May 2 at 11:30 a.m., students took to the Pfau Library lawn to voice their grievances with the CSU and its connections to Israel as well as the overall silence of the Cal-State San Bernardino faculty over the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. This rally, put together by the Students for Justice in Palestine at CSUSB, follows several encampments and protests popping up across university campuses, urging administrations to divest from all ties to Israel.
“We just want our people to be free,” Intesar Shalabi, a Cal-State San Bernardino student, said when asked what she would like people to know about the overall message of the demonstrations worldwide.
The rally began with a recounting of Hind Rajabs, a five year-old girl killed by Israeli Army fire alongside her family members, final moments to show just exactly what the Palestinian people have endured these past seven months (and perhaps the past 75 years). Another student voice shared their thoughts on what’s going on in Gaza and the duty that student protestors hold in terms of creating movement for a permanent ceasefire.
Students were then encouraged to march through the campus while passionately chanting things like ‘CSU shame on you, you have blood on your hands too’ and ‘Gaza, Gaza, don’t you cry, Palestine will never die.’
“I just hope for the freedom of Palestine. This has been going on for more than eighty years, nothing new. I just want peace and I want the genocide to stop. And I want us students to get more financial help instead of giving that financial help away, again, to murder kids in another country,” said Amparo Escobar, a graduate student at Cal-State San Bernardino.
Though contrasting their university predecessors like UCLA whose students continue to be detained by LAPD and harassed by counter-protestors, the message was the same: disclose, divest, and end the occupation. Several speakers shared their thoughts on the student movement for Palestine. Professor Ahlam Muhtaseb, was able to get a journalist from Gaza to share some words on how people there are dealing with the ongoing turmoil and how this movement is giving them hope for a ceasefire and eventually a free Palestine.
Near the end of the rally, students were also encouraged to write messages to those in Palestine, get involved with clubs and organizations fighting for the cause, as well as further connecting with the students around them.
While the CSUSB institution does not have ties with Israel, it was made clear that the administration’s lack of communication on the issue will not go unnoticed; though Coyote Chronicle does not know whether faculty had been reached prior to this event.
Students all over and on our campus are raising their voices, taking action, and have made it clear that they aren’t going to stop anytime soon.
