied them twice.
“The unfair labor practice strike is not illegal,” Kehdi said. “UCOP does not have the power to declare a strike illegal. UCOP and the Regents are not a court of law, judge, and jury, but they do fancy themselves as educated executioners. They govern this system in a violent manner and foolishly expect peace and civil discourse in return. To President Drake, Chair and Vice Chair Lieb and Elliott, to all the Regents, and to Gavin Newsom: we say no matter what you do to try to suppress, brutalize, and destroy this movement, no matter how many police you send, no matter how many students you suspend, no matter how many agreements you refuse to come to, you cannot stem the tide of the Palestinian freedom movement that is at your doorstep. If you create a new generation of political prisoners, they too will be the North Star of our struggle. And we will resist until all Palestinian people and their allies are free. We will not be intimidated or shaken. The war over hearts and minds has already been won. These encampments have already won. Genocide will not be tolerated. Palestine will be free. A reckoning is coming, and justice will be served from Turtle Island to Palestine.”
(12) comments
Are the protesters going to pay for any damage they have done to the campus?
"I wish you - and many others here - would have the honesty and courage to identify yourself as I do"
The name is Alan C. Miller, 45-year resident of Davis, Jew, City Council Clown, the host of Al's Corner on The Davisite, and the only person to publicly commit commenticide on the Davis Vanguard. I had no intention of being an anonymous coward like those who post anonymously or protest with masks on. It's a nickname I use that the computer assigned when I signed up with the Enterprise, and I don't know how one changes it.
"instead of behaving like the so-called "protesters" on campus who believe so much in free speech that they hide their faces to exercice it"
Yeah, agree totally. I despise face-covering cowards. They say it's because they are threatened and have to protect themselves. You know who else are threatened? Jews. And they/we don't hide their faces, because they are not cowards.
And you know who I despise, beyond any coward face-covering protestor in an encampment? Edan On, that 18-year old f*ck who attacked the pro-Palestine camp at UCLA with a wooden pole and white mask. A Jew covering their face and being violent against a protest encampment. What an absolute *@#$%&-face. The degree to which I loath Edan On cannot be stated, and even more the Israeli Nationalist *@#$%&-face parents who raised him and defended him. How did he see his pathetic actions going for him, or for Jewish people overall? He's up there in reasoning with people who shot abortion doctors to protest abortion.
As for the reason I say it isn't a good idea to shut down the protest encampment has nothing to do with how I feel about their demands (which I am baffled to believe Gary May agreed to - recall anyone?), but rather it rarely goes well unless (and even if) there is literal violence perpetrated by the encampment in advance. Camping and blocking a path may be illegal, but we say what happened in 2011 with the Pepper Spraying, and the U totally lost the war on that one, and rightfully so. Now, the *moment* there is violence or threats, the camp should be cleared. From what I could see, this was one of the more peaceful camps in the country.
We should be wary of their own words from this article -- that the movement is going to go "more militant". Definition of militant: "combative and aggressive in support of a political or social cause, and typically favoring extreme, violent, or confrontational methods." I'll take letting them have a peaceful encampment anytime over 'more militant'. Indeed, be wary. They have told us their intentions. Believe them.
Thank you. Nice to meet you, Alan.
I don't know if 'meeting' has occurred considering the circumstances.
BTW, a Google search will reveal the true identities of two of the three other 'anonymous' people who posted here, within a pretty good degree of certainty.
Thank you for this informative article, Monica. I only recently learned of the meetings the UCD students had with campus administrators and I’m very impressed and proud, both in how our students conducted themselves and how the campus responded. It’s a shame that some of the agreements between students and administrators at UCD could not be formalized into a written agreement because of intervention by the UC Regents and/or UC Office of the President. Thanks for all you do to cover these matters, Monica. Much appreciated!
This from yet another "anonymous" source who believes so much in free speech that he or she doesn't have the integrity and courage to identify him or herself. As such, does it have any value and does it add anything to the debate? No, it's just more propaganda in favor of lawbreakers.
Shame shame shame on Monica Stark for writing this clearly biased article and on the Enterprise for publishing it. Do you not have any journalistic standards at all? Quoting only the representatives of a group that wreaked havoc on UCD and the community and repeatedly call for violence?? They might as well have written this ���article” themselves, which sounds more like a propaganda piece than anything else.
