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"content": "\u003cp>State Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/scott-wiener\">Scott Wiener\u003c/a>, who for years has refrained from calling Israel’s attacks on Gaza a genocide, has now changed his position as he hits the campaign trail for California’s 11th Congressional seat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve stopped short of calling it genocide, but I can’t anymore,” Wiener, who is Jewish, said in a \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/Scott_Wiener/status/2010464312792404192?s=20\">post on the social media platform X on Sunday evening\u003c/a>. “To me, the Israeli government has tried to destroy Gaza and to push Palestinians out and that qualifies as genocide.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Democratic lawmaker’s shift comes less than a week after his appearance in a debate between candidates vying to fill Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s seat after she retires early next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a lightning-question round, Wiener and the other two leading candidates, San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan and former tech engineer Saikat Chakrabarti, were asked to respond “yes” or “no” to whether they think Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan and Chakrabarti said yes. Wiener did not answer the question, prompting boos and jeers from live audience members and scathing comments in online chat rooms following the event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener pointed directly to the debate in a video he posted online on Sunday, explaining his position.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12069066\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12069066\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-25-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-25-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-25-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-25-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Candidates running for California’s 11th Congressional District, (from left) Saikat Chakrabarti, state Sen. Scott Wiener, and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, take part in a forum at UC Law San Francisco on Jan. 7, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“For those of you who saw the debate clip from last week, I want to clarify that I do believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza,” he said. “For many Jews, associating the word genocide with the Jewish state of Israel is deeply painful and frankly traumatic. But despite that pain and that trauma, we all have eyes, and we see the absolute devastation and catastrophic death toll in Gaza inflicted by the Israeli government. And we all have ears, and we hear the genocidal statements by certain senior members of the Israeli government.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener previously has used phrases like “total destruction,” and “catastrophic levels of death” and “moral stain” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza. By invoking genocide, he joins progressive members in Congress such as Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Rebecca Balint of Vermont. The vast majority of Jewish congressional leaders have not referred to Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September 2025, an independent United Nations commission concluded that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Since the conflict escalated on Oct. 7, 2023, nearly 64,000 Palestinians have died, according to the World Health Organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason why it took me time to use the word genocide is because it is so fraught and raw in the Jewish community because of the Holocaust,” Wiener told KQED. “I see the devastation in Gaza, I see the settler violence and land grabs in the West Bank. I see the devastation of Palestinian communities. And for me as a Jew, Israel is important. To see the Israeli government engage in that level of destruction in Gaza, it is painful to see, and it’s unacceptable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents challenging Wiener for Pelosi’s seat criticized his shift in position after the debate, calling the timing suspect.[aside postID=news_12069366 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/RobBontaTrumpGetty.jpg']“At the debate, Scott Wiener refused to call Israel’s indiscriminate killing of women and children in Gaza a genocide,” Julie Edwards, a spokesperson for Chan’s campaign, said in an email. “People getting killed didn’t move him, but boos at a forum did. This is about politics, not principle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chakrabarti, who previously served as chief of staff for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and worked on Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, said the issue is about “moral clarity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Genocide shouldn’t be something you say yes or no to based on the reporter you are talking to or how your poll numbers look,” he posted on X after Wiener’s statement on Sunday. “Thousands of real people have died and continue to die.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The three candidates in last week’s debate shared similar positions on many issues. They all support Medicare for All, believe San Francisco needs more housing, and want stronger protections for immigrants and LGBTQ people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the foreign policy question about Israel and Gaza marked a clear contrast between the candidates and painted Wiener as an outlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He had to take steps on this, otherwise it was going to be an issue that would haunt him,” said Democratic political consultant Jim Ross, who has worked on several San Francisco campaigns. He added that the senator’s response may not draw many new voters toward Wiener, but it could “inoculate” against a potential campaign crisis. “I think it is an issue that probably will stick around, but with less impact, for the next eight months, 10 months.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12069065\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12069065\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-24-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-24-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-24-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-24-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Candidates running for California’s 11th Congressional District, (from left) Saikat Chakrabarti, state Sen. Scott Wiener and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, take part in a forum at UC Law San Francisco on Jan. 7, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wiener’s decision to go further with his language on Israel has sparked criticism from Jewish groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The diminishment and weaponization of the term ‘genocide’ in this context has been deeply painful for our community, given our own historical experiences with the Holocaust,” reads a joint statement from five Jewish groups, including the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Relations Council. “All too often, those harboring antisemitic views have used the war to justify their hatred of our community… Framing this conflict in reductionist and inflammatory terms fuels further hostility toward our community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The groups said their statement was not intended to support or oppose any candidate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pro-Palestinian advocacy group Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) Action said Wiener’s statement marks a positive step.[aside postID=news_12069239 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/12/DISASTER-DAYS-PART-3-photo-2-1-1020x724.jpg']“It’s better late than never for any politician, including Scott Wiener, to finally acknowledge what people of conscience and every major human rights organization has said, that the state of Israel is guilty of committing genocide,” said Mohamed Shehk, organizing director for AROC Action. “Unfortunately, it’s clear that Wiener only made this acknowledgement when it was politically convenient for him after realizing how unpopular support for Israel’s genocide is in this moment,”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shehk said he hopes to see more tangible expressions of support moving forward, such as Wiener backing legislation in Congress to stop the U.S. from providing weapons to Israel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener does not support offensive arms sales to a government that’s “not committed to peace and democracy,” he said, adding that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, “is absolutely not committed to peace and democracy. I’m not going to support U.S. funding for the destruction of Palestinian communities. I have been very, very clear about that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shehk also pointed to a California bill Wiener sponsored, AB 715, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in October 2025, that aims to combat antisemitism in public schools. But critics such as the California Teachers Association say it also stifles free speech and censors topics around Gaza and Palestinians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There must be accountability moving forward for his ongoing legacy of attacking pro-Palestinian activism and speech despite his recent appellation,” Shehk said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener, who said he’s received support from some Jewish groups as well for his statement, is now walking a tightrope trying to appeal to voters and potential constituents with a range of views on a sensitive topic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a tough thing and certainly not something I was going to do as part of a yes-no game show-style lightning round,” Wiener said. “But ultimately, I thought about it, I talked to a lot of different people and I realized that the words I had been using to describe the destruction in Gaza were equivalent to genocide and ultimately I decided it was appropriate to call it that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a lightning-question round, Wiener and the other two leading candidates, San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan and former tech engineer Saikat Chakrabarti, were asked to respond “yes” or “no” to whether they think Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan and Chakrabarti said yes. Wiener did not answer the question, prompting boos and jeers from live audience members and scathing comments in online chat rooms following the event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener pointed directly to the debate in a video he posted online on Sunday, explaining his position.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12069066\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12069066\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-25-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-25-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-25-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-25-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Candidates running for California’s 11th Congressional District, (from left) Saikat Chakrabarti, state Sen. Scott Wiener, and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, take part in a forum at UC Law San Francisco on Jan. 7, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“For those of you who saw the debate clip from last week, I want to clarify that I do believe Israel has committed genocide in Gaza,” he said. “For many Jews, associating the word genocide with the Jewish state of Israel is deeply painful and frankly traumatic. But despite that pain and that trauma, we all have eyes, and we see the absolute devastation and catastrophic death toll in Gaza inflicted by the Israeli government. And we all have ears, and we hear the genocidal statements by certain senior members of the Israeli government.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener previously has used phrases like “total destruction,” and “catastrophic levels of death” and “moral stain” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza. By invoking genocide, he joins progressive members in Congress such as Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Rebecca Balint of Vermont. The vast majority of Jewish congressional leaders have not referred to Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September 2025, an independent United Nations commission concluded that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Since the conflict escalated on Oct. 7, 2023, nearly 64,000 Palestinians have died, according to the World Health Organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason why it took me time to use the word genocide is because it is so fraught and raw in the Jewish community because of the Holocaust,” Wiener told KQED. “I see the devastation in Gaza, I see the settler violence and land grabs in the West Bank. I see the devastation of Palestinian communities. And for me as a Jew, Israel is important. To see the Israeli government engage in that level of destruction in Gaza, it is painful to see, and it’s unacceptable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents challenging Wiener for Pelosi’s seat criticized his shift in position after the debate, calling the timing suspect.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“At the debate, Scott Wiener refused to call Israel’s indiscriminate killing of women and children in Gaza a genocide,” Julie Edwards, a spokesperson for Chan’s campaign, said in an email. “People getting killed didn’t move him, but boos at a forum did. This is about politics, not principle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chakrabarti, who previously served as chief of staff for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and worked on Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, said the issue is about “moral clarity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Genocide shouldn’t be something you say yes or no to based on the reporter you are talking to or how your poll numbers look,” he posted on X after Wiener’s statement on Sunday. “Thousands of real people have died and continue to die.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The three candidates in last week’s debate shared similar positions on many issues. They all support Medicare for All, believe San Francisco needs more housing, and want stronger protections for immigrants and LGBTQ people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the foreign policy question about Israel and Gaza marked a clear contrast between the candidates and painted Wiener as an outlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He had to take steps on this, otherwise it was going to be an issue that would haunt him,” said Democratic political consultant Jim Ross, who has worked on several San Francisco campaigns. He added that the senator’s response may not draw many new voters toward Wiener, but it could “inoculate” against a potential campaign crisis. “I think it is an issue that probably will stick around, but with less impact, for the next eight months, 10 months.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12069065\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12069065\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-24-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-24-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-24-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-24-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Candidates running for California’s 11th Congressional District, (from left) Saikat Chakrabarti, state Sen. Scott Wiener and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, take part in a forum at UC Law San Francisco on Jan. 7, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wiener’s decision to go further with his language on Israel has sparked criticism from Jewish groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The diminishment and weaponization of the term ‘genocide’ in this context has been deeply painful for our community, given our own historical experiences with the Holocaust,” reads a joint statement from five Jewish groups, including the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Relations Council. “All too often, those harboring antisemitic views have used the war to justify their hatred of our community… Framing this conflict in reductionist and inflammatory terms fuels further hostility toward our community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The groups said their statement was not intended to support or oppose any candidate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pro-Palestinian advocacy group Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) Action said Wiener’s statement marks a positive step.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It’s better late than never for any politician, including Scott Wiener, to finally acknowledge what people of conscience and every major human rights organization has said, that the state of Israel is guilty of committing genocide,” said Mohamed Shehk, organizing director for AROC Action. “Unfortunately, it’s clear that Wiener only made this acknowledgement when it was politically convenient for him after realizing how unpopular support for Israel’s genocide is in this moment,”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shehk said he hopes to see more tangible expressions of support moving forward, such as Wiener backing legislation in Congress to stop the U.S. from providing weapons to Israel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener does not support offensive arms sales to a government that’s “not committed to peace and democracy,” he said, adding that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, “is absolutely not committed to peace and democracy. I’m not going to support U.S. funding for the destruction of Palestinian communities. I have been very, very clear about that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shehk also pointed to a California bill Wiener sponsored, AB 715, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in October 2025, that aims to combat antisemitism in public schools. But critics such as the California Teachers Association say it also stifles free speech and censors topics around Gaza and Palestinians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There must be accountability moving forward for his ongoing legacy of attacking pro-Palestinian activism and speech despite his recent appellation,” Shehk said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener, who said he’s received support from some Jewish groups as well for his statement, is now walking a tightrope trying to appeal to voters and potential constituents with a range of views on a sensitive topic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a tough thing and certainly not something I was going to do as part of a yes-no game show-style lightning round,” Wiener said. “But ultimately, I thought about it, I talked to a lot of different people and I realized that the words I had been using to describe the destruction in Gaza were equivalent to genocide and ultimately I decided it was appropriate to call it that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area",
"title": "How to Stay Safe at a Rally in the Bay Area: Know Your Rights",
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"content": "\u003cp>The San Francisco Bay Area has a long history of protest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you plan on attending a rally yourself, on any cause, how can you stay safe? What \u003cem>are\u003c/em> your rights as a protester?\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to: \u003ca href=\"#start\">Tips on what to have ready before going to a protest.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>If this is the first time you or your friends have gone to a protest, make sure to bookmark this guide, as our team frequently updates it with new information. We also have a \u003ca href=\"#immigrantrights\">new section on what your rights are if you are a not a U.S. citizen and plan to attend to a protest.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And remember: If you’re unable to join a rally or protest in person for whatever reason but want to make your stance on an issue known, you always have the option to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967439/how-can-i-call-my-representative-a-step-by-step-guide-to-the-process\">contact your elected officials to express your opinions\u003c/a>. For more information on what “call your reps” actually means, how to do it, and what to expect as a result, read our explainer: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967439/how-can-i-call-my-representative-a-step-by-step-guide-to-the-process\">How Can I Call My Representative? A Step-by-Step Guide to the Process\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12013354\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12013354\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241106-HarveyMilkElectionVigil-16-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241106-HarveyMilkElectionVigil-16-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241106-HarveyMilkElectionVigil-16-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241106-HarveyMilkElectionVigil-16-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241106-HarveyMilkElectionVigil-16-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241106-HarveyMilkElectionVigil-16-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241106-HarveyMilkElectionVigil-16-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crowd gathers for a candlelight vigil at Harvey Milk Plaza in San Francisco on Nov. 6, 2024, organized by the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club for the community to come together post-election. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"start\">\u003c/a>Have a plan — and then a backup plan\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There’s a lot you can do before a protest in terms of logistics and planning:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Travel with friends\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choose a meeting place beforehand in the event you get separated. You may also want to designate a friend who is not at the protest as someone you can check in with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charge your phone. However, some activist groups also recommend taking digital security measures, such as disabling the fingerprint unlock feature to prevent a police officer from forcing you to unlock the phone. Others also recommend turning off text preview on messages and using a more secure messaging app, such as Signal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, make sure that you can function without a phone. Consider writing down important phone numbers and keeping them with you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Research the intended protest route if possible\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This may be confusing since there’s not always a clearly stated route (a protest is, of course, not a parade), but some rallies do have preplanned routes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By knowing where the protest is headed, you will be able to plan how you might \u003ca href=\"https://netpol.org/guide-to-kettles/\">avoid being caught in a “kettle”\u003c/a> or other containment method — and be able to leave when you are ready.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965032\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11965032 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/231018-StudentWalkoutGaza-011-BL-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A young woman stands in front of a high school building. She looks away from the camera and has the Palestinian flag painted on her rigth cheek.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/231018-StudentWalkoutGaza-011-BL-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/231018-StudentWalkoutGaza-011-BL-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/231018-StudentWalkoutGaza-011-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/231018-StudentWalkoutGaza-011-BL-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/231018-StudentWalkoutGaza-011-BL-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deena, a high school student, participates in a walkout to demand a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in San Francisco on Oct. 18, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Know who is organizing the protest\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s worth doing some research on the people and groups behind any protest you plan to attend to make sure it’s in alignment with your values and objectives. During certain Black Lives Matter protests in San Diego in June 2020, for instance, organizers warned demonstrators to avoid specific events they said likely had been surreptitiously coordinated by white nationalist groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pack a small bag\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bring only essentials such as water, snacks, hand sanitizer and an extra phone charger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The active component in tear gas adheres to moisture on your face. So it’s also a good idea to pack an extra N95, surgical mask or face covering in case you are exposed to tear gas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some people \u003ca href=\"https://lifehacker.com/how-to-protest-safely-and-legally-5859590\">recommend bringing basic medical supplies and a bandana soaked in vinegar\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www.popsci.com/story/diy/tear-gas-guide/\">in water in a sealed plastic bag\u003c/a> in case there is tear gas. Others recommend a small bottle of water — or even better, a squirt bottle — to pour on your face and eyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you get tear-gassed, it is often recommended to:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Close your eyes.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Hold your breath.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Get out of the area as soon as possible.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Rinse your eyes when possible (ideally using what you have packed with you).\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Know your rights\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>You are entitled to free speech and freedom of assembly. However, your rights can be unclear during curfews and shelter-in-place orders. The American Civil Liberties Union has a \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/protesters-rights/#i-want-to-take-pictures-or-shoot-video-at-a-protest\">detailed guide to your rights as a protester or a protest organizer\u003c/a>. Notably, when police issue an order to disperse, it is meant to be the last resort for law enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If officers issue a dispersal order, they must provide a reasonable opportunity to comply, including sufficient time and a clear, unobstructed exit path,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/protesters-rights/#i-want-to-take-pictures-or-shoot-video-at-a-protest\">according to the ACLU\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11955465/dolores-hill-bomb-legal-rights-spectator-onlooker\">Read our guide to your rights as a spectator.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you are photographing others, it is recommended to respect privacy, as some may not want to have videos or photos taken. This may also depend on context, location and time of day. In some cases journalists, or those documenting events, have been the target of tear gas and rubber bullets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">Tell us: What else do you need information about right now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>The First Amendment gives you the right to film police who are actively performing their duties, and bystander videos can provide important counternarratives to official accounts. Read our \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11871364/recording-the-police-what-to-know-and-how-to-stay-safe-doing-it\">guide to filming encounters with the police safely and ethically\u003c/a> and where to share your footage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additional information can be found from the ACLU and the National Lawyers Guild — the NLG has \u003ca href=\"https://www.nlg.org/know-your-rights/\">pocket-sized know-your-rights guides\u003c/a> in multiple languages. Writing the number for the NLG hotline (and other important numbers such as emergency contacts) on your arm in case you lose your phone or have it confiscated is another suggested way to ensure you have it — should you need it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11958935\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11958935\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS68263_20230822-HomelessLawsuit-17-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A large crowd with signs gathers in front of a large stone building. A line of police officers stands nearby.