Today, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) set up a literature table, like we have hundreds of times before. Only this time, it was in defiance of the University's restrictions on SJP's free speech rights. Last week, we received a notice from the administration with this warning:
"Please be advised that pending the investigation of this complaint, your organization's group privileges are hereby suspended. These privileges include (but are not limited to) reserving facilities, holding or advertising activities on campus, or tabling on Sproul Plaza."
So, we decided to set up our table and to let people know what is happening in Palestine and what is happening on campus. And we did this in defiance of what we believe to be an unjust restriction on SJP's rights to speak, distribute literature, and assemble.
So about thirty or forty of us came out today to stand by the table. Other groups also had tables out with signs that read "we are all Students for Justice in Palestine" in a show of solidarity against the administration's restrictions on our rights. It was truly an inspiring scene. Especially on a day when the crimes against Palestinians continue to mount, when Israel re-invaded Hebron and Dura and stopped international monitors from investigating the crimes in Jenin.
But in response to our table, the administration has upped the ante. Within an hour of setting up the table, Student Judicial Affairs Director Neal Rajmaira hand-delivered a letter to our group that threatened us with "further and additional" sanctions if we continued to table.
The letter is attached below. Its nebulous and vague language is clearly designed to threaten and confuse. And at its heart lies a vicious rationale that the University continues to maintain - that organizing for Palestine and speaking out about the University's investments in Israel constitute a threat to the academic mission.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is only when the University criminalizes and restricts activism and speech that it turns from being an academic institution to an ossified ivory tower, that it transforms itself from a place of learning and debate and discussion into a place of fear, complacency, and quietude. That is what we fear the Chancellor is doing at Berkeley by restricting SJP's rights to free speech and assembly.
And today, at Berkeley, in one fell swoop, the campus administration has turned back the clock and has begun to act in the draconian traditions of ex-President Clark Kerr, who also banned political tabling on campus. A campus that was the home of the Free Speech Movement has now become the scene for some of the most outrageous attacks on free speech.
And the real danger is not that they have singled out pro-Palestinian activists for these kinds of restrictions (which they have) but that the policy under which they are prosecuting the group, the Chancellor's so-called "zero tolerance" policy, makes it impossible for any group to know when their activism might make them subject to the same kinds of sanctions.
The suspension of the "privileges" of the group is one thing, but the University continues to investigate and prosecute students who peacefully sat-in on April 9th, 2002. Those students are still facing criminal charges and may be facing suspension from school. The fact that this is happening at all should be cause for concern. That it is happening at Berkeley should be cause for outrage.
We plan on being visible and organizing on campus. We plan to defy these restrictions on speech because we feel that it is the only way that we will get serious change in this University's policies. We continue to demand that the Chancellor publicly rescind the "zero tolerance" policy, that the University drop all charges against the protesters arrested on April 9th, that the University lift the suspension on Students for Justice in Palestine, and the UC Regents divest from all their holdings in Israel.
Today we must proudly and defiantly say that we are all Students for Justice in Palestine.
Snehal Shingavi
Students for Justice in Palestine - UC Berkeley
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Letter from Student Judicial Affairs to SJP Berkeley
Student Judicial Affairs
326 Sproul Hall #2434
Berkeley, CA 94720
(510) 643-9069
Students for Justice in Palestine
c/o Mr. Snehal A. Shingavi
Re: Suspension of Student Group Privileges Record #4815
Dear Mr. Shingavi:
Please be advised that your organization's student group privileges have been suspended pending the investigation of a complaint filed with this office that alleges numerous violations of the Berkeley Campus Code of Student Conduct ("CSC") arising from a rally and protest that your group sponsored on April 9, 2002. That event allegedly culminated in the "occupation" of an academic building (Wheeler Hall) and resulted in several arrests by the UCPD.
As my April 18, 2002 letter to you indicated, the ability of Students for Justice in Palestine ("SJP") to table on Sproul Plaza is also currently suspended. Accordingly, if SJP chooses to disregard this prohibition, be advised that the group faces further and additional disciplinary action by the University.
If you should have any questions regarding the suspension of SJP's student group privileges, please contact Marcia Gee Riley in the Office of Student Life.
Sincerely,
Neal S. Rajmaira, Esq.
Director
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
[posted 4/30/02]
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