JJS, I believe the reporter was reporting exactly what they said so we all could judge the legitimacy for themselves, rather than, as you claim, 'bias'. I do not go along with the encampment rhetoric, but I do believe in their right to nonviolently protest. The appear to have mostly done so, especially when compared to many other encampments. Part of this is probably due to the fact the University did not attempt to remove the encampment -- so there was little press on Davis. Even if they broke some rules such as putting up a fence across a walkway and camping on campus, these are better left alone than enforced. The idiots who taunted them only created publicity and gave them fodder to criticize 'Zionists' (as if that were a bad thing)
Hello "relentlesscactus" (I wish you - and many others here - would have the honesty and courage to identify yourself as I do instead of behaving like the so-called "protesters" on campus who believe so much in free speech that they hide their faces to exercice it). Maybe I am asking for too much, but it seems obvious that anonymous speech hardly qualifies as free speech. Considered from the other end, The Enterprise should not accept anonymous comments, but I digress...
You seem to believe that the most important element in this whole farce is to have maintained "non-violence" on both sides. Let's consider this. What the "protesters" started was NOT non-violent. It was typical bully behavior. They knew they were transgressing the rules but went ahead anyway, daring the administration to do something about it. That's what bullies do. And then of course if their intimidation tactics don't work and they get the forceful response they deserve (which they didn't here), they play martyrs and cry when - as you say - some idiots taunted them. How dare some idiots taunt then when everyone was supposed to take a clue from the administration and let the "protesters" walk all over it with complete impunity? The nerve.
Bullies test how far they can go without suffering the consequences of their actions, and when the strong response they should have received doesn't come, that means they get a green light to push the limits even further, which we will no doubt witness in the fall. From Chamberlain to countless other historical examples, placating bullies has never resulted in getting them to back down, on the contrary (Hitler, Putin and Kim Jong Un are obvious examples).
By refusing to show the spine it is legally entitled and obligated to do and remove the camp as soon as it was set up, the UCD administration bought itself a ticket for far more trouble next year. And as the historical examples mentioned above have proven, violence is far more likely to occur then. Just you watch.
Sigh... "The Davis Popular University for the Liberation of Palestine?" What on earth is that? Apparently it's a student-driven invention, never officially registered as a bona fide UC Davis student group, and yet it is presented by this terminally biased pseudo journalist as legitimate? In that case, can we have a "Davis Popular University for the Liberation of Ukraine" please? How about the liberation of Tibet? The liberation of the Western Sahara? The liberation of Northern Cyprus? No? Why? The singular myopia of this idiotic motley crew obsessed exclusively with Israel defending itself against Hamas terrorism disqualifies them from giving lessons to anyone about "saving even one Palestinian life". What a sad joke they are.
And as usual, no one there has uttered a single word of regret or admission of wrongdoing in the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7. The rapes, the murders, the torture, the burning of families and children alive, the mutilations of bodies that could not even be identified as a result, and of course the kidnapping of more than 200 people of all ages, none of these abominable exactions seem to have happened. A minimum of honesty in admitting that these actions - all of them defined war crimes - were what triggered the current Gaza war (the fifth started by Hamas in less than 20 years) would have lent the "protesters" some degree of credibility. Instead, their obtuse one-sidedness only serves to underline their irrelevance. They feel so good about themselves for having stood their ground in Davis when in fact they have accomplished absolutely nothing. How pathetic.
Or maybe not as pathetic as the meek responses from the administration, obsessed with placating these pseudo-protesters, sending one delegation after another to "discuss" with their leaders in order to "de-escalate" instead of removing them immediately, forcibly if necessary, since they broke the rules this college is supposed to follow. This will result in only one outcome: get ready for more of the same nonsense in the fall. You have been warned.
Now that finals are over and summer begins, and the student body audience is gone, the protest is over and participants show the fundamental inauthenticity of this event. This was actually students looking for an excuse to skip class than actually be committed to their cause. The situation in Gaza and Israel get worse everyday, and now on the eve of invading Lebanon, the protest is over and they won? Biden is getting humiliated by Netanyahu complaining that Santa didn’t get to his house fast enough. How is that a win for the protesters? This is very bizarre behavior
The use the word Zionist as if that were a bad thing :-| I do salute the use of nonviolent tactics by the encampment. Would be interesting to know what they mean when they say the movement will get 'more militant'.
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