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS68263_20230822-HomelessLawsuit-17-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS68263_20230822-HomelessLawsuit-17-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS68263_20230822-HomelessLawsuit-17-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS68263_20230822-HomelessLawsuit-17-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS68263_20230822-HomelessLawsuit-17-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS68263_20230822-HomelessLawsuit-17-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters, counter-protesters, and SFPD are seen at a rally in front of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. The court is hearing arguments for the city’s appeal of an injunction filed by the Coalition on Homelessness, which has temporarily kept city workers from removing encampments on the streets. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Be aware of your surroundings\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the first few days of George Floyd protests in the Bay Area in June 2020, there were fireworks, fires, rubber bullets, tear gas, flash-bangs and even some gunshots. Being aware of your surroundings includes having an understanding of what possible actions may occur around you.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Know the possible law enforcement ramifications of attending a protest\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In April 2024, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11983413/could-protesters-who-shut-down-golden-gate-bridge-be-charged-with-false-imprisonment\">she was considering charging a group of pro-Palestinian protesters\u003c/a> with a felony for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982940/protesters-shut-down-880-freeway-in-oakland-as-part-of-economic-blockade-for-gaza\">blocking Bay Area freeways\u003c/a>. People who were stuck in traffic on the bridge, Jenkins \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11983413/could-protesters-who-shut-down-golden-gate-bridge-be-charged-with-false-imprisonment\">wrote on X\u003c/a>, “may be entitled to restitution + have other victim rights guaranteed under Marsy’s law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While \u003ca href=\"https://abc7news.com/post/sf-judge-dismisses-majority-charges-pro-palestinian-protesters-shut-down-golden-gate-bridge-back-april/15582777/\">a judge dismissed most of the charges later that year\u003c/a>, and the agency that operates the Golden Gate Bridge \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12063531/golden-gate-bridge-agency-drops-163k-restitution-claim-against-pro-palestinian-protesters\">withdrew its nearly $163,000 restitution claim\u003c/a> against the activists in November 2025, several of them still face more serious charges including felony conspiracy.[aside postID=news_11984807 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240425-STANFORDGAZAPROTEST-011-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ACLU Northern California’s legal director, Shilpi Agarwal said she found the move by Jenkins had the potential to cast a “chilling effect” on speech in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Lawful protests are, by design, meant to be visible and inconvenient,” Agarwal said. And while the government can place “reasonable limits on protest” in what is called \u003ca href=\"https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/time-place-and-manner-restrictions/\">a “time, place, and manner restriction\u003c/a>” — meaning authorities can call for certain parameters of protest for safety or other people using the space — the government may \u003ci>not \u003c/i>tell people they cannot protest. And in public spaces, Agarwal said, “people are allowed to protest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What kinds of law enforcement charges could protesters face, however? Agarwal said while \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclunc.org/our-work/know-your-rights\">charges for protests can be nuanced\u003c/a>, at a basic level, if you are engaged in a protest and encounter police officers who then determine for “some reason” you have violated the “parameters” of the protest, there are usually three charging options available to officers:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>An infraction: typically a ticket where you show your ID, get a citation and may have to appear in court. Usually, an infraction is just a fine to pay.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A misdemeanor: for which “you rarely serve” jail time for low-level offenses, Agarwal said.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A felony: A more serious criminal charge that usually brings jail time.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Agarwal said the “vast majority of offenses that are commonly charged at protests, when the police do get involved, are typically infractions or misdemeanors.” Common provisions for protesters have been something like resisting arrest, disrupting a public meeting, and failing to disperse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Center for Protest Law and Litigation’s senior counsel, Rachel Lederman, said restitution is common in criminal cases, adding that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967536/protesters-calling-for-gaza-ceasefire-block-bay-bridges-westbound-lanes\">pro-Palestinian protesters who previously blocked the Bay Bridge\u003c/a> in November 2023 are currently paying “a very small amount of restitution to one person who had a specific medical bill, that they attributed to the traffic blockage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April 2024, California State Assemblymember Kate Sanchez introduced \u003ca href=\"https://www.courthousenews.com/california-bill-would-create-new-infraction-for-protesters-who-block-highways/\">a bill before the Assembly Transportation Committee\u003c/a> that would create a new infraction for those who obstruct a highway during a protest that affects an emergency vehicle. AB 2742 proposed a fine of between $200 and $500 for the first offense, $300 and $1000 for the second offense and $500 to $1000 for additional offenses, but\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202320240ab2742\"> ultimately stalled in the California legislature.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Reminder: Your rights are at their highest in a public forum\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When considering your rights, take into account the location where a protest may take place — it could be a campus, a city council meeting, or a usually busy road. And Agarwal said that while the law is complicated and can vary in different situations, First Amendment rights are generally “at their highest when something is a public forum” — that is, a place like a sidewalk or a public plaza.[aside postID='news_11984807,news_11967439,news_11955465,news_11871364,news_11827832' label='Related Guides From KQED']Aside from the \u003ca href=\"https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/time-place-and-manner-restrictions/\">time, place, and manner restriction\u003c/a>, “when you have a public forum, there is very, very little that the government can do to regulate your speech,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conversely, First Amendment rights are at their lowest at places like private homes, Agarwal said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t mean that you have no rights, but it does mean that whenever and wherever you are on something that is not a public forum, the strength of your First Amendment rights starts to wane,” she said. “And the government can do more to regulate what you can and cannot say.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11984807/know-your-rights-california-protesters-legal-standing-under-the-first-amendment\">Read more about your First Amendment rights at a protest.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"immigrantrights\">\u003c/a>Attending a protest when you’re not a U.S. citizen\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One question that KQED has gotten over the years is: “I’m not a U.S. citizen. Can I even be part of a protest?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a question that’s only become more pressing against the backdrop of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025647/what-to-do-if-you-encounter-ice\">high profile activity by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents\u003c/a> in the last year, spurred by President Trump’s promises to conduct mass deportations in his second term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003cem>technical\u003c/em> answer is: yes, you can attend a protest as a non-citizen. “As a general rule, people who are not citizens have the same First Amendment rights as citizens,” said attorney Carl Takei, the community safety program director at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.asianlawcaucus.org/get-help\">Asian Law Caucus\u003c/a>: a civil rights organization based in San Francisco that offers services to low-income, immigrant, and underserved Asian Americans and Pacific Islander communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The First Amendment of the United States Constitution is meant to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11984807/know-your-rights-california-protesters-legal-standing-under-the-first-amendment\">protect five basic rights\u003c/a>: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, peaceful assembly and petitioning the government. Whether you have a green card or no permanent legal status, you are still protected by the Constitution, and that includes your right to be part of a peaceful assembly, like a march or rally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028351/what-happens-if-the-president-disobeys-the-courts-a-constitutional-crisis-experts-say\">judges have argued that many of the Trump administrations plans and actions right now flatly go against the Constitution\u003c/a>. And legal scholars and immigration advocates have warned that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12042492/what-is-due-process-habeas-corpus-definition-courts-push-back-trump-moves-limit-this-right\">the president is testing his ability to challenge due process in the area of immigration particularly.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bear in mind also that there are limitations to First Amendment protections. For example, they do not protect speech that can be considered true threats, incitement, fighting words or harassment. The First Amendment also does not protect against “violent or unlawful conduct, even if the person engaging in it intends to express an idea.” \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11984807/know-your-rights-california-protesters-legal-standing-under-the-first-amendment\">KQED has a complete guide on how First Amendment protections apply in protests.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what if you’re a non-citizen who’s determined to attend a protest right now? \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12014436/undocumented-what-to-know-before-a-second-trump-term\">Undocumented people and green card holders have always faced additional risks\u003c/a> at a protest that citizens don’t, warned Takei — especially when law enforcement gets involved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12065885/ice-immigration-us-citizens-detained-carry-passports-documentation-green-card\">A green card holder is required under federal law to carry\u003c/a> evidence of their permanent resident status,” he explained. He adds that carrying a fake green card or identification and presenting that to law enforcement could make the situation a lot more difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’re stopped by the police, \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/protesters-rights#:~:text=If%20you%20are%20under%20arrest,are%20not%20allowed%20to%20listen.\">you have the same rights as anyone else\u003c/a>,” Takei said. “You don’t need to consent to a search, answer questions or sign anything.” Even if the situation seems intimidating, Takei explains,\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025647/what-to-do-if-you-encounter-ice\"> you have the right to remain silent and not share personal information with law enforcement.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if you’re asked a question about your immigration status and debating whether to share false information or remain silent, “it’s better to remain silent,” said Takei.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But ultimately, if you’re set on protesting as a non-citizen, the most important thing you can do to protect yourself is to make a safety plan for yourself before going to a protest, he recommended. “Write out the contact information for resources, including an attorney or legal organization, and make sure that you’ve talked with friends or family about what to do if you are arrested or if anything goes wrong,” he explained.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Remember there are many ways to protest\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As the disability community continues to remind others, there are many ways to show up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can participate in many meaningful ways that don’t include attending an in-person protest or rally. This could include educating yourself, voting, talking to your community and supporting grassroots organizations, as outlined in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13881199/5-ways-to-show-up-for-racial-justice-today\">this 2020 guide from KQED’s Nastia Voynovskaya\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can also \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967439/how-can-i-call-my-representative-a-step-by-step-guide-to-the-process\">contact your elected officials to express your opinions\u003c/a>. For more information on what “call your reps” actually means, read our explainer, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967439/how-can-i-call-my-representative-a-step-by-step-guide-to-the-process\">How Can I Call My Representative? A Step-by-Step Guide to the Process\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>COVID is still with us: What to know about your possible risks attending a protest\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The good news: Your risks of getting COVID-19 outdoors remain far lower than your risks indoors — about 20 times less, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at UCSF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, being vaccinated and boosted will greatly reduce your risks of getting very sick, being hospitalized or dying from COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But you should still think about your risks of getting (or spreading) COVID-19 at a big event full of people, even when you’re outdoors. As with so many decisions against the backdrop of COVID-19, a lot comes down to your personal risks and circumstances — not just to protect yourself but others, too. “I think it requires people to be thoughtful about who they are, who they live with, and what happens when they leave the protest and go back home,” Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Consider bringing a mask along regardless\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not only the number of people you’ll encounter at a protest — it’s what they might be \u003cem>doing\u003c/em>. Even outside, screaming, chanting, coughing and singing all expel more of the particles that can spread COVID-19 than regular activity does, and you may decide to keep your mask on during a protest if it’s a super-crowded space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might also find that some protest organizers explicitly request you wear a mask and maintain social distancing at the event, especially if the event is being attended by groups or communities at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s also the possibility that you might not \u003cem>stay\u003c/em> outside the whole time. “Whenever you have a protest, nobody just stays necessarily outdoors,” Chin-Hong said, giving pre-protest gatherings and meetings or post-protest dinners as examples.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These may be done in people’s homes. I think it’s the stuff that goes around the actual outdoor protest that I’m more worried about,” Chin-Hong said. He recommends that people “think about carrying a mask with them, like they carry an umbrella. So that they just bring out the ‘umbrella’ when it’s potentially ‘raining with COVID\u003ci>.\u003c/i>‘”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965077\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1020px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11965077\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS43804_GettyImages-1244191840-1-qut-1020x680-1.jpg\" alt=\"A large crowed with signs crowds around a building that has been fenced off. Many are pushing against the fence and others are carrying signs. Almost all are wearing facemasks.\" width=\"1020\" height=\"680\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS43804_GettyImages-1244191840-1-qut-1020x680-1.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS43804_GettyImages-1244191840-1-qut-1020x680-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS43804_GettyImages-1244191840-1-qut-1020x680-1-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters take a knee during a demonstration outside of Mission Police Station to honor of George Floyd on June 3, 2020, in San Francisco. Three years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is still common to see people wearing facemasks at protests to protect themselves from a possible coronavirus infection.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Back in 2021, Chin-Hong told KQED that protests against racist violence and the killing of Black people by police were themselves “a response to a public health threat, if you think about the impact of structural racism and stress on health care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, when it comes to weighing the desire to protest a cause with the risks of getting or spreading COVID-19, “I think the benefits of protesting are even more in favor of protesting now,” Chin-Hong told KQED in 2022. That “risk/benefit calculus,” as he puts it, is even more in favor of attending a rally — “because we have so many tools to keep people safer,” from vaccines and boosters to improved COVID-19 treatment if someone \u003cem>is\u003c/em> hospitalized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story includes reporting from KQED’s Lakshmi Sarah, Lisa Pickoff-White, Carly Severn, Nisa Khan and Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí. Beth LaBerge and \u003c/em>\u003cem>Peter Arcuni also contributed. A version of this story originally published on April 23, 2021. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The San Francisco Bay Area has a long history of protest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you plan on attending a rally yourself, on any cause, how can you stay safe? What \u003cem>are\u003c/em> your rights as a protester?\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to: \u003ca href=\"#start\">Tips on what to have ready before going to a protest.\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>If this is the first time you or your friends have gone to a protest, make sure to bookmark this guide, as our team frequently updates it with new information. We also have a \u003ca href=\"#immigrantrights\">new section on what your rights are if you are a not a U.S. citizen and plan to attend to a protest.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And remember: If you’re unable to join a rally or protest in person for whatever reason but want to make your stance on an issue known, you always have the option to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967439/how-can-i-call-my-representative-a-step-by-step-guide-to-the-process\">contact your elected officials to express your opinions\u003c/a>. For more information on what “call your reps” actually means, how to do it, and what to expect as a result, read our explainer: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967439/how-can-i-call-my-representative-a-step-by-step-guide-to-the-process\">How Can I Call My Representative? A Step-by-Step Guide to the Process\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12013354\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12013354\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241106-HarveyMilkElectionVigil-16-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241106-HarveyMilkElectionVigil-16-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241106-HarveyMilkElectionVigil-16-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241106-HarveyMilkElectionVigil-16-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241106-HarveyMilkElectionVigil-16-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241106-HarveyMilkElectionVigil-16-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/241106-HarveyMilkElectionVigil-16-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crowd gathers for a candlelight vigil at Harvey Milk Plaza in San Francisco on Nov. 6, 2024, organized by the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club for the community to come together post-election. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"start\">\u003c/a>Have a plan — and then a backup plan\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There’s a lot you can do before a protest in terms of logistics and planning:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Travel with friends\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choose a meeting place beforehand in the event you get separated. You may also want to designate a friend who is not at the protest as someone you can check in with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charge your phone. However, some activist groups also recommend taking digital security measures, such as disabling the fingerprint unlock feature to prevent a police officer from forcing you to unlock the phone. Others also recommend turning off text preview on messages and using a more secure messaging app, such as Signal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, make sure that you can function without a phone. Consider writing down important phone numbers and keeping them with you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Research the intended protest route if possible\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This may be confusing since there’s not always a clearly stated route (a protest is, of course, not a parade), but some rallies do have preplanned routes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By knowing where the protest is headed, you will be able to plan how you might \u003ca href=\"https://netpol.org/guide-to-kettles/\">avoid being caught in a “kettle”\u003c/a> or other containment method — and be able to leave when you are ready.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965032\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11965032 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/231018-StudentWalkoutGaza-011-BL-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A young woman stands in front of a high school building. She looks away from the camera and has the Palestinian flag painted on her rigth cheek.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/231018-StudentWalkoutGaza-011-BL-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/231018-StudentWalkoutGaza-011-BL-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/231018-StudentWalkoutGaza-011-BL-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/231018-StudentWalkoutGaza-011-BL-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/231018-StudentWalkoutGaza-011-BL-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deena, a high school student, participates in a walkout to demand a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in San Francisco on Oct. 18, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Know who is organizing the protest\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s worth doing some research on the people and groups behind any protest you plan to attend to make sure it’s in alignment with your values and objectives. During certain Black Lives Matter protests in San Diego in June 2020, for instance, organizers warned demonstrators to avoid specific events they said likely had been surreptitiously coordinated by white nationalist groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pack a small bag\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bring only essentials such as water, snacks, hand sanitizer and an extra phone charger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The active component in tear gas adheres to moisture on your face. So it’s also a good idea to pack an extra N95, surgical mask or face covering in case you are exposed to tear gas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some people \u003ca href=\"https://lifehacker.com/how-to-protest-safely-and-legally-5859590\">recommend bringing basic medical supplies and a bandana soaked in vinegar\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www.popsci.com/story/diy/tear-gas-guide/\">in water in a sealed plastic bag\u003c/a> in case there is tear gas. Others recommend a small bottle of water — or even better, a squirt bottle — to pour on your face and eyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you get tear-gassed, it is often recommended to:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Close your eyes.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Hold your breath.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Get out of the area as soon as possible.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Rinse your eyes when possible (ideally using what you have packed with you).\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Know your rights\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>You are entitled to free speech and freedom of assembly. However, your rights can be unclear during curfews and shelter-in-place orders. The American Civil Liberties Union has a \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/protesters-rights/#i-want-to-take-pictures-or-shoot-video-at-a-protest\">detailed guide to your rights as a protester or a protest organizer\u003c/a>. Notably, when police issue an order to disperse, it is meant to be the last resort for law enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If officers issue a dispersal order, they must provide a reasonable opportunity to comply, including sufficient time and a clear, unobstructed exit path,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/protesters-rights/#i-want-to-take-pictures-or-shoot-video-at-a-protest\">according to the ACLU\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11955465/dolores-hill-bomb-legal-rights-spectator-onlooker\">Read our guide to your rights as a spectator.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you are photographing others, it is recommended to respect privacy, as some may not want to have videos or photos taken. This may also depend on context, location and time of day. In some cases journalists, or those documenting events, have been the target of tear gas and rubber bullets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">Tell us: What else do you need information about right now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>The First Amendment gives you the right to film police who are actively performing their duties, and bystander videos can provide important counternarratives to official accounts. Read our \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11871364/recording-the-police-what-to-know-and-how-to-stay-safe-doing-it\">guide to filming encounters with the police safely and ethically\u003c/a> and where to share your footage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additional information can be found from the ACLU and the National Lawyers Guild — the NLG has \u003ca href=\"https://www.nlg.org/know-your-rights/\">pocket-sized know-your-rights guides\u003c/a> in multiple languages. Writing the number for the NLG hotline (and other important numbers such as emergency contacts) on your arm in case you lose your phone or have it confiscated is another suggested way to ensure you have it — should you need it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11958935\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11958935\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS68263_20230822-HomelessLawsuit-17-JY-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A large crowd with signs gathers in front of a large stone building. A line of police officers stands nearby.