After two weeks of pitching tents, open negotiations and pro-Palestine rallies, Students for Gaza SFSU are now packing bags en route to Long Beach, California to protest the California State University Board of Trustees meeting on May 21.
The trip comes as a continuous effort to get the entire CSU system to divest from Israel following the announcement of SFSU’s commitment to divest.
In a press release on May 20, Students for Gaza SFSU urged CSU Chancellor Mildred García and the Board of Trustees to negotiate with students and recognize their demands.
The demands for the trip are similar to those held during the encampment — “disclose all divestments, divest from entities that are complicit in or plausibly committing genocide, ethnic cleansing and/or human rights violation, defend student activism, declare publicly that Israel is engaging in genocide, ethnic cleansing and settler-colonialism in Palestine in violation of international law” — according to the press release.
With pillows, blankets, and packaged food and water, around 40 students gathered in front of the Cesar Chavez Student Center at 12:30 a.m. to head to Long Beach together on a bus that Students for Gaza SFSU chartered with donations. SFSU students will also be driving to Long Beach separately from the main group.
Students for Gaza SFSU arrived in Long Beach around 7 a.m. and plan to return to SFSU around 2 a.m. on Wednesday, May 22.
“Going to Long Beach to get the largest public university system in America to rid its complicity in Israel’s war crimes and unimaginably extreme human rights violations upon Palestinians feels like nothing is more important,” said Amey, a media liaison for Students for Gaza SFSU, on the larger significance of this trip.
A rally is set to begin at 10 a.m. at Lincoln Park in Downtown Long Beach. From there, participants will march over to the CSU headquarters building, which is a few blocks away.
According to student sources, CSU Long Beach, Sonoma State and CSU Los Angeles are expected to attend the rally. Three SFSU students are anticipated to speak during the meeting’s public comment section.
The reporter on this story traveled on the bus with Students for Gaza SFSU