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS68263_20230822-HomelessLawsuit-17-JY-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS68263_20230822-HomelessLawsuit-17-JY-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS68263_20230822-HomelessLawsuit-17-JY-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS68263_20230822-HomelessLawsuit-17-JY-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS68263_20230822-HomelessLawsuit-17-JY-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS68263_20230822-HomelessLawsuit-17-JY-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters, counter-protesters, and SFPD are seen at a rally in front of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. The court is hearing arguments for the city’s appeal of an injunction filed by the Coalition on Homelessness, which has temporarily kept city workers from removing encampments on the streets. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Be aware of your surroundings\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the first few days of George Floyd protests in the Bay Area in June 2020, there were fireworks, fires, rubber bullets, tear gas, flash-bangs and even some gunshots. Being aware of your surroundings includes having an understanding of what possible actions may occur around you.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Know the possible law enforcement ramifications of attending a protest\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In April 2024, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11983413/could-protesters-who-shut-down-golden-gate-bridge-be-charged-with-false-imprisonment\">she was considering charging a group of pro-Palestinian protesters\u003c/a> with a felony for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982940/protesters-shut-down-880-freeway-in-oakland-as-part-of-economic-blockade-for-gaza\">blocking Bay Area freeways\u003c/a>. People who were stuck in traffic on the bridge, Jenkins \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11983413/could-protesters-who-shut-down-golden-gate-bridge-be-charged-with-false-imprisonment\">wrote on X\u003c/a>, “may be entitled to restitution + have other victim rights guaranteed under Marsy’s law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While \u003ca href=\"https://abc7news.com/post/sf-judge-dismisses-majority-charges-pro-palestinian-protesters-shut-down-golden-gate-bridge-back-april/15582777/\">a judge dismissed most of the charges later that year\u003c/a>, and the agency that operates the Golden Gate Bridge \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12063531/golden-gate-bridge-agency-drops-163k-restitution-claim-against-pro-palestinian-protesters\">withdrew its nearly $163,000 restitution claim\u003c/a> against the activists in November 2025, several of them still face more serious charges including felony conspiracy.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ACLU Northern California’s legal director, Shilpi Agarwal said she found the move by Jenkins had the potential to cast a “chilling effect” on speech in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Lawful protests are, by design, meant to be visible and inconvenient,” Agarwal said. And while the government can place “reasonable limits on protest” in what is called \u003ca href=\"https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/time-place-and-manner-restrictions/\">a “time, place, and manner restriction\u003c/a>” — meaning authorities can call for certain parameters of protest for safety or other people using the space — the government may \u003ci>not \u003c/i>tell people they cannot protest. And in public spaces, Agarwal said, “people are allowed to protest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What kinds of law enforcement charges could protesters face, however? Agarwal said while \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclunc.org/our-work/know-your-rights\">charges for protests can be nuanced\u003c/a>, at a basic level, if you are engaged in a protest and encounter police officers who then determine for “some reason” you have violated the “parameters” of the protest, there are usually three charging options available to officers:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>An infraction: typically a ticket where you show your ID, get a citation and may have to appear in court. Usually, an infraction is just a fine to pay.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A misdemeanor: for which “you rarely serve” jail time for low-level offenses, Agarwal said.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>A felony: A more serious criminal charge that usually brings jail time.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Agarwal said the “vast majority of offenses that are commonly charged at protests, when the police do get involved, are typically infractions or misdemeanors.” Common provisions for protesters have been something like resisting arrest, disrupting a public meeting, and failing to disperse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Center for Protest Law and Litigation’s senior counsel, Rachel Lederman, said restitution is common in criminal cases, adding that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967536/protesters-calling-for-gaza-ceasefire-block-bay-bridges-westbound-lanes\">pro-Palestinian protesters who previously blocked the Bay Bridge\u003c/a> in November 2023 are currently paying “a very small amount of restitution to one person who had a specific medical bill, that they attributed to the traffic blockage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April 2024, California State Assemblymember Kate Sanchez introduced \u003ca href=\"https://www.courthousenews.com/california-bill-would-create-new-infraction-for-protesters-who-block-highways/\">a bill before the Assembly Transportation Committee\u003c/a> that would create a new infraction for those who obstruct a highway during a protest that affects an emergency vehicle. AB 2742 proposed a fine of between $200 and $500 for the first offense, $300 and $1000 for the second offense and $500 to $1000 for additional offenses, but\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202320240ab2742\"> ultimately stalled in the California legislature.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Reminder: Your rights are at their highest in a public forum\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When considering your rights, take into account the location where a protest may take place — it could be a campus, a city council meeting, or a usually busy road. And Agarwal said that while the law is complicated and can vary in different situations, First Amendment rights are generally “at their highest when something is a public forum” — that is, a place like a sidewalk or a public plaza.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Aside from the \u003ca href=\"https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/time-place-and-manner-restrictions/\">time, place, and manner restriction\u003c/a>, “when you have a public forum, there is very, very little that the government can do to regulate your speech,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conversely, First Amendment rights are at their lowest at places like private homes, Agarwal said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t mean that you have no rights, but it does mean that whenever and wherever you are on something that is not a public forum, the strength of your First Amendment rights starts to wane,” she said. “And the government can do more to regulate what you can and cannot say.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11984807/know-your-rights-california-protesters-legal-standing-under-the-first-amendment\">Read more about your First Amendment rights at a protest.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"immigrantrights\">\u003c/a>Attending a protest when you’re not a U.S. citizen\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One question that KQED has gotten over the years is: “I’m not a U.S. citizen. Can I even be part of a protest?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a question that’s only become more pressing against the backdrop of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025647/what-to-do-if-you-encounter-ice\">high profile activity by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents\u003c/a> in the last year, spurred by President Trump’s promises to conduct mass deportations in his second term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003cem>technical\u003c/em> answer is: yes, you can attend a protest as a non-citizen. “As a general rule, people who are not citizens have the same First Amendment rights as citizens,” said attorney Carl Takei, the community safety program director at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.asianlawcaucus.org/get-help\">Asian Law Caucus\u003c/a>: a civil rights organization based in San Francisco that offers services to low-income, immigrant, and underserved Asian Americans and Pacific Islander communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The First Amendment of the United States Constitution is meant to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11984807/know-your-rights-california-protesters-legal-standing-under-the-first-amendment\">protect five basic rights\u003c/a>: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, peaceful assembly and petitioning the government. Whether you have a green card or no permanent legal status, you are still protected by the Constitution, and that includes your right to be part of a peaceful assembly, like a march or rally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028351/what-happens-if-the-president-disobeys-the-courts-a-constitutional-crisis-experts-say\">judges have argued that many of the Trump administrations plans and actions right now flatly go against the Constitution\u003c/a>. And legal scholars and immigration advocates have warned that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12042492/what-is-due-process-habeas-corpus-definition-courts-push-back-trump-moves-limit-this-right\">the president is testing his ability to challenge due process in the area of immigration particularly.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bear in mind also that there are limitations to First Amendment protections. For example, they do not protect speech that can be considered true threats, incitement, fighting words or harassment. The First Amendment also does not protect against “violent or unlawful conduct, even if the person engaging in it intends to express an idea.” \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11984807/know-your-rights-california-protesters-legal-standing-under-the-first-amendment\">KQED has a complete guide on how First Amendment protections apply in protests.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what if you’re a non-citizen who’s determined to attend a protest right now? \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12014436/undocumented-what-to-know-before-a-second-trump-term\">Undocumented people and green card holders have always faced additional risks\u003c/a> at a protest that citizens don’t, warned Takei — especially when law enforcement gets involved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12065885/ice-immigration-us-citizens-detained-carry-passports-documentation-green-card\">A green card holder is required under federal law to carry\u003c/a> evidence of their permanent resident status,” he explained. He adds that carrying a fake green card or identification and presenting that to law enforcement could make the situation a lot more difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’re stopped by the police, \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/protesters-rights#:~:text=If%20you%20are%20under%20arrest,are%20not%20allowed%20to%20listen.\">you have the same rights as anyone else\u003c/a>,” Takei said. “You don’t need to consent to a search, answer questions or sign anything.” Even if the situation seems intimidating, Takei explains,\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025647/what-to-do-if-you-encounter-ice\"> you have the right to remain silent and not share personal information with law enforcement.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if you’re asked a question about your immigration status and debating whether to share false information or remain silent, “it’s better to remain silent,” said Takei.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But ultimately, if you’re set on protesting as a non-citizen, the most important thing you can do to protect yourself is to make a safety plan for yourself before going to a protest, he recommended. “Write out the contact information for resources, including an attorney or legal organization, and make sure that you’ve talked with friends or family about what to do if you are arrested or if anything goes wrong,” he explained.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Remember there are many ways to protest\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As the disability community continues to remind others, there are many ways to show up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can participate in many meaningful ways that don’t include attending an in-person protest or rally. This could include educating yourself, voting, talking to your community and supporting grassroots organizations, as outlined in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13881199/5-ways-to-show-up-for-racial-justice-today\">this 2020 guide from KQED’s Nastia Voynovskaya\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can also \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967439/how-can-i-call-my-representative-a-step-by-step-guide-to-the-process\">contact your elected officials to express your opinions\u003c/a>. For more information on what “call your reps” actually means, read our explainer, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967439/how-can-i-call-my-representative-a-step-by-step-guide-to-the-process\">How Can I Call My Representative? A Step-by-Step Guide to the Process\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>COVID is still with us: What to know about your possible risks attending a protest\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The good news: Your risks of getting COVID-19 outdoors remain far lower than your risks indoors — about 20 times less, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at UCSF.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, being vaccinated and boosted will greatly reduce your risks of getting very sick, being hospitalized or dying from COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But you should still think about your risks of getting (or spreading) COVID-19 at a big event full of people, even when you’re outdoors. As with so many decisions against the backdrop of COVID-19, a lot comes down to your personal risks and circumstances — not just to protect yourself but others, too. “I think it requires people to be thoughtful about who they are, who they live with, and what happens when they leave the protest and go back home,” Chin-Hong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Consider bringing a mask along regardless\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not only the number of people you’ll encounter at a protest — it’s what they might be \u003cem>doing\u003c/em>. Even outside, screaming, chanting, coughing and singing all expel more of the particles that can spread COVID-19 than regular activity does, and you may decide to keep your mask on during a protest if it’s a super-crowded space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might also find that some protest organizers explicitly request you wear a mask and maintain social distancing at the event, especially if the event is being attended by groups or communities at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s also the possibility that you might not \u003cem>stay\u003c/em> outside the whole time. “Whenever you have a protest, nobody just stays necessarily outdoors,” Chin-Hong said, giving pre-protest gatherings and meetings or post-protest dinners as examples.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These may be done in people’s homes. I think it’s the stuff that goes around the actual outdoor protest that I’m more worried about,” Chin-Hong said. He recommends that people “think about carrying a mask with them, like they carry an umbrella. So that they just bring out the ‘umbrella’ when it’s potentially ‘raining with COVID\u003ci>.\u003c/i>‘”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11965077\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1020px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11965077\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS43804_GettyImages-1244191840-1-qut-1020x680-1.jpg\" alt=\"A large crowed with signs crowds around a building that has been fenced off. Many are pushing against the fence and others are carrying signs. Almost all are wearing facemasks.\" width=\"1020\" height=\"680\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS43804_GettyImages-1244191840-1-qut-1020x680-1.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS43804_GettyImages-1244191840-1-qut-1020x680-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/06/RS43804_GettyImages-1244191840-1-qut-1020x680-1-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1020px) 100vw, 1020px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters take a knee during a demonstration outside of Mission Police Station to honor of George Floyd on June 3, 2020, in San Francisco. Three years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is still common to see people wearing facemasks at protests to protect themselves from a possible coronavirus infection.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Back in 2021, Chin-Hong told KQED that protests against racist violence and the killing of Black people by police were themselves “a response to a public health threat, if you think about the impact of structural racism and stress on health care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, when it comes to weighing the desire to protest a cause with the risks of getting or spreading COVID-19, “I think the benefits of protesting are even more in favor of protesting now,” Chin-Hong told KQED in 2022. That “risk/benefit calculus,” as he puts it, is even more in favor of attending a rally — “because we have so many tools to keep people safer,” from vaccines and boosters to improved COVID-19 treatment if someone \u003cem>is\u003c/em> hospitalized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story includes reporting from KQED’s Lakshmi Sarah, Lisa Pickoff-White, Carly Severn, Nisa Khan and Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí. Beth LaBerge and \u003c/em>\u003cem>Peter Arcuni also contributed. A version of this story originally published on April 23, 2021. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "your-free-speech-does-not-apply-suspended-uc-berkeley-lecturer-speaks-out",
"title": "‘Your Free Speech Does Not Apply’: Suspended UC Berkeley Lecturer Speaks Out",
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"headTitle": "‘Your Free Speech Does Not Apply’: Suspended UC Berkeley Lecturer Speaks Out | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The suspension of a UC Berkeley computer science lecturer \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059351/the-cal-lecturer-who-went-on-a-38-day-hunger-strike-for-gaza\">who went on a hunger strike over the war in Gaza\u003c/a> and made pro-Palestinian remarks in the classroom has raised questions about free speech and the scope of academic freedom on the Bay Area campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Late last week, UC Berkeley administrators notified Peyrin Kao, 26, of his six-month unpaid suspension, effective Jan. 1, 2026. The suspension, handed down at a time of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032030/uc-berkeley-faculty-rally-to-defend-free-speech-and-protest-cuts\">heightened tensions over free speech on campus\u003c/a>, drew criticism from groups and faculty advocates, who immediately called for his reinstatement and launched a hunger strike in solidarity on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some argued that the university’s decision was a blatant violation of Kao’s First Amendment rights and part of a broader effort to chill pro-Palestinian speech on campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nxdR0hTEkSqv4LcHqp3t7SNU1BcWbrI0/view\">an October letter\u003c/a> from UC Berkeley Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Benjamin Hermalin, Kao misused the classroom “by distorting the instructional process” and deviated from “the responsibilities inherent in academic freedom” during the spring 2024 and fall 2025 semesters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kao maintains that he followed university policy by making the comments outside of official class time. He said his suspension is part of what’s called “\u003ca href=\"https://read.dukeupress.edu/critical-times/article/8/1/1/400618/Beyond-the-Palestine-Exception\">the Palestine exception\u003c/a>,” or the selective enforcement of rules to restrict Palestinian advocacy. Kao questioned whether he would have been suspended if he criticized the U.S. government or international issues that have drawn \u003ca href=\"https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/09/23/with-3-million-gift-berkeley-prepares-to-build-premier-ukrainian-studies-program/\">condemnation\u003c/a> by the university, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12066692\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12066692 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still-1536x864.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still-1200x675.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Peyrin Kao speaking at a UC Regents meeting on Sept. 17, 2025, at UCSF Mission Bay. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Peyrin Kao )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There’s this gaping exception in this so-called free speech that our university and our country champions,” Kao told KQED. “The university loves to talk about how they are ‘the free speech university,’ ‘the home of the free speech movement,’ … but when it comes to Palestine: ‘Sorry, we’re drawing the line, your free speech does not apply.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore declined to comment, saying the university doesn’t comment on confidential personnel matters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Hermalin’s report, Kao was accused of twice violating Regents’ Policy 2301, a \u003ca href=\"https://evcp.berkeley.edu/news/political-advocacy-academic-freedom-and-instruction\">rule\u003c/a> that explicitly prohibits “political indoctrination” as misuse of the classroom and has been frequently cited by the university to regulate campus protest in the wake of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent analysis by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062192/uc-berkeley-law-school-says-school-likely-violated-civil-rights-of-pro-palestinian-protesters\">Berkeley law students found that the university’s administration\u003c/a> enforces the rule more harshly against faculty who speak in support of Palestinians, and Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Bay Area office, said the policy’s vague language lends itself to weaponization against Palestine advocacy.[aside postID=news_12062192 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/uc-berkeley-malak-afaneh-handout_qed-1020x680.jpg']“One very important question: Is the policy being enforced in an even-handed way?” said Eugene Volokh, a former First Amendment law scholar at UCLA. “I do think that people ought to be asking, well, are you doing this fairly with regard to all viewpoints?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Volokh and other free speech advocates, however, questioned whether an argument for pedagogical autonomy works in this case, and argued that Kao’s use of the classroom to advocate for his political beliefs may have gone a step too far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In general, the protection of free speech and academic freedom of students and faculty is essential to providing for the education of students and teaching them how to think — the university’s chief role, Volokh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the same time, we have to recognize that in order for the educational process to work, there have to be limits on what is said in the classroom,” he continued. “In a classroom, I’m talking to a captive audience of students who are there to learn a particular subject, presumably not for political indoctrination.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suspension is not Kao’s first brush with the administration over his vocal support for Palestinian human rights: the letter notes a 2023 censure by a former chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences over the school’s anti-advocacy policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the beginning of the school year, Kao’s name appeared on a list of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055827/uc-berkeley-gives-trump-administration-160-names-in-antisemitism-investigation\">160 staff and faculty members whose identities UC Berkeley disclosed to the federal Department of Education\u003c/a> as part of what the university described as an antisemitism investigation. Around the same time, Kao began a 38-day hunger strike to protest the war and “how our tech is being to fuel genocide in Gaza,” the lecturer told KQED’s The Bay in October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12058103\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12058103\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-11-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-11-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-11-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-11-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sather Tower at UC Berkeley in Berkeley on Sept. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In April 2024, after dismissing students of an introductory computer science course at the end of his last lecture of the semester, Kao spoke for about four minutes about ethics in technology — using Google’s collaboration with the Israeli military as an example — and expressed solidarity with fellow educators in Gaza, according to the university’s report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kao made those comments after the end of class, and prefaced his remarks by saying that students were free to leave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But again, if you want to go, then I don’t take any offense. It’s all good. And I will try not to waste too much of your time because it’s after 2 [pm],” Kao said, according to a transcription created by the university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, Kao drew attention to his hunger strike in class, informing students that he was in poor health due to his activism — without explicitly stating that the act was in protest of the war in Gaza.[aside postID=news_12066592 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-9_qed.jpg']“Just a heads up that the lectures I give may be a little bit wobbly and poor quality,” Kao allegedly said during a class in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Based on these statements, the university determined that Kao “misused” his authority over students. Even without explicit acknowledgement of the advocacy during class time, the “visible toll” of the hunger strike, and Kao’s own admission that the strike may have affected his teaching, was enough for the university to determine it a violation of policy, Hermalin wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The University Council–American Federation of Teachers, the union that represents lecturers, filed a grievance against the “wrongful discipline” of Kao, said field representative Jessica Conte. And \u003ca href=\"https://www.stem4pal.org/\">STEM 4 Palestine\u003c/a>, a campus group that Kao co-founded, announced a hunger strike beginning Wednesday, in solidarity with Kao and other “repressed academics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Peyrin is known as a committed educator. He is not just committed to students at Berkeley,” the group told KQED by email. “Putting his own body on the line, he demonstrated public commitment to the students of Palestine, whose universities have been bombed into rubble using technology our university builds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kao maintained that all of the discussions in question took place outside of official class time, during an optional lecture that many students elected not to attend, and that the hunger strike took place entirely outside of the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were very careful not to talk about it in class with any of our students or any of my students or my staff. And it was something that I think is totally protected by the First Amendment, because I’m doing it in my own capacity,” Kao said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030970\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030970\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1358\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-800x543.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-1020x693.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-1536x1043.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-1920x1304.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pro-Palestinian protesters set up a tent encampment in front of Sproul Hall on the UC Berkeley campus on April 22, 2024, in Berkeley, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He also pushed back against the university’s claims that his ethics discussion — and his presentation on cloud-computing contracts between Google and Amazon with Israel — was not germane to the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are companies that our students are going to work for. We’re giving our students the tools that they’re then going to use to go and work for these companies and others that are complicit in this ongoing American-Israeli genocide in Gaza,” Kao said. “When you don’t talk about this, that is also making a political decision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Academic freedom enshrined in the First Amendment protects a professor’s right to discuss pedagogically relevant material during class, and allows some breathing room — as long as it’s furthering the purpose of the course, said Zach Greenberg, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.thefire.org/defending-your-rights/legal-support/faculty-legal-defense-fund\">Faculty Legal Defense Fund\u003c/a> at advocacy group FIRE. However, the university has some leeway to limit free speech of faculty within the bounds of the institution’s own academic freedom and, ultimately, to make the judgment call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The question that we always ask when it comes to political speech is, what’s related to the class and what were they speaking as a professor or as a private citizen?” Greenberg said. “And if you’re going on tangents during class or expressing a political advocacy to students during class as a professor, you’re on company time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a California state employee, Kao was entitled to a Skelly hearing, in which the proposed disciplinary action is reviewed by a third party. The lecturer met with Eric Meyer, the dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Information, but his appeal was denied, Kao said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s currently working to \u003ca href=\"https://chuffed.org/project/157643-make-back-peyrins-salary\">fundraise\u003c/a> the salary he will lose for the next semester, about $68,000, Kao said, which he vowed to donate to mutual-aid efforts in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/tgoldberg\">\u003cem>Ted Goldberg\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Peyrin Kao, a computer science instructor, was disciplined over his discussions of his pro-Palestinian activism in the classroom, raising questions about academic freedom and its limits on campus.",
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"title": "‘Your Free Speech Does Not Apply’: Suspended UC Berkeley Lecturer Speaks Out | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The suspension of a UC Berkeley computer science lecturer \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059351/the-cal-lecturer-who-went-on-a-38-day-hunger-strike-for-gaza\">who went on a hunger strike over the war in Gaza\u003c/a> and made pro-Palestinian remarks in the classroom has raised questions about free speech and the scope of academic freedom on the Bay Area campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Late last week, UC Berkeley administrators notified Peyrin Kao, 26, of his six-month unpaid suspension, effective Jan. 1, 2026. The suspension, handed down at a time of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032030/uc-berkeley-faculty-rally-to-defend-free-speech-and-protest-cuts\">heightened tensions over free speech on campus\u003c/a>, drew criticism from groups and faculty advocates, who immediately called for his reinstatement and launched a hunger strike in solidarity on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some argued that the university’s decision was a blatant violation of Kao’s First Amendment rights and part of a broader effort to chill pro-Palestinian speech on campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nxdR0hTEkSqv4LcHqp3t7SNU1BcWbrI0/view\">an October letter\u003c/a> from UC Berkeley Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Benjamin Hermalin, Kao misused the classroom “by distorting the instructional process” and deviated from “the responsibilities inherent in academic freedom” during the spring 2024 and fall 2025 semesters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kao maintains that he followed university policy by making the comments outside of official class time. He said his suspension is part of what’s called “\u003ca href=\"https://read.dukeupress.edu/critical-times/article/8/1/1/400618/Beyond-the-Palestine-Exception\">the Palestine exception\u003c/a>,” or the selective enforcement of rules to restrict Palestinian advocacy. Kao questioned whether he would have been suspended if he criticized the U.S. government or international issues that have drawn \u003ca href=\"https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/09/23/with-3-million-gift-berkeley-prepares-to-build-premier-ukrainian-studies-program/\">condemnation\u003c/a> by the university, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12066692\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12066692 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still-1536x864.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still-1200x675.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Peyrin Kao speaking at a UC Regents meeting on Sept. 17, 2025, at UCSF Mission Bay. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Peyrin Kao )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There’s this gaping exception in this so-called free speech that our university and our country champions,” Kao told KQED. “The university loves to talk about how they are ‘the free speech university,’ ‘the home of the free speech movement,’ … but when it comes to Palestine: ‘Sorry, we’re drawing the line, your free speech does not apply.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore declined to comment, saying the university doesn’t comment on confidential personnel matters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Hermalin’s report, Kao was accused of twice violating Regents’ Policy 2301, a \u003ca href=\"https://evcp.berkeley.edu/news/political-advocacy-academic-freedom-and-instruction\">rule\u003c/a> that explicitly prohibits “political indoctrination” as misuse of the classroom and has been frequently cited by the university to regulate campus protest in the wake of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent analysis by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062192/uc-berkeley-law-school-says-school-likely-violated-civil-rights-of-pro-palestinian-protesters\">Berkeley law students found that the university’s administration\u003c/a> enforces the rule more harshly against faculty who speak in support of Palestinians, and Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Bay Area office, said the policy’s vague language lends itself to weaponization against Palestine advocacy.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“One very important question: Is the policy being enforced in an even-handed way?” said Eugene Volokh, a former First Amendment law scholar at UCLA. “I do think that people ought to be asking, well, are you doing this fairly with regard to all viewpoints?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Volokh and other free speech advocates, however, questioned whether an argument for pedagogical autonomy works in this case, and argued that Kao’s use of the classroom to advocate for his political beliefs may have gone a step too far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In general, the protection of free speech and academic freedom of students and faculty is essential to providing for the education of students and teaching them how to think — the university’s chief role, Volokh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the same time, we have to recognize that in order for the educational process to work, there have to be limits on what is said in the classroom,” he continued. “In a classroom, I’m talking to a captive audience of students who are there to learn a particular subject, presumably not for political indoctrination.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suspension is not Kao’s first brush with the administration over his vocal support for Palestinian human rights: the letter notes a 2023 censure by a former chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences over the school’s anti-advocacy policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the beginning of the school year, Kao’s name appeared on a list of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055827/uc-berkeley-gives-trump-administration-160-names-in-antisemitism-investigation\">160 staff and faculty members whose identities UC Berkeley disclosed to the federal Department of Education\u003c/a> as part of what the university described as an antisemitism investigation. Around the same time, Kao began a 38-day hunger strike to protest the war and “how our tech is being to fuel genocide in Gaza,” the lecturer told KQED’s The Bay in October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12058103\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12058103\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-11-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-11-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-11-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-11-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sather Tower at UC Berkeley in Berkeley on Sept. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In April 2024, after dismissing students of an introductory computer science course at the end of his last lecture of the semester, Kao spoke for about four minutes about ethics in technology — using Google’s collaboration with the Israeli military as an example — and expressed solidarity with fellow educators in Gaza, according to the university’s report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kao made those comments after the end of class, and prefaced his remarks by saying that students were free to leave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But again, if you want to go, then I don’t take any offense. It’s all good. And I will try not to waste too much of your time because it’s after 2 [pm],” Kao said, according to a transcription created by the university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, Kao drew attention to his hunger strike in class, informing students that he was in poor health due to his activism — without explicitly stating that the act was in protest of the war in Gaza.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Just a heads up that the lectures I give may be a little bit wobbly and poor quality,” Kao allegedly said during a class in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Based on these statements, the university determined that Kao “misused” his authority over students. Even without explicit acknowledgement of the advocacy during class time, the “visible toll” of the hunger strike, and Kao’s own admission that the strike may have affected his teaching, was enough for the university to determine it a violation of policy, Hermalin wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The University Council–American Federation of Teachers, the union that represents lecturers, filed a grievance against the “wrongful discipline” of Kao, said field representative Jessica Conte. And \u003ca href=\"https://www.stem4pal.org/\">STEM 4 Palestine\u003c/a>, a campus group that Kao co-founded, announced a hunger strike beginning Wednesday, in solidarity with Kao and other “repressed academics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Peyrin is known as a committed educator. He is not just committed to students at Berkeley,” the group told KQED by email. “Putting his own body on the line, he demonstrated public commitment to the students of Palestine, whose universities have been bombed into rubble using technology our university builds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kao maintained that all of the discussions in question took place outside of official class time, during an optional lecture that many students elected not to attend, and that the hunger strike took place entirely outside of the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were very careful not to talk about it in class with any of our students or any of my students or my staff. And it was something that I think is totally protected by the First Amendment, because I’m doing it in my own capacity,” Kao said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030970\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030970\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1358\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-800x543.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-1020x693.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-1536x1043.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-1920x1304.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pro-Palestinian protesters set up a tent encampment in front of Sproul Hall on the UC Berkeley campus on April 22, 2024, in Berkeley, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He also pushed back against the university’s claims that his ethics discussion — and his presentation on cloud-computing contracts between Google and Amazon with Israel — was not germane to the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are companies that our students are going to work for. We’re giving our students the tools that they’re then going to use to go and work for these companies and others that are complicit in this ongoing American-Israeli genocide in Gaza,” Kao said. “When you don’t talk about this, that is also making a political decision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Academic freedom enshrined in the First Amendment protects a professor’s right to discuss pedagogically relevant material during class, and allows some breathing room — as long as it’s furthering the purpose of the course, said Zach Greenberg, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.thefire.org/defending-your-rights/legal-support/faculty-legal-defense-fund\">Faculty Legal Defense Fund\u003c/a> at advocacy group FIRE. However, the university has some leeway to limit free speech of faculty within the bounds of the institution’s own academic freedom and, ultimately, to make the judgment call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The question that we always ask when it comes to political speech is, what’s related to the class and what were they speaking as a professor or as a private citizen?” Greenberg said. “And if you’re going on tangents during class or expressing a political advocacy to students during class as a professor, you’re on company time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a California state employee, Kao was entitled to a Skelly hearing, in which the proposed disciplinary action is reviewed by a third party. The lecturer met with Eric Meyer, the dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Information, but his appeal was denied, Kao said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s currently working to \u003ca href=\"https://chuffed.org/project/157643-make-back-peyrins-salary\">fundraise\u003c/a> the salary he will lose for the next semester, about $68,000, Kao said, which he vowed to donate to mutual-aid efforts in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/tgoldberg\">\u003cem>Ted Goldberg\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A hearing in the case of pro-Palestinian protesters arrested for breaking into and vandalizing the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford-university\">Stanford University\u003c/a> president’s office was marked Tuesday by heated discussions over the word genocide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the court session focused on pretrial motions — which attorneys and the judge use to lay out the ground rules for a trial — a debate over whether the term genocide should be allowed during the proceedings elicited the most impassioned arguments from defense attorneys and a deputy district attorney alike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point, defense attorneys and the county prosecutor verbally sparred over whether Israel’s actions in Gaza being characterized as a genocide is a settled fact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Using the word genocide is the same as saying the sky is blue. It is what it is,” Leah Gillis, a defense attorney in the case, said in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Robert Baker, the prosecutor heading up the case for the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, said Gillis’ comment was offensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s absolutely absurd. And I think there’s people who were murdered in World War II that would probably think that the word genocide is a lot different than just the word blue,” Baker said, raising his voice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flashpoint between attorneys in court stemmed from discussions on Tuesday about one of the central fights in the case thus far: the motivations of the protesters during their action on June 5, 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12066600\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12066600\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Robert Baker listens during a Dec. 9, 2025, pretrial hearing in San José in the case of a group of pro-Palestinian protesters charged with vandalism and conspiracy for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office last year. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gillis and other defense attorneys representing the five former and current Stanford students in the trial have emphasized in court filings and in court on Tuesday that their clients’ actions were motivated by what they believe is a genocide in Gaza, and their protest was aimed at saving Palestinian lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prosecution has questioned the validity of those arguments and has tried to limit the scope of what the jury could be influenced by during the trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very clear the whole point of this argument is to prevent the defense from blaming a country that is currently litigating that very point,” Baker said of Israel’s dispute over its actions being labeled as genocide. “It is currently the subject of litigation in the United Nations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Hanley Chew ultimately agreed to allow the use of the word genocide, he asked defense attorneys to be “very judicious” about it, and warned that if he felt they overused it, he would change his mind.[aside postID=news_12064351 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-7_qed.jpg']“I’m not going to exclude the use of the word genocide, but I don’t want the word genocide paraded throughout this trial. And if it is, I will exclude it,” Chew said. “As all of you have pointed out, the word genocide is very powerful and is very politically charged. And if I feel that the parties are exploiting that word with their own use … I will exclude its further use.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The courtroom at the Hall of Justice in San José was packed with several dozen people on Tuesday, nearly all of whom appeared to be supporting the protesters and donning keffiyehs, patterned black and white scarves that have become a visible signifier of Palestinian solidarity and resistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group of what was 12 protesters said on social media at the time they entered the university offices that they wanted Stanford leaders to “address their role in enabling and profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The action came amid a series of larger campus demonstrations aimed at pressuring the school to divest from companies that support Israel’s military bombardment in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys emphasized that international bodies and experts, such as the International Association of Genocide Scholars and an independent United Nations commission, have labeled Israel’s actions genocide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using a word like genocide is “setting the stage” for what was in the minds of their clients when they took their actions, Gillis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062229\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062229\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of Hoover Tower on the Stanford University campus in Stanford on Oct. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The prosecution asked the court to bar all use of the word genocide, arguing it is “inflammatory” and could prejudice the case, and also sought to exclude explanations of the motives of the protesters during testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker said the motives of the protesters are irrelevant to a jury trying to decide whether they are guilty of felony vandalism and conspiracy charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they were protesting the Gaza War, if they were protesting the 2020 election, if they were protesting President Biden, if they were protesting President Trump, it makes no difference,” Baker said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re going to transform this trial into a political forum rather than a search for the truth and determinative facts,” Baker said. “I think there needs to be significant limitations to sanitize what is presented to a jury.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Chew took a middle stance in his ruling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062228\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062228\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students walk and bike past the fountain outside Memorial Auditorium at Stanford University in Stanford on Oct. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’m not going to do a blanket prohibition on defendants speaking about their motivation. However, I will severely limit that ability to speak about motivation,” Chew said, noting he would ban any hearsay evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chew also decided to exclude, for now, testimony from a professor of human rights whom Gillis argued the defense should be able to use during the trial as an expert witness, to help establish facts around “Palestine and the genocide and the motivations of these young people in their request to Stanford to divest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point during the hearing, some people in the audience of the courtroom chuckled, sighed or let out brief comments in response to arguments from Baker, prompting Chew to later issue a warning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the court, and you should act in accordance with the fact that you are in a courtroom. If there are any additional outbursts, I will clear this courtroom. You understand that?” Chew said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hunter Taylor-Black, one of the defendants, said the trial amounts to “political persecution.”[aside postID=news_12065375 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-03_qed.jpg']Taylor-Black said the case from prosecutors feels “meant to discourage future student activists from acting on the things they believe in in the ways that student activists have acted in the past.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While students at campuses across the country were arrested last spring for Gaza-related demonstrations, few of those arrests resulted in felony charges or trials, making the Stanford case unusual. And defense attorneys argued earlier this year that the District Attorney’s office was overcharging the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The five defendants chose to go to trial last month, after six other protesters who were charged in the case entered into mental health diversion programs, or indicated they would take a court-offered deal that would include pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges, with a pathway to potential dismissal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One other protester, Jack Richardson, served as a witness for prosecutors in a grand jury indictment and is now enrolled in a youth deferred entry of judgment program. Such programs allow young people to eventually have a charge dismissed if they do not commit crimes while free, and often include rehabilitative requirements like counseling and community service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Germán González, also a defendant in the trial, said after the court hearing that it was disheartening to hear “genocide denialism” in the courtroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Throughout this sort of fear and anxiety that I do feel in the courtroom, I am just reminding myself that it is a privilege,” González said. “Nothing that happens in a courtroom or what happened to me is as severe as what’s happening to the Palestinians, who are facing genocide right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More pretrial conferences are scheduled this week, including a hearing over whether or not the provost of Stanford, Jenny Martinez, will be called to testify as a witness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jury selection in the trial is set to begin in early January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Robert Baker, the prosecutor heading up the case for the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, said Gillis’ comment was offensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s absolutely absurd. And I think there’s people who were murdered in World War II that would probably think that the word genocide is a lot different than just the word blue,” Baker said, raising his voice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flashpoint between attorneys in court stemmed from discussions on Tuesday about one of the central fights in the case thus far: the motivations of the protesters during their action on June 5, 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12066600\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12066600\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Robert Baker listens during a Dec. 9, 2025, pretrial hearing in San José in the case of a group of pro-Palestinian protesters charged with vandalism and conspiracy for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office last year. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gillis and other defense attorneys representing the five former and current Stanford students in the trial have emphasized in court filings and in court on Tuesday that their clients’ actions were motivated by what they believe is a genocide in Gaza, and their protest was aimed at saving Palestinian lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prosecution has questioned the validity of those arguments and has tried to limit the scope of what the jury could be influenced by during the trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very clear the whole point of this argument is to prevent the defense from blaming a country that is currently litigating that very point,” Baker said of Israel’s dispute over its actions being labeled as genocide. “It is currently the subject of litigation in the United Nations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Hanley Chew ultimately agreed to allow the use of the word genocide, he asked defense attorneys to be “very judicious” about it, and warned that if he felt they overused it, he would change his mind.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I’m not going to exclude the use of the word genocide, but I don’t want the word genocide paraded throughout this trial. And if it is, I will exclude it,” Chew said. “As all of you have pointed out, the word genocide is very powerful and is very politically charged. And if I feel that the parties are exploiting that word with their own use … I will exclude its further use.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The courtroom at the Hall of Justice in San José was packed with several dozen people on Tuesday, nearly all of whom appeared to be supporting the protesters and donning keffiyehs, patterned black and white scarves that have become a visible signifier of Palestinian solidarity and resistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group of what was 12 protesters said on social media at the time they entered the university offices that they wanted Stanford leaders to “address their role in enabling and profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The action came amid a series of larger campus demonstrations aimed at pressuring the school to divest from companies that support Israel’s military bombardment in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys emphasized that international bodies and experts, such as the International Association of Genocide Scholars and an independent United Nations commission, have labeled Israel’s actions genocide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using a word like genocide is “setting the stage” for what was in the minds of their clients when they took their actions, Gillis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062229\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062229\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of Hoover Tower on the Stanford University campus in Stanford on Oct. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The prosecution asked the court to bar all use of the word genocide, arguing it is “inflammatory” and could prejudice the case, and also sought to exclude explanations of the motives of the protesters during testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker said the motives of the protesters are irrelevant to a jury trying to decide whether they are guilty of felony vandalism and conspiracy charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they were protesting the Gaza War, if they were protesting the 2020 election, if they were protesting President Biden, if they were protesting President Trump, it makes no difference,” Baker said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re going to transform this trial into a political forum rather than a search for the truth and determinative facts,” Baker said. “I think there needs to be significant limitations to sanitize what is presented to a jury.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Chew took a middle stance in his ruling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062228\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062228\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students walk and bike past the fountain outside Memorial Auditorium at Stanford University in Stanford on Oct. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’m not going to do a blanket prohibition on defendants speaking about their motivation. However, I will severely limit that ability to speak about motivation,” Chew said, noting he would ban any hearsay evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chew also decided to exclude, for now, testimony from a professor of human rights whom Gillis argued the defense should be able to use during the trial as an expert witness, to help establish facts around “Palestine and the genocide and the motivations of these young people in their request to Stanford to divest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point during the hearing, some people in the audience of the courtroom chuckled, sighed or let out brief comments in response to arguments from Baker, prompting Chew to later issue a warning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the court, and you should act in accordance with the fact that you are in a courtroom. If there are any additional outbursts, I will clear this courtroom. You understand that?” Chew said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hunter Taylor-Black, one of the defendants, said the trial amounts to “political persecution.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Taylor-Black said the case from prosecutors feels “meant to discourage future student activists from acting on the things they believe in in the ways that student activists have acted in the past.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While students at campuses across the country were arrested last spring for Gaza-related demonstrations, few of those arrests resulted in felony charges or trials, making the Stanford case unusual. And defense attorneys argued earlier this year that the District Attorney’s office was overcharging the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The five defendants chose to go to trial last month, after six other protesters who were charged in the case entered into mental health diversion programs, or indicated they would take a court-offered deal that would include pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges, with a pathway to potential dismissal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One other protester, Jack Richardson, served as a witness for prosecutors in a grand jury indictment and is now enrolled in a youth deferred entry of judgment program. Such programs allow young people to eventually have a charge dismissed if they do not commit crimes while free, and often include rehabilitative requirements like counseling and community service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Germán González, also a defendant in the trial, said after the court hearing that it was disheartening to hear “genocide denialism” in the courtroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Throughout this sort of fear and anxiety that I do feel in the courtroom, I am just reminding myself that it is a privilege,” González said. “Nothing that happens in a courtroom or what happened to me is as severe as what’s happening to the Palestinians, who are facing genocide right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More pretrial conferences are scheduled this week, including a hearing over whether or not the provost of Stanford, Jenny Martinez, will be called to testify as a witness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jury selection in the trial is set to begin in early January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A congressional committee on Monday launched a new investigation into reports of antisemitism into \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/berkeley-unified-school-district\">Berkeley’s school district\u003c/a>, raising concerns that the schools failed to protect Jewish students’ civil rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The House of Representatives’ Education and Workforce Committee outlined the allegations in a letter sent to three school districts nationwide: Berkeley Unified School District, Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia and the School District of Philadelphia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Jewish and Israeli students have allegedly been regularly bullied and harassed,” since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the letter from Education and Workforce Committee Chair Tim Walberg (R–Michigan) and Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee Chair Kevin Kiley (R–California).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The committee said that Jewish students in Berkeley schools were “subjected to open antisemitism in their classrooms and hallways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some teachers and administrators across BUSD allegedly facilitate and encourage this hostility, while others fail to act in response to it,” the letter from Walberg and Kiley continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley’s school district has been at the center of federal antisemitism investigations in K-12 schools since February 2024, when the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League filed a formal complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, alleging that Jewish students had been subject to “severe and persistent” discrimination in Berkeley schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12065383\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12065383\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Berkeley High School in Berkeley on May 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That May, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985599/berkeley-antisemitism-hearing\">BUSD’s Superintendent, Enikia Ford Morthel, testified\u003c/a> before Congress in proceedings led by Republican lawmakers — similar to those held months earlier with leaders of prominent colleges and universities. She said that antisemitism is not pervasive in Berkeley schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Berkeley parents and advocates who believe the district has continuously failed to investigate alleged antisemitism praised the new investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s necessary and … good because the complaints against Berkeley Unified have not yet been resolved,” said Marci Miller, the Director of Legal Investigations with the Brandeis Center, which is run by a former education department official from Trump’s first administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And, because when the Superintendent was called before Congress last time, there seemed to be a lack of accountability or even acknowledging that there was an issue in the first place,” she continued.[aside postID=news_11985599 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2152066925-1020x680.jpg']The committee letter cited specific incidents of antisemitism at BUSD schools in recent years, including an allegation that during a pro-Palestinian walkout at Berkeley High School in 2023, students yelled “\u003ca href=\"https://brandeiscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Brandeis-Center-ADL-Complaint.pdf\">Kill the Jews\u003c/a>,” and that a teacher at the school displayed a photo of a fist destroying the Star of David, describing it as “\u003ca href=\"https://defendinged.org/incidents/berkeley-high-school-teacher-displays-image-to-class-of-a-fist-destroying-the-star-of-david-over-israel/\">standing up for social justice\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parent Ilana Pearlman, who pulled one of her children out of BUSD over antisemitism concerns, said she’s filed multiple complaints with the district that have gone unaddressed for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s that sense of, ‘I told my parents something, I told my teacher something that happened, and nobody did anything,’” she told KQED. “That’s kind of how I feel in the district in general. I, as an adult, said, ‘These things have happened,’ and nobody’s done anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller said there have been more than 100 such complaints lodged with BUSD since January 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What matters is the takeaway and the impact that that still has on my children of this noticing … that it might be unsafe to be Jewish,” Pearlman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district said in an email on Tuesday that it would respond “appropriately” to the Committee’s letter, which demands a plethora of documents related to curriculum, school activities, partnerships and contracts that refer or relate to Jews, Judaism, Israel, Palestine, Zionism or antisemitism, as well as a chart of all complaints of antisemitism the district has received since Oct. 7, 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11973563\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11973563 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/1st-Day-of-Middle-School-10-1-scaled-1-e1764117061286.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman stands with her hands raised next to a white woman in a classroom.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Enikia Ford Morthel, Berkeley schools superintendent, right, speaks to a classroom on the first day of middle school on Aug. 16, 2003. \u003ccite>(Kelly Sullivan/Berkeleyside)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A BUSD spokesperson added that Ford Morthel addressed the specific claims of the letter at the May 2024 hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our babies sometimes say hurtful things. We are mindful that all kids make mistakes,” Ford Morthel told lawmakers at the time. “We know that our staff are not immune to missteps either, and we don’t ignore them when they occur.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also said that when students and staff district addressed alleged incidents of antisemitism through education, restorative justice and discipline.[aside postID=news_12064351 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-7_qed.jpg']“We do not publish our actions because student information is private and legally protected under federal and state law,” she told lawmakers at the time. “As a result, some believe we do nothing. This is not true.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley substitute teacher Christina Harb, who is Palestinian American, said that some of the allegations had been disproven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s only one parent that makes the claim that she heard [‘Kill the Jews’],” during the walkout mentioned in the letter, Harb told KQED. She said another incident lawmakers cited, that a teacher allegedly put a drawing by students that said ‘Stop Bombing Babies’ outside the one Jewish teacher at the school’s classroom, was taken out of context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was not placed outside of her classroom because it’s her classroom. It was placed on an anti-hate wall that’s been in place since 2017,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harb believes that BUSD teachers and administrators have done their due diligence to address antisemitism concerns. She said she’s worried that the current investigation will instead be used to silence Muslim and Palestinian kids in Berkeley schools — a number of whom have reported incidents of discrimination to the district, and even filed their own ongoing federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just really clear that BUSD is just being used really as a chess piece in a much, much broader agenda — a pro-Israel agenda,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A congressional committee on Monday launched a new investigation into reports of antisemitism into \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/berkeley-unified-school-district\">Berkeley’s school district\u003c/a>, raising concerns that the schools failed to protect Jewish students’ civil rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The House of Representatives’ Education and Workforce Committee outlined the allegations in a letter sent to three school districts nationwide: Berkeley Unified School District, Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia and the School District of Philadelphia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Jewish and Israeli students have allegedly been regularly bullied and harassed,” since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the letter from Education and Workforce Committee Chair Tim Walberg (R–Michigan) and Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee Chair Kevin Kiley (R–California).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The committee said that Jewish students in Berkeley schools were “subjected to open antisemitism in their classrooms and hallways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some teachers and administrators across BUSD allegedly facilitate and encourage this hostility, while others fail to act in response to it,” the letter from Walberg and Kiley continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley’s school district has been at the center of federal antisemitism investigations in K-12 schools since February 2024, when the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League filed a formal complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, alleging that Jewish students had been subject to “severe and persistent” discrimination in Berkeley schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12065383\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12065383\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Berkeley High School in Berkeley on May 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That May, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985599/berkeley-antisemitism-hearing\">BUSD’s Superintendent, Enikia Ford Morthel, testified\u003c/a> before Congress in proceedings led by Republican lawmakers — similar to those held months earlier with leaders of prominent colleges and universities. She said that antisemitism is not pervasive in Berkeley schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Berkeley parents and advocates who believe the district has continuously failed to investigate alleged antisemitism praised the new investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s necessary and … good because the complaints against Berkeley Unified have not yet been resolved,” said Marci Miller, the Director of Legal Investigations with the Brandeis Center, which is run by a former education department official from Trump’s first administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And, because when the Superintendent was called before Congress last time, there seemed to be a lack of accountability or even acknowledging that there was an issue in the first place,” she continued.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The committee letter cited specific incidents of antisemitism at BUSD schools in recent years, including an allegation that during a pro-Palestinian walkout at Berkeley High School in 2023, students yelled “\u003ca href=\"https://brandeiscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Brandeis-Center-ADL-Complaint.pdf\">Kill the Jews\u003c/a>,” and that a teacher at the school displayed a photo of a fist destroying the Star of David, describing it as “\u003ca href=\"https://defendinged.org/incidents/berkeley-high-school-teacher-displays-image-to-class-of-a-fist-destroying-the-star-of-david-over-israel/\">standing up for social justice\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parent Ilana Pearlman, who pulled one of her children out of BUSD over antisemitism concerns, said she’s filed multiple complaints with the district that have gone unaddressed for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s that sense of, ‘I told my parents something, I told my teacher something that happened, and nobody did anything,’” she told KQED. “That’s kind of how I feel in the district in general. I, as an adult, said, ‘These things have happened,’ and nobody’s done anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller said there have been more than 100 such complaints lodged with BUSD since January 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What matters is the takeaway and the impact that that still has on my children of this noticing … that it might be unsafe to be Jewish,” Pearlman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district said in an email on Tuesday that it would respond “appropriately” to the Committee’s letter, which demands a plethora of documents related to curriculum, school activities, partnerships and contracts that refer or relate to Jews, Judaism, Israel, Palestine, Zionism or antisemitism, as well as a chart of all complaints of antisemitism the district has received since Oct. 7, 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11973563\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11973563 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/1st-Day-of-Middle-School-10-1-scaled-1-e1764117061286.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman stands with her hands raised next to a white woman in a classroom.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Enikia Ford Morthel, Berkeley schools superintendent, right, speaks to a classroom on the first day of middle school on Aug. 16, 2003. \u003ccite>(Kelly Sullivan/Berkeleyside)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A BUSD spokesperson added that Ford Morthel addressed the specific claims of the letter at the May 2024 hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our babies sometimes say hurtful things. We are mindful that all kids make mistakes,” Ford Morthel told lawmakers at the time. “We know that our staff are not immune to missteps either, and we don’t ignore them when they occur.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also said that when students and staff district addressed alleged incidents of antisemitism through education, restorative justice and discipline.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We do not publish our actions because student information is private and legally protected under federal and state law,” she told lawmakers at the time. “As a result, some believe we do nothing. This is not true.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley substitute teacher Christina Harb, who is Palestinian American, said that some of the allegations had been disproven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s only one parent that makes the claim that she heard [‘Kill the Jews’],” during the walkout mentioned in the letter, Harb told KQED. She said another incident lawmakers cited, that a teacher allegedly put a drawing by students that said ‘Stop Bombing Babies’ outside the one Jewish teacher at the school’s classroom, was taken out of context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was not placed outside of her classroom because it’s her classroom. It was placed on an anti-hate wall that’s been in place since 2017,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harb believes that BUSD teachers and administrators have done their due diligence to address antisemitism concerns. She said she’s worried that the current investigation will instead be used to silence Muslim and Palestinian kids in Berkeley schools — a number of whom have reported incidents of discrimination to the district, and even filed their own ongoing federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just really clear that BUSD is just being used really as a chess piece in a much, much broader agenda — a pro-Israel agenda,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Protestors gathered outside \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>’s George Moscone Center on Tuesday at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/microsoft\">Microsoft\u003c/a>’s largest annual conference to demand that the tech giant cut all remaining ties with the Israeli military.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group of former and current Microsoft workers descended on Microsoft Ignite, which had attracted over 15,000 attendees to showcase the company’s latest cloud and Artificial Intelligence innovations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Organized by the group No Azure for Apartheid, the demonstrators claim that despite recent policy changes, Microsoft continues to provide essential cloud computing services supporting Israel’s military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Microsoft thinks that they can pacify us with these half measures,” said Joe Lopez, a former engineer who disrupted CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote speech in May. “We are here until Microsoft cuts all ties with Israel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After reports surfaced that the company’s technology was being used for mass surveillance of Palestinians, Microsoft reportedly cut off access to some of its services for Unit 8200, an Israeli military intelligence unit. It also introduced a new internal reporting mechanism for employees to flag practices that they believe may violate company policies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064638\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064638\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-07-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-07-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-07-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Microsoft employee Hossam Nasr leads pro-Palestinian protesters rallying outside of the Microsoft Ignite conference in San Francisco in chants and calling on the company to cut ties with the Israeli military and government on Nov. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the protesters argued that this step was insufficient, claiming the company still maintains contracts with other branches of the Israeli military and government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also called attention to Microsoft Azure, a cloud computing platform that allows clients to rent powerful computing and storage capacity over the internet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Organizer and former Microsoft worker Hossam Nasr explained that modern military operations require massive data processing for surveillance and AI targeting systems, capabilities that the Israeli government cannot maintain without external support from major tech firms.[aside postID=news_12064351 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-7_qed.jpg']He referred to cloud and AI services as “the bombs and bullets of the 21st century.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Israeli military would not have been able to be as destructive, as deadly, as brutal in its genocide in Gaza, if it were not for the technology provided by Microsoft,” Nasr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the rally unfolded outside the conference center, there was a disruption inside — Microsoft employee Patrick Fort interrupted CEO Judson Althoff’s opening keynote speech and resigned in protest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fort, a senior software engineer who had been at Microsoft for seven years, worked on systems supporting the Azure platform. He said he sent a mass resignation email to his colleagues before standing up in the bleachers to shout at Althoff. He was then escorted out by personnel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I recognize that my work at Microsoft, my labor, is enabling the genocide in some small way,” Fort told KQED shortly after leaving the venue. “The only way I saw to effectively stop that was to leave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064642\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064642\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-09-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Patrick Fort and other pro-Palestinian protesters rally outside of the Microsoft Ignite conference in San Francisco to call on the company to cut ties with the Israel military and government on Nov. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a statement responding to Monday’s protest, a Microsoft spokesperson said that “appropriate teams are engaged to help minimize these disruptions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We respect the right to peaceful assembly and ask that it be done in a way that does not cause business disruption,” the statement read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fort acknowledged that for many tech workers, the conflict can feel distant, but he urged his former colleagues to consider the downstream effects of the software they build.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We all have to draw a line for what our work enables,” Fort said. “Ultimately, I believe that we, as individuals, have to think more than just [about] our own self-interest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Microsoft thinks that they can pacify us with these half measures,” said Joe Lopez, a former engineer who disrupted CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote speech in May. “We are here until Microsoft cuts all ties with Israel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After reports surfaced that the company’s technology was being used for mass surveillance of Palestinians, Microsoft reportedly cut off access to some of its services for Unit 8200, an Israeli military intelligence unit. It also introduced a new internal reporting mechanism for employees to flag practices that they believe may violate company policies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064638\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064638\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-07-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-07-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-07-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Microsoft employee Hossam Nasr leads pro-Palestinian protesters rallying outside of the Microsoft Ignite conference in San Francisco in chants and calling on the company to cut ties with the Israeli military and government on Nov. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the protesters argued that this step was insufficient, claiming the company still maintains contracts with other branches of the Israeli military and government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also called attention to Microsoft Azure, a cloud computing platform that allows clients to rent powerful computing and storage capacity over the internet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Organizer and former Microsoft worker Hossam Nasr explained that modern military operations require massive data processing for surveillance and AI targeting systems, capabilities that the Israeli government cannot maintain without external support from major tech firms.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>He referred to cloud and AI services as “the bombs and bullets of the 21st century.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Israeli military would not have been able to be as destructive, as deadly, as brutal in its genocide in Gaza, if it were not for the technology provided by Microsoft,” Nasr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the rally unfolded outside the conference center, there was a disruption inside — Microsoft employee Patrick Fort interrupted CEO Judson Althoff’s opening keynote speech and resigned in protest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fort, a senior software engineer who had been at Microsoft for seven years, worked on systems supporting the Azure platform. He said he sent a mass resignation email to his colleagues before standing up in the bleachers to shout at Althoff. He was then escorted out by personnel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I recognize that my work at Microsoft, my labor, is enabling the genocide in some small way,” Fort told KQED shortly after leaving the venue. “The only way I saw to effectively stop that was to leave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064642\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064642\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-09-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Patrick Fort and other pro-Palestinian protesters rally outside of the Microsoft Ignite conference in San Francisco to call on the company to cut ties with the Israel military and government on Nov. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a statement responding to Monday’s protest, a Microsoft spokesperson said that “appropriate teams are engaged to help minimize these disruptions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We respect the right to peaceful assembly and ask that it be done in a way that does not cause business disruption,” the statement read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fort acknowledged that for many tech workers, the conflict can feel distant, but he urged his former colleagues to consider the downstream effects of the software they build.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We all have to draw a line for what our work enables,” Fort said. “Ultimately, I believe that we, as individuals, have to think more than just [about] our own self-interest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Nearly a year and a half after a group of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/pro-palestinian-protest\">pro-Palestinian protesters\u003c/a> were arrested for breaking into and vandalizing the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford-university\">Stanford University\u003c/a> president’s office, a trial is set to get underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of five protesters is scheduled to go to trial on Nov. 24. They face felony vandalism and conspiracy charges stemming from a grand jury indictment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While hundreds of students have been arrested at college campuses across the country for protest-related activity since the war in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gaza\">Gaza\u003c/a> began, few of the cases have progressed this far. Attorneys for the defendants and their supporters have accused the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office of seeking overly harsh punishment to quell further protests and speech.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday morning, three other protesters told the court they intend to take a deal offered to them by a judge, which would require them to plead guilty to misdemeanors, a plan opposed by prosecutors. Three other protesters recently enrolled in mental health diversion programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The details of the misdemeanor deal remain vague for now, but attorneys for those defendants said it would likely include a path for their clients to ultimately have the charges dismissed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EmilyRose Johns, an attorney representing Cameron Pennington, said the deal would likely require her client to perform community service and avoid any criminal behavior for a certain amount of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064524\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064524\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hunter Taylor-Black, center, one of five pro-Palestinian protesters going to trial for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office, speaks to a group of supporters outside the Hall of Justice in San José on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The court has indicated that if they’re successful, it may ultimately allow withdrawal of the plea and a diversion deal, which would mean that the clients have no conviction history,” Johns told KQED after a court hearing on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office oppose the deal, which attorneys said was offered late last week to all the defendants by Judge Deborah Ryan, following private discussions between attorneys and Ryan in court chambers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office didn’t respond to a request for comment on Monday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The judge is the current arbiter of justice. The judge is the person who decides what is just and appropriate and can dismiss cases over the district attorney’s objection and can make court offers to clients over the district attorney’s objection,” Johns said.[aside postID=news_12035346 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-10-KQED-1020x680.jpg']“The reason that misdemeanors are even on the table is that Judge Ryan has indicated that she didn’t believe this resembled felony conduct,” Johns said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case stems from a June 5, 2024, action by a group of a dozen protesters, mostly made up of current or former Stanford students at the time, who broke into the president’s office in the early morning hours and barricaded themselves inside before being arrested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group said on social media at the time they wanted Stanford leaders to “address their role in enabling and profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.” It came amid a series of larger campus demonstrations aimed at pressuring the school to divest from companies that support Israel’s military bombardment in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in April, when he brought initial felony charges against the group, that they “crossed the clear and bright line between dissent and destruction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiden Wang, one of the defendants who intends to take the court deal, said the group’s actions fit into a legacy of protest in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that our action is part of the long history of activism in the Bay Area,” Wang said. “The Bay Area seems to be one of the earliest brewing grounds for these types of actions and these kinds of resistance towards systems of oppression.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11989555\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11989555\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-15-1-e1744310968489.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Building 10 at Stanford University, where pro-Palestinian protesters broke into the university president’s office and occupied it before being arrested on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The protesters who intend to take the deal, as well as those who are headed to trial, will all still have to contend with the issue of a $329,000 claim for restitution by Stanford for damages caused by the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tony Brass, an attorney representing Hunter Taylor-Black, who is proceeding to trial, said Stanford has refused to talk with attorneys about the figure, which could amount to “crippling debt” for some of the protesters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brass said the number could increase or decrease after a restitution hearing, and Stanford’s lack of engagement on the topic makes it hard to know what consequences his client and others may face, and is part of the reason they are going to trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What they’re trying to avoid is unknown consequences, unfair consequences, extreme consequences. And this could all be clarified,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064526\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064526\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A group of supporters gathered for a rally outside the Hall of Justice in San José on Nov. 17, 2025, after a court hearing for a group of pro-Palestinian protesters indicted for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One other protester, Jack Richardson, served as a witness for prosecutors in the grand jury and is now enrolled in a youth deferred judgment program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brass and other attorneys have also taken issue with the district attorney’s motions asking a judge to ban any mention of the word “genocide” from the trial. In those filings, the DA’s office said the word “genocide” is “inflammatory” and would prejudice the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rosen’s office also filed motions asking to exclude the motives behind the actions of the protesters, saying the defense will likely “attempt to use this trial as another form of protest,” instead of focusing on guilt or innocence.[aside postID=news_12063531 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg']“What matters is only that they agreed to occupy the building and that vandalism was necessary to accomplish the occupation. Their reasons for doing so have no relevance to the issues the jury will be asked to decide,” the filings say. “While such evidence might be relevant at sentencing, it serves no purpose at jury trial.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DA’s filings said the defense will attempt to “make this proceeding an extension of the June 5, 2024, political protest by falsely accusing Stanford University of supporting genocide.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brass said those motions show Rosen is trying to “present this trial completely sanitized,” without full context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These students were acting for a greater good. And their inaction was something they, out of a sense of conscience, couldn’t live with,” Brass said. “They had to draw more attention to it, had to amplify their voice, and this is what they did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also noted that the protesters went into the building when it was empty and did not harm anyone or threaten anyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maya Burke, one of the protesters going to trial, said the motions trying to limit the scope of the defendant’s arguments are “alarming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Burke said they are seeking justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are war crimes on,” Burke said, “and I would hope to see that acknowledged in the court and acknowledged in public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Nearly a year and a half after a group of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/pro-palestinian-protest\">pro-Palestinian protesters\u003c/a> were arrested for breaking into and vandalizing the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford-university\">Stanford University\u003c/a> president’s office, a trial is set to get underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of five protesters is scheduled to go to trial on Nov. 24. They face felony vandalism and conspiracy charges stemming from a grand jury indictment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While hundreds of students have been arrested at college campuses across the country for protest-related activity since the war in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gaza\">Gaza\u003c/a> began, few of the cases have progressed this far. Attorneys for the defendants and their supporters have accused the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office of seeking overly harsh punishment to quell further protests and speech.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday morning, three other protesters told the court they intend to take a deal offered to them by a judge, which would require them to plead guilty to misdemeanors, a plan opposed by prosecutors. Three other protesters recently enrolled in mental health diversion programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The details of the misdemeanor deal remain vague for now, but attorneys for those defendants said it would likely include a path for their clients to ultimately have the charges dismissed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EmilyRose Johns, an attorney representing Cameron Pennington, said the deal would likely require her client to perform community service and avoid any criminal behavior for a certain amount of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064524\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064524\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hunter Taylor-Black, center, one of five pro-Palestinian protesters going to trial for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office, speaks to a group of supporters outside the Hall of Justice in San José on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The court has indicated that if they’re successful, it may ultimately allow withdrawal of the plea and a diversion deal, which would mean that the clients have no conviction history,” Johns told KQED after a court hearing on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office oppose the deal, which attorneys said was offered late last week to all the defendants by Judge Deborah Ryan, following private discussions between attorneys and Ryan in court chambers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office didn’t respond to a request for comment on Monday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The judge is the current arbiter of justice. The judge is the person who decides what is just and appropriate and can dismiss cases over the district attorney’s objection and can make court offers to clients over the district attorney’s objection,” Johns said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The reason that misdemeanors are even on the table is that Judge Ryan has indicated that she didn’t believe this resembled felony conduct,” Johns said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case stems from a June 5, 2024, action by a group of a dozen protesters, mostly made up of current or former Stanford students at the time, who broke into the president’s office in the early morning hours and barricaded themselves inside before being arrested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group said on social media at the time they wanted Stanford leaders to “address their role in enabling and profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.” It came amid a series of larger campus demonstrations aimed at pressuring the school to divest from companies that support Israel’s military bombardment in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in April, when he brought initial felony charges against the group, that they “crossed the clear and bright line between dissent and destruction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiden Wang, one of the defendants who intends to take the court deal, said the group’s actions fit into a legacy of protest in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that our action is part of the long history of activism in the Bay Area,” Wang said. “The Bay Area seems to be one of the earliest brewing grounds for these types of actions and these kinds of resistance towards systems of oppression.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11989555\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11989555\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-15-1-e1744310968489.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Building 10 at Stanford University, where pro-Palestinian protesters broke into the university president’s office and occupied it before being arrested on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The protesters who intend to take the deal, as well as those who are headed to trial, will all still have to contend with the issue of a $329,000 claim for restitution by Stanford for damages caused by the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tony Brass, an attorney representing Hunter Taylor-Black, who is proceeding to trial, said Stanford has refused to talk with attorneys about the figure, which could amount to “crippling debt” for some of the protesters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brass said the number could increase or decrease after a restitution hearing, and Stanford’s lack of engagement on the topic makes it hard to know what consequences his client and others may face, and is part of the reason they are going to trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What they’re trying to avoid is unknown consequences, unfair consequences, extreme consequences. And this could all be clarified,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064526\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064526\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A group of supporters gathered for a rally outside the Hall of Justice in San José on Nov. 17, 2025, after a court hearing for a group of pro-Palestinian protesters indicted for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One other protester, Jack Richardson, served as a witness for prosecutors in the grand jury and is now enrolled in a youth deferred judgment program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brass and other attorneys have also taken issue with the district attorney’s motions asking a judge to ban any mention of the word “genocide” from the trial. In those filings, the DA’s office said the word “genocide” is “inflammatory” and would prejudice the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rosen’s office also filed motions asking to exclude the motives behind the actions of the protesters, saying the defense will likely “attempt to use this trial as another form of protest,” instead of focusing on guilt or innocence.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“What matters is only that they agreed to occupy the building and that vandalism was necessary to accomplish the occupation. Their reasons for doing so have no relevance to the issues the jury will be asked to decide,” the filings say. “While such evidence might be relevant at sentencing, it serves no purpose at jury trial.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DA’s filings said the defense will attempt to “make this proceeding an extension of the June 5, 2024, political protest by falsely accusing Stanford University of supporting genocide.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brass said those motions show Rosen is trying to “present this trial completely sanitized,” without full context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These students were acting for a greater good. And their inaction was something they, out of a sense of conscience, couldn’t live with,” Brass said. “They had to draw more attention to it, had to amplify their voice, and this is what they did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also noted that the protesters went into the building when it was empty and did not harm anyone or threaten anyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maya Burke, one of the protesters going to trial, said the motions trying to limit the scope of the defendant’s arguments are “alarming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Burke said they are seeking justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are war crimes on,” Burke said, “and I would hope to see that acknowledged in the court and acknowledged in public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "weeks-after-sfo-arrest-political-commentator-sami-hamdi-is-released-and-leaves-us",
"title": "Weeks After SFO Arrest, Political Commentator Sami Hamdi Is Released and Leaves US",
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"headTitle": "Weeks After SFO Arrest, Political Commentator Sami Hamdi Is Released and Leaves US | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>British political commentator Sami Hamdi voluntarily left the U.S. on Wednesday after more than two weeks in federal immigration detention following his arrest \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12061703/british-commentator-sami-hamdis-detention-at-sfo-raises-alarms-over-free-speech\">at San Francisco International Airport\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hamdi, who is Muslim and a vocal critic of the Israeli government, was on a national speaking tour at the time of his detainment. The Department of Homeland Security accused him of being a supporter of terrorism and cheering on Hamas after its attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hamdi’s detention is part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to crack down on adversarial speech by noncitizens, particularly surrounding Israel and the war in Gaza, raising concerns about the erosion of First Amendment rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This administration has made it clear that if you are critical of Israel and its policies in Gaza, you’re subject to efforts at removal of you from the United States,” UC Davis law professor Kevin Johnson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained Hamdi at SFO on Oct. 26, just a day after he spoke at the annual gala of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Sacramento chapter. He was headed to Florida, where he was scheduled to appear at another CAIR event later that evening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hamdi, who was taken to the Golden State Annex detention facility in McFarland after his arrest, said he was transported in shackles at least twice during his detention without notice, crowded into rooms with dozens of men and forced to wait hours for medical attention.[aside postID=news_12061703 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/SamiHamdiGetty.jpg']Following Hamdi’s arrest, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/TriciaOhio/status/1982514569307197749\">announced on social media platform X \u003c/a>that his visa had been revoked and that he was in ICE custody pending removal from the U.S., but his departure this week was voluntary rather than a deportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Under President Trump, those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country,” McLaughlin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But according to CAIR’s California chapter, the government did not file criminal charges against Hamdi or allege in court that he posed any security threat. The organization said that the government brought only a claim that he had overstayed his visa, which was possible because DHS revoked his visa during his visit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hamdi’s attorneys said the detention was a show of political retaliation and a violation of his First Amendment rights that sought to suppress his future speech.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, the California chapter of CAIR said Hamdi was detained “at the urging of well-known anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian extremists,” and added that his arrest occurred after a set of public appearances where Hamdi was vocal on Palestinian human rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hamdi’s case is part of a broader pattern of authorities targeting journalists and advocates who speak out for Palestinian human rights and criticize Israeli government policies,” it continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12041614\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12041614\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-15.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-15.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-15-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-15-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-15-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-15-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mahmoud Khalil has asked an immigration judge to grant him asylum, saying he feared being targeted by Israel if he’s deported to Syria or Algeria. \u003ccite>(Spencer Platt/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In March, ICE officers arrested Columbia University student \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12040160/sf-immigration-attorney-says-first-amendment-should-protect-mahmoud-khalil-from-deportation\">Mahmoud Khalil\u003c/a>, an Algerian American legal permanent resident. Khalil was one of the most vocal spokespeople and negotiators at Columbia’s high-profile Gaza solidarity encampment in spring 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same month, Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk was detained, though she was released after a federal judge found her arrest was likely in retaliation for a student newspaper op-ed she wrote that was critical of the campus’ response to the war in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The State Department detained and initiated deportation hearings against another Columbia student activist, Mohsen Mahdawi, a lawful permanent resident, based on claims that his actions were harmful to foreign policy.[aside postID=news_12038872 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/gettyimages-2210243092-1020x680.jpeg']Johnson, the UC Davis law professor, said the Trump administration is unlike any other modern presidency in “using the immigration laws to target political dissenters, to target Muslims, to target Latinos, and using immigration laws in ways that are really extraordinary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The laws surrounding free speech for immigrants and noncitizens are not firmly established and have been much more restricted in the past, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the McCarthy-era rise of anti-communism fear and paranoia, the Supreme Court ruled in a number of cases that immigrants could be deported for expressing views sympathetic toward the Communist Party or its figures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump administration has also invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime law that allows the president to remove people from the country without a hearing. The move came in an attempt to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033527/trump-asks-supreme-court-to-allow-deportations-under-alien-enemies-act\">deport Venezuelan nationals\u003c/a> who Trump alleged were part of Tren de Aragua, a criminal organization on the administration’s foreign terrorist list.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such a measure has only been taken three times in U.S. history — during the War of 1812 and the first and second World Wars — and can only be employed by a president if they determine that a foreign government is conducting an “invasion” outside of wartime, \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/LSB11269\">according to Congress\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It appears that this administration is returning to an effort to regulate ideology among non-civilians in this country,” Johnson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12040480\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12040480\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-5.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-5-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-5-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-5-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-5-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on May 15, 2025, in a case challenging the Trump administration’s effort to limit who gets birthright citizenship. \u003ccite>(Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>An immigration judge in September ordered that Khalil should be deported for withholding information in his green card application, but his case is still undergoing an appeal. While federal judges have ordered that Öztürk and Mahdawi be freed from detention, the Trump administration is still pursuing deportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act has faced a slew of legal challenges from the Supreme Court and federal appeals courts, but the high court hasn’t yet ruled directly on whether his use of the law to deport Venezuelan nationals is legal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon, Johnson said, it’s likely that the Supreme Court will revisit the question of how protected noncitizen speech in the country is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ll have to see what the Supreme Court decides,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/shossaini\">\u003cem>Sara Hossaini\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>British political commentator Sami Hamdi voluntarily left the U.S. on Wednesday after more than two weeks in federal immigration detention following his arrest \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12061703/british-commentator-sami-hamdis-detention-at-sfo-raises-alarms-over-free-speech\">at San Francisco International Airport\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hamdi, who is Muslim and a vocal critic of the Israeli government, was on a national speaking tour at the time of his detainment. The Department of Homeland Security accused him of being a supporter of terrorism and cheering on Hamas after its attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hamdi’s detention is part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to crack down on adversarial speech by noncitizens, particularly surrounding Israel and the war in Gaza, raising concerns about the erosion of First Amendment rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This administration has made it clear that if you are critical of Israel and its policies in Gaza, you’re subject to efforts at removal of you from the United States,” UC Davis law professor Kevin Johnson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained Hamdi at SFO on Oct. 26, just a day after he spoke at the annual gala of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Sacramento chapter. He was headed to Florida, where he was scheduled to appear at another CAIR event later that evening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hamdi, who was taken to the Golden State Annex detention facility in McFarland after his arrest, said he was transported in shackles at least twice during his detention without notice, crowded into rooms with dozens of men and forced to wait hours for medical attention.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Following Hamdi’s arrest, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/TriciaOhio/status/1982514569307197749\">announced on social media platform X \u003c/a>that his visa had been revoked and that he was in ICE custody pending removal from the U.S., but his departure this week was voluntary rather than a deportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Under President Trump, those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country,” McLaughlin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But according to CAIR’s California chapter, the government did not file criminal charges against Hamdi or allege in court that he posed any security threat. The organization said that the government brought only a claim that he had overstayed his visa, which was possible because DHS revoked his visa during his visit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hamdi’s attorneys said the detention was a show of political retaliation and a violation of his First Amendment rights that sought to suppress his future speech.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, the California chapter of CAIR said Hamdi was detained “at the urging of well-known anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian extremists,” and added that his arrest occurred after a set of public appearances where Hamdi was vocal on Palestinian human rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hamdi’s case is part of a broader pattern of authorities targeting journalists and advocates who speak out for Palestinian human rights and criticize Israeli government policies,” it continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12041614\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12041614\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-15.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-15.jpg 1800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-15-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-15-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-15-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-15-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mahmoud Khalil has asked an immigration judge to grant him asylum, saying he feared being targeted by Israel if he’s deported to Syria or Algeria. \u003ccite>(Spencer Platt/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In March, ICE officers arrested Columbia University student \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12040160/sf-immigration-attorney-says-first-amendment-should-protect-mahmoud-khalil-from-deportation\">Mahmoud Khalil\u003c/a>, an Algerian American legal permanent resident. Khalil was one of the most vocal spokespeople and negotiators at Columbia’s high-profile Gaza solidarity encampment in spring 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same month, Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk was detained, though she was released after a federal judge found her arrest was likely in retaliation for a student newspaper op-ed she wrote that was critical of the campus’ response to the war in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The State Department detained and initiated deportation hearings against another Columbia student activist, Mohsen Mahdawi, a lawful permanent resident, based on claims that his actions were harmful to foreign policy.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Johnson, the UC Davis law professor, said the Trump administration is unlike any other modern presidency in “using the immigration laws to target political dissenters, to target Muslims, to target Latinos, and using immigration laws in ways that are really extraordinary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The laws surrounding free speech for immigrants and noncitizens are not firmly established and have been much more restricted in the past, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the McCarthy-era rise of anti-communism fear and paranoia, the Supreme Court ruled in a number of cases that immigrants could be deported for expressing views sympathetic toward the Communist Party or its figures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump administration has also invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime law that allows the president to remove people from the country without a hearing. The move came in an attempt to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033527/trump-asks-supreme-court-to-allow-deportations-under-alien-enemies-act\">deport Venezuelan nationals\u003c/a> who Trump alleged were part of Tren de Aragua, a criminal organization on the administration’s foreign terrorist list.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such a measure has only been taken three times in U.S. history — during the War of 1812 and the first and second World Wars — and can only be employed by a president if they determine that a foreign government is conducting an “invasion” outside of wartime, \u003ca href=\"https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/LSB11269\">according to Congress\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It appears that this administration is returning to an effort to regulate ideology among non-civilians in this country,” Johnson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12040480\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12040480\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-5.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-5-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-5-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-5-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-5-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on May 15, 2025, in a case challenging the Trump administration’s effort to limit who gets birthright citizenship. \u003ccite>(Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>An immigration judge in September ordered that Khalil should be deported for withholding information in his green card application, but his case is still undergoing an appeal. While federal judges have ordered that Öztürk and Mahdawi be freed from detention, the Trump administration is still pursuing deportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act has faced a slew of legal challenges from the Supreme Court and federal appeals courts, but the high court hasn’t yet ruled directly on whether his use of the law to deport Venezuelan nationals is legal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon, Johnson said, it’s likely that the Supreme Court will revisit the question of how protected noncitizen speech in the country is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ll have to see what the Supreme Court decides,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/shossaini\">\u003cem>Sara Hossaini\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "golden-gate-bridge-agency-drops-163k-restitution-claim-against-pro-palestinian-protesters",
"title": "Golden Gate Bridge Agency Drops $163K Restitution Claim Against Pro-Palestinian Protesters",
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"headTitle": "Golden Gate Bridge Agency Drops $163K Restitution Claim Against Pro-Palestinian Protesters | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The agency that operates the Golden Gate Bridge has withdrawn its nearly $163,000 restitution claim against \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982940/protesters-shut-down-880-freeway-in-oakland-as-part-of-economic-blockade-for-gaza\">activists who blocked the bridge\u003c/a> for hours in April last year as part of a pro-Palestinian protest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District filed the claim to cover the estimated loss of toll revenue after protesters shut down the bridge for roughly four hours on April 15, 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The claim appeared to mark the first time that bridge operators sought financial compensation for a traffic disruption, sparking accusations that the protesters were being retaliated against for their support of Palestinians and their criticism of the United States military support for Israel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the bridge district confirmed that the claim had been withdrawn but declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday morning, lawyers representing the activists announced the withdrawal in San Francisco Superior Court and said they had reached agreements with six of the nine individuals who filed restitution claims, mostly for the wages lost due to being stuck on the bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Brian J. Stretch ultimately found that protesters would have to collectively pay just under $5,300 to the nine people for the losses they incurred. Divided among the 16 defendants who had agreed to a diversion program, which includes paying restitution, Stretch said the total would come out to $331.16 per person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11975875\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11975875\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters block traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge on Feb. 14, 2024. \u003ccite>(Juan Carlos Lara/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Individually and as a group, it’s a win for people to get cases dismissed, but it’s not a win in terms of what’s going on in the world,” said Bobbie Stein, a lawyer representing one of the protesters. “This district attorney’s office has aggressively prosecuted these cases where people were exercising their First Amendment rights, their dissent and their outrage over the genocide that’s taking place in Gaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the days immediately following the protest, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/BrookeJenkinsSF/status/1780616603954204930\">posted to social media\u003c/a>, encouraging people affected by the shutdown to seek potential compensation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Activists and their supporters accused the district attorney of targeting the protesters for their support of Palestinians and using the restitution process against them. They also compared their case to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058280/stanford-pro-palestine-protestors-indicted-for-barricading-presidents-office\">Stanford pro-Palestinian protesters also facing restitution\u003c/a> claims for barricading themselves inside the university president’s office in June last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it is a calculated tactic to weaponize restitution, to chill people’s First Amendment rights, to chill people’s actions, to make them think, ‘No, I better not do that because I’m going to be liable for so much money. I can’t afford to exercise my rights,’” Stein said.[aside postID=news_12062192 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/uc-berkeley-malak-afaneh-handout_qed-1020x680.jpg']EmilyRose Johns, another defense attorney in the case, said the outreach from Jenkins encouraged people to be more “imaginative.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What happened as a result of the overzealous solicitation for individuals who have claims for restitution is that people became very creative in how they evaluated their losses and their harm,” Johns said. “What we endeavored to do in this hearing is to understand the actual economic loss that people suffered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district attorney’s office declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the restitution claims settled, the defendants who accepted the court’s diversion offers have one less barrier left to closing their cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the 10 remaining activists who were arrested, two declined the option of diversion and opted to take their cases to trial. The remaining eight face more serious charges, including felony conspiracy, and lawyers said the closure of the restitution issue could help them as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly a year ago, lawyers for the activists sought to reduce the felony charges to misdemeanors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Brendan P. Conroy said at the time that he might have considered downgrading the charges, but didn’t because of the restitution amount.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m hoping that with the settlement of restitution claims that there won’t be a barrier to reducing the felony cases to misdemeanors,” Stein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Golden Gate Bridge District’s decision to drop its restitution claim ends a dispute that had drawn criticism from activists who said San Francisco officials were punishing protesters for their pro-Palestinian stance and attempting to deter future demonstrations.",
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"title": "Golden Gate Bridge Agency Drops $163K Restitution Claim Against Pro-Palestinian Protesters | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The agency that operates the Golden Gate Bridge has withdrawn its nearly $163,000 restitution claim against \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982940/protesters-shut-down-880-freeway-in-oakland-as-part-of-economic-blockade-for-gaza\">activists who blocked the bridge\u003c/a> for hours in April last year as part of a pro-Palestinian protest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District filed the claim to cover the estimated loss of toll revenue after protesters shut down the bridge for roughly four hours on April 15, 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The claim appeared to mark the first time that bridge operators sought financial compensation for a traffic disruption, sparking accusations that the protesters were being retaliated against for their support of Palestinians and their criticism of the United States military support for Israel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the bridge district confirmed that the claim had been withdrawn but declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday morning, lawyers representing the activists announced the withdrawal in San Francisco Superior Court and said they had reached agreements with six of the nine individuals who filed restitution claims, mostly for the wages lost due to being stuck on the bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Brian J. Stretch ultimately found that protesters would have to collectively pay just under $5,300 to the nine people for the losses they incurred. Divided among the 16 defendants who had agreed to a diversion program, which includes paying restitution, Stretch said the total would come out to $331.16 per person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11975875\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11975875\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters block traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge on Feb. 14, 2024. \u003ccite>(Juan Carlos Lara/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Individually and as a group, it’s a win for people to get cases dismissed, but it’s not a win in terms of what’s going on in the world,” said Bobbie Stein, a lawyer representing one of the protesters. “This district attorney’s office has aggressively prosecuted these cases where people were exercising their First Amendment rights, their dissent and their outrage over the genocide that’s taking place in Gaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the days immediately following the protest, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/BrookeJenkinsSF/status/1780616603954204930\">posted to social media\u003c/a>, encouraging people affected by the shutdown to seek potential compensation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Activists and their supporters accused the district attorney of targeting the protesters for their support of Palestinians and using the restitution process against them. They also compared their case to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058280/stanford-pro-palestine-protestors-indicted-for-barricading-presidents-office\">Stanford pro-Palestinian protesters also facing restitution\u003c/a> claims for barricading themselves inside the university president’s office in June last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it is a calculated tactic to weaponize restitution, to chill people’s First Amendment rights, to chill people’s actions, to make them think, ‘No, I better not do that because I’m going to be liable for so much money. I can’t afford to exercise my rights,’” Stein said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>EmilyRose Johns, another defense attorney in the case, said the outreach from Jenkins encouraged people to be more “imaginative.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What happened as a result of the overzealous solicitation for individuals who have claims for restitution is that people became very creative in how they evaluated their losses and their harm,” Johns said. “What we endeavored to do in this hearing is to understand the actual economic loss that people suffered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district attorney’s office declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the restitution claims settled, the defendants who accepted the court’s diversion offers have one less barrier left to closing their cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the 10 remaining activists who were arrested, two declined the option of diversion and opted to take their cases to trial. The remaining eight face more serious charges, including felony conspiracy, and lawyers said the closure of the restitution issue could help them as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly a year ago, lawyers for the activists sought to reduce the felony charges to misdemeanors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Brendan P. Conroy said at the time that he might have considered downgrading the charges, but didn’t because of the restitution amount.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m hoping that with the settlement of restitution claims that there won’t be a barrier to reducing the felony cases to misdemeanors,” Stein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "a-village-with-close-ties-to-the-bay-area-facing-demolition-in-the-west-bank",
"title": "A Village With Close Ties to the Bay Area, Facing Demolition in the West Bank",
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"headTitle": "A Village With Close Ties to the Bay Area, Facing Demolition in the West Bank | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>For nearly 10 years, progressive \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a> Jewish groups have maintained close ties with a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank — providing support, facilitating \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043918/feds-detain-2-palestinian-men-at-sfo-in-us-to-speak-at-interfaith-gathering\">faith-based cultural exchanges\u003c/a> and spreading awareness about encroaching settler violence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following reports of Israel’s plans to demolish the village, Umm al-Khair, advocates are now calling for its protection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an unjust takeover,” said Seth Morrison, a member of the Face-to-Face Jewish-Palestinian Reparations Alliance, based out of Kehilla Community Synagogue in Piedmont, and a leader in the Bay Area’s Jewish Voice for Peace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is essential that the Israeli Embassy know that many Americans, both Jewish and non-Jewish, are aware of this criminal action and are demanding that it change,” Morrison said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, Israeli government and military personnel delivered 13 demolition orders and one stop-work order to Umm al-Khair, according to Chase Carter, communications director of the Center for Jewish Nonviolence. The orders included plans to dismantle a community center — “a central hub for everyone in the community, men, women and children” — as well as the center’s playground, 11 homes and a greenhouse. The stop-work order paused construction on a new house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If these demolition orders go through, the entire community is at risk of being forcibly displaced, permanently,” said Carter, whose organization has brought people from the Bay Area, including members of Kehilla Community Synagogue, to visit Umm al-Khair and other villages in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062243\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062243\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-03-KQED.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-03-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-03-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Residents took photos of the alleged demolition orders and stop-work order, delivered by Israeli Civil Administration employees and Israeli soldiers, on Oct. 28, 2025. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of residents of Umm al-Khair)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A core community of [the region] and of the nonviolent civil resistance movement, that is connected to so many of us here in the Bay Area, will be gone,” Carter said. “And that is a huge blow to our movement and solidarity activists that are trying to stay steadfast in the struggle to bring peace and justice to the region.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither the Israeli government nor the Israeli Consul General of San Francisco responded to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8IgggCoLZ8c\">video\u003c/a> posted Tuesday on YouTube, Eid Al-Hathaleen, an activist who lives in Umm al-Khair, said residents were given four days to appeal the orders in Israeli court. Lawyers for residents, Morrison told KQED on Thursday, said the “cases will be extremely hard,” and the likelihood of “stopping the demolitions legally is less than 20%.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am extremely troubled by reports that the Israeli Government has resumed the demolition of Palestinian homes in Umm al-Khair,” Rep. Lateefah Simon, D-Oakland, said in a statement. “No one should live under the threat of demolition, displacement, or death. I call on the State Department to use all available levers to stop the killing and displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The residents of Umm al-Khair first took refuge among the rural, olive tree-dotted landscape of the South Hebron Hills in 1948, after \u003ca href=\"https://www.haaretz.com/2011-11-11/ty-article/west-bank-settlement-is-outdoing-its-neighboring-bedouin-village/0000017f-e545-df5f-a17f-ffdf19140000\">losing\u003c/a> their homes during the creation of the state of Israel. They purchased the land from Palestinians in the nearby city of Yatta and built a small agrarian community. Israel conquered the land during the Six-Day War in 1967 and has occupied it since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1980, Israel set up a settlement, Carmel, abutting the village. The U.N. Security Council has condemned these settlements as a violation of \u003ca href=\"http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1682640.stm\">international law\u003c/a>, which Israel has disputed. Carmel, which has grown to engulf Umm al-Khair, has drawn international \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/opinion/01kristof.html?_r=2\">criticism\u003c/a> for its expansion into neighboring communities and for the stark disparities in living conditions between the village and the settlement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062242\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062242\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-02-KQED.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-02-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-02-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Israeli Civil Administration employees and Israeli army personnel delivered the alleged demolition orders and stop-work order to Umm al-Khair residents on Oct. 28, 2025. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Umm al-Khair residents)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kehilla Rabbi Emeritus David Cooper, who has visited the village multiple times since 2016, said tensions between the growing settlement and the Palestinian residents of Umm al-Khair ratcheted up after Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Learning that Umm al-Khair was set to be demolished felt like discovering that a “next-door neighbor’s house” was being torn down, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No authority, no reason, nothing. … The neighborhood next to me is being erased,” Cooper said. “It feels as immediate as that to me, and there is no justification for it whatsoever.”[aside postID=news_12061703 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/SamiHamdiGetty.jpg']Kehilla’s connection with the village began with a series of trips organized by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence to conduct what Cooper called “nonviolent co-resistance work.” The congregation and the Jewish-Palestinian reparations group organized multiple delegations to visit Umm al-Khair, and they meet monthly with residents of the village on Zoom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eid Al-Hathaleen and his cousin Awdah were Umm al-Khair’s primary points of contact with the Bay Area. Earlier this year, the congregation invited them to the U.S. as part of an inter-faith humanitarian mission that made headlines when the activists, both of whom held visitor visas, were detained at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043918/feds-detain-2-palestinian-men-at-sfo-in-us-to-speak-at-interfaith-gathering\">San Francisco International Airport by U.S. immigration agents\u003c/a>. Despite outcry from their local sponsors and from officials, the men were refused entry and sent home the next day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One month later, Awdah Al-Hathaleen, a prominent activist featured in the Oscar-winning documentary \u003cem>No Other Land\u003c/em>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050131/activists-mourn-palestinian-man-killed-in-west-bank-after-being-denied-entry-at-sfo\">was killed by an Israeli settler\u003c/a>. In the Bay Area, his friends and allies mourned the loss and worried about what it signaled for the village’s future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The situation was already bad before October 2023, but it escalated dramatically after,” Philip Weintraub, another Kehilla member, told KQED in July. “We’re most fearful for the survival of the village — that was most important to Awdah — the protection and safety of the residents of Umm Al-Khair.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062245\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062245\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-05-KQED.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-05-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-05-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Israeli army personnel delivered demolition orders on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, for more than a dozen structures in Umm al-Khair, including a greenhouse that activists said was essential for sustaining the village. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Umm al-Khair residents)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This week’s demolition orders follow a temporary injunction \u003ca href=\"https://peacenow.org.il/en/peace-now-to-court-settlers-flout-injunction-move-into-illegal-outpost-near-palestinian-village-of-umm-al-kheir\">issued\u003c/a> earlier this month by the Jerusalem District Court forbidding settlers from inhabiting seven prefabricated homes just steps from Umm al-Khair, on the grounds that the houses were built without authorization and in violation of zoning designations, according to reporting from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/israel-issues-demolition-orders-for-13-buildings-in-west-bank-palestinian-hamlet/\">\u003cem>Times of Israel\u003c/em>.\u003c/a> This notice has been violated, and the homes are occupied, the report said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, President Donald Trump said in an \u003ca href=\"https://time.com/7327689/trump-israel-gaza-deal-interview-transcript/\">interview\u003c/a> with \u003cem>Time Magazine\u003c/em> that any Israeli attempt to annex parts of the occupied West Bank will not be tolerated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries,” he said, in a conversation about the administration’s role in the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal. “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062247\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062247\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-07-KQED.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-07-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-07-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Israeli army personnel brought the alleged demolition orders along with Civil Administration employees on Tuesday, Oct. 28, in Umm al-Khair, a village in the West Bank. \u003ccite>(Photos courtesy of Umm al-Khair residents)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The day before the interview was published, however, the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, voted in favor of annexing land in the West Bank.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And from June 18 to Sept. 25, Israeli authorities have approved the construction of 20,000 new housing units in the West Bank, according to a U.N. \u003ca href=\"https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/161860\">report\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the Trump administration’s assurances, Morrison said the situation in Umm al-Khair tells another story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, what is happening is de facto an annexation. Since the Gaza genocide started, settler violence against Palestinians has increased a hundredfold,” he said. “Numerous people have been killed, they’ve taken over more land, they’ve built more illegal settlements. And this is part of that initiative.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A resident of the Palestinian village of Umm al-Khair, who was turned away from SFO in June, posted a video on social media of Israel’s demolition orders.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For nearly 10 years, progressive \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a> Jewish groups have maintained close ties with a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank — providing support, facilitating \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043918/feds-detain-2-palestinian-men-at-sfo-in-us-to-speak-at-interfaith-gathering\">faith-based cultural exchanges\u003c/a> and spreading awareness about encroaching settler violence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following reports of Israel’s plans to demolish the village, Umm al-Khair, advocates are now calling for its protection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an unjust takeover,” said Seth Morrison, a member of the Face-to-Face Jewish-Palestinian Reparations Alliance, based out of Kehilla Community Synagogue in Piedmont, and a leader in the Bay Area’s Jewish Voice for Peace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is essential that the Israeli Embassy know that many Americans, both Jewish and non-Jewish, are aware of this criminal action and are demanding that it change,” Morrison said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, Israeli government and military personnel delivered 13 demolition orders and one stop-work order to Umm al-Khair, according to Chase Carter, communications director of the Center for Jewish Nonviolence. The orders included plans to dismantle a community center — “a central hub for everyone in the community, men, women and children” — as well as the center’s playground, 11 homes and a greenhouse. The stop-work order paused construction on a new house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If these demolition orders go through, the entire community is at risk of being forcibly displaced, permanently,” said Carter, whose organization has brought people from the Bay Area, including members of Kehilla Community Synagogue, to visit Umm al-Khair and other villages in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062243\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062243\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-03-KQED.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-03-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-03-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Residents took photos of the alleged demolition orders and stop-work order, delivered by Israeli Civil Administration employees and Israeli soldiers, on Oct. 28, 2025. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of residents of Umm al-Khair)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A core community of [the region] and of the nonviolent civil resistance movement, that is connected to so many of us here in the Bay Area, will be gone,” Carter said. “And that is a huge blow to our movement and solidarity activists that are trying to stay steadfast in the struggle to bring peace and justice to the region.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither the Israeli government nor the Israeli Consul General of San Francisco responded to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8IgggCoLZ8c\">video\u003c/a> posted Tuesday on YouTube, Eid Al-Hathaleen, an activist who lives in Umm al-Khair, said residents were given four days to appeal the orders in Israeli court. Lawyers for residents, Morrison told KQED on Thursday, said the “cases will be extremely hard,” and the likelihood of “stopping the demolitions legally is less than 20%.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am extremely troubled by reports that the Israeli Government has resumed the demolition of Palestinian homes in Umm al-Khair,” Rep. Lateefah Simon, D-Oakland, said in a statement. “No one should live under the threat of demolition, displacement, or death. I call on the State Department to use all available levers to stop the killing and displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The residents of Umm al-Khair first took refuge among the rural, olive tree-dotted landscape of the South Hebron Hills in 1948, after \u003ca href=\"https://www.haaretz.com/2011-11-11/ty-article/west-bank-settlement-is-outdoing-its-neighboring-bedouin-village/0000017f-e545-df5f-a17f-ffdf19140000\">losing\u003c/a> their homes during the creation of the state of Israel. They purchased the land from Palestinians in the nearby city of Yatta and built a small agrarian community. Israel conquered the land during the Six-Day War in 1967 and has occupied it since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1980, Israel set up a settlement, Carmel, abutting the village. The U.N. Security Council has condemned these settlements as a violation of \u003ca href=\"http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1682640.stm\">international law\u003c/a>, which Israel has disputed. Carmel, which has grown to engulf Umm al-Khair, has drawn international \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/opinion/01kristof.html?_r=2\">criticism\u003c/a> for its expansion into neighboring communities and for the stark disparities in living conditions between the village and the settlement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062242\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062242\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-02-KQED.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-02-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-02-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Israeli Civil Administration employees and Israeli army personnel delivered the alleged demolition orders and stop-work order to Umm al-Khair residents on Oct. 28, 2025. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Umm al-Khair residents)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kehilla Rabbi Emeritus David Cooper, who has visited the village multiple times since 2016, said tensions between the growing settlement and the Palestinian residents of Umm al-Khair ratcheted up after Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Learning that Umm al-Khair was set to be demolished felt like discovering that a “next-door neighbor’s house” was being torn down, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No authority, no reason, nothing. … The neighborhood next to me is being erased,” Cooper said. “It feels as immediate as that to me, and there is no justification for it whatsoever.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kehilla’s connection with the village began with a series of trips organized by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence to conduct what Cooper called “nonviolent co-resistance work.” The congregation and the Jewish-Palestinian reparations group organized multiple delegations to visit Umm al-Khair, and they meet monthly with residents of the village on Zoom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eid Al-Hathaleen and his cousin Awdah were Umm al-Khair’s primary points of contact with the Bay Area. Earlier this year, the congregation invited them to the U.S. as part of an inter-faith humanitarian mission that made headlines when the activists, both of whom held visitor visas, were detained at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043918/feds-detain-2-palestinian-men-at-sfo-in-us-to-speak-at-interfaith-gathering\">San Francisco International Airport by U.S. immigration agents\u003c/a>. Despite outcry from their local sponsors and from officials, the men were refused entry and sent home the next day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One month later, Awdah Al-Hathaleen, a prominent activist featured in the Oscar-winning documentary \u003cem>No Other Land\u003c/em>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050131/activists-mourn-palestinian-man-killed-in-west-bank-after-being-denied-entry-at-sfo\">was killed by an Israeli settler\u003c/a>. In the Bay Area, his friends and allies mourned the loss and worried about what it signaled for the village’s future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The situation was already bad before October 2023, but it escalated dramatically after,” Philip Weintraub, another Kehilla member, told KQED in July. “We’re most fearful for the survival of the village — that was most important to Awdah — the protection and safety of the residents of Umm Al-Khair.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062245\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062245\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-05-KQED.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-05-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-05-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Israeli army personnel delivered demolition orders on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, for more than a dozen structures in Umm al-Khair, including a greenhouse that activists said was essential for sustaining the village. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Umm al-Khair residents)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This week’s demolition orders follow a temporary injunction \u003ca href=\"https://peacenow.org.il/en/peace-now-to-court-settlers-flout-injunction-move-into-illegal-outpost-near-palestinian-village-of-umm-al-kheir\">issued\u003c/a> earlier this month by the Jerusalem District Court forbidding settlers from inhabiting seven prefabricated homes just steps from Umm al-Khair, on the grounds that the houses were built without authorization and in violation of zoning designations, according to reporting from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/israel-issues-demolition-orders-for-13-buildings-in-west-bank-palestinian-hamlet/\">\u003cem>Times of Israel\u003c/em>.\u003c/a> This notice has been violated, and the homes are occupied, the report said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, President Donald Trump said in an \u003ca href=\"https://time.com/7327689/trump-israel-gaza-deal-interview-transcript/\">interview\u003c/a> with \u003cem>Time Magazine\u003c/em> that any Israeli attempt to annex parts of the occupied West Bank will not be tolerated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries,” he said, in a conversation about the administration’s role in the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal. “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062247\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062247\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-07-KQED.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-07-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-07-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Israeli army personnel brought the alleged demolition orders along with Civil Administration employees on Tuesday, Oct. 28, in Umm al-Khair, a village in the West Bank. \u003ccite>(Photos courtesy of Umm al-Khair residents)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The day before the interview was published, however, the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, voted in favor of annexing land in the West Bank.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And from June 18 to Sept. 25, Israeli authorities have approved the construction of 20,000 new housing units in the West Bank, according to a U.N. \u003ca href=\"https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/161860\">report\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the Trump administration’s assurances, Morrison said the situation in Umm al-Khair tells another story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, what is happening is de facto an annexation. Since the Gaza genocide started, settler violence against Palestinians has increased a hundredfold,” he said. “Numerous people have been killed, they’ve taken over more land, they’ve built more illegal settlements. And this is part of that initiative.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/uc-berkeley\">UC Berkeley\u003c/a> likely violated federal civil rights law in its response to pro-Palestinian protests over the past two years, according to a new \u003ca href=\"https://static1.squarespace.com/static/548748b1e4b083fc03ebf70e/t/69038e405b5a3e7d70225824/1761840704073/PALA+Report_final.pdf\">report\u003c/a> by Berkeley law school students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the report, published Thursday, the Palestine Advocacy Legal Assistance Project found that the university repressed pro-Palestinian speech and failed to support or protect Palestinian students who were harassed or assaulted as a result of their activism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“UC Berkeley’s administration has responded to this mobilization for Gaza by repressing pro-Palestinian speech and punishing Palestinian students and their allies for their activism,” the report’s authors wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report said that the university’s actions — or in some cases, inaction — likely violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination against race, color or national origin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“An institution need not directly discriminate to violate Title VI. It may also violate Title VI if it demonstrates deliberate indifference to a “hostile environment” created by peer-to-peer harassment,” the report authors wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Israel’s bombing of Gaza as part of the country’s war with Hamas and killing of nearly \u003ca href=\"https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-194-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem\">70,000 \u003c/a>Palestinians has sparked widespread protests on Berkeley’s campus and led to several confrontations between pro-Palestinian activists and Jewish groups, supporters of Israel and faculty members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12008661\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12008661\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students cheer at a rally for Gaza and Lebanon at the University of California, Berkeley, on Oct. 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the number of clashes has grown, groups across the ideological spectrum have increased calls for university administrators to intervene, and many have accused the university of failing to take sufficient action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March, the Department of Justice began investigating the UC system \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029887/trump-doj-investigate-university-california-over-antisemitism-allegations\">for violations of civil rights law r\u003c/a>elated to employees facing antisemitism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campus Jewish groups are \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11969165/lawsuit-intensifies-spotlight-on-free-speech-controversies-at-uc-berkeley\">also suing the university\u003c/a> for failing to intervene after several student groups implemented bylaws stating that they would not allow supporters of Zionism to speak at their events. Those groups said that the policy does not discriminate against Jewish students, but critics said that those policies disproportionately affect Jewish people.[aside postID=news_12061703 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/SamiHamdiGetty.jpg']The university also faced backlash for its decision in September to hand over the names of 160 students and faculty \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055827/uc-berkeley-gives-trump-administration-160-names-in-antisemitism-investigation\">accused of antisemitism to the federal government\u003c/a>, as part of the Trump administration’s broader investigations into reports of bullying and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11978998/uc-berkeley-jewish-community-members-march-on-campus-amid-rising-tensions\">harassment of Jewish students on campus\u003c/a>. The report’s main finding notably mirrors these accusations by arguing that the university deliberately allowed a hostile environment towards pro-Palestinian demonstrators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“UC Berkeley has and will maintain an unwavering commitment to Free Speech for all, and to doing all that we can so that every student feels safe and a true sense of belonging regardless of their identity, origins or beliefs,” Assistant Vice Chancellor Dan Mogulof said. “The campus also continues to urge anyone who has witnessed or has been subject to alleged identity-based discrimination and/or harassment to report to our Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thursday’s report cited several incidents where authors said the university failed to intervene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When protesters blocked part of Sather Gate in early 2024, they faced “daily harassment and sometimes physical violence,” the report said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11978960\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11978960\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A sign blocks passage through an ornate gateway.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A large pro-Palestine sign held by students blocks the central entrance to Sather Gate on the Berkeley campus. Both walkways on either side remained open. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One person reportedly became aggressive, threatened protesters’ lives and brandished a knife. That person was placed on a week-long restraining order, the report said, but protesters didn’t press charges, and once the order expired, the man returned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April of 2024, during a dinner for law students hosted by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982697/confrontation-at-uc-berkeley-law-school-deans-home-highlights-campus-tensions\">Dean of Berkeley Law Erwin Chemerinsky and his wife,\u003c/a> law professor Catherine Fisk, a Muslim student addressed the group with a microphone to talk about the plight of Palestinian students and the last night of Ramadan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chemerinsky and Fisk repeatedly asked the student to leave, with Fisk also seemingly attempting to take the microphone from the student’s hands. The University later opened a\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985245/uc-berkeley-opens-civil-rights-investigation-into-confrontation-at-deans-home\"> civil rights investigation into Fisk\u003c/a>, on behalf of the student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report accused Chemerinsky of aiming to chill student protest through a statement he made following that incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12042500\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12042500\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1373\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-800x549.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-1020x700.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-1536x1054.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-1920x1318.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">UC Berkeley law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky at his home in Oakland, California, on Jan. 19, 2021. \u003ccite>(Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He wrote that any similar disruptions would be reported to student conduct and noted that student conduct violations are reported to the bar association — a clear threat to protestors’ ability to practice law after they graduate,” the report stated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Fisk incident happened right before I entered in the fall of ‘24,” said Oton De Souza, a second-year law student and one of the authors. “I remember during orientation, it was a very somber moment where Dean Chemerinsky was talking about free speech, but then it turned very cold when he talked about disruption and how that would lead into student conduct [reports].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the university has encouraged all community members to report harassment or discrimination, the report also found that Berkeley did not fully investigate some of those reports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“PALA interviewed a lot of these students who went through this process from the pro-Palestine advocacy side,” De Souza said. “A lot of their requests directly to the university weren’t listened to, and ultimately, some of them just fizzled out and the university never followed up on it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Correction, Nov. 4:\u003c/strong> An earlier version of this story misstated the number of Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza. The story said that nearly 70,000 Palestinian civilians had been killed. That figure represents the total number of Palestinians killed, according to United Nations estimates, and not all were civilians. The story has been updated to remove the word “civilians.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/uc-berkeley\">UC Berkeley\u003c/a> likely violated federal civil rights law in its response to pro-Palestinian protests over the past two years, according to a new \u003ca href=\"https://static1.squarespace.com/static/548748b1e4b083fc03ebf70e/t/69038e405b5a3e7d70225824/1761840704073/PALA+Report_final.pdf\">report\u003c/a> by Berkeley law school students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the report, published Thursday, the Palestine Advocacy Legal Assistance Project found that the university repressed pro-Palestinian speech and failed to support or protect Palestinian students who were harassed or assaulted as a result of their activism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“UC Berkeley’s administration has responded to this mobilization for Gaza by repressing pro-Palestinian speech and punishing Palestinian students and their allies for their activism,” the report’s authors wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report said that the university’s actions — or in some cases, inaction — likely violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination against race, color or national origin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“An institution need not directly discriminate to violate Title VI. It may also violate Title VI if it demonstrates deliberate indifference to a “hostile environment” created by peer-to-peer harassment,” the report authors wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Israel’s bombing of Gaza as part of the country’s war with Hamas and killing of nearly \u003ca href=\"https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-194-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem\">70,000 \u003c/a>Palestinians has sparked widespread protests on Berkeley’s campus and led to several confrontations between pro-Palestinian activists and Jewish groups, supporters of Israel and faculty members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12008661\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12008661\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students cheer at a rally for Gaza and Lebanon at the University of California, Berkeley, on Oct. 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the number of clashes has grown, groups across the ideological spectrum have increased calls for university administrators to intervene, and many have accused the university of failing to take sufficient action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March, the Department of Justice began investigating the UC system \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029887/trump-doj-investigate-university-california-over-antisemitism-allegations\">for violations of civil rights law r\u003c/a>elated to employees facing antisemitism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campus Jewish groups are \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11969165/lawsuit-intensifies-spotlight-on-free-speech-controversies-at-uc-berkeley\">also suing the university\u003c/a> for failing to intervene after several student groups implemented bylaws stating that they would not allow supporters of Zionism to speak at their events. Those groups said that the policy does not discriminate against Jewish students, but critics said that those policies disproportionately affect Jewish people.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The university also faced backlash for its decision in September to hand over the names of 160 students and faculty \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055827/uc-berkeley-gives-trump-administration-160-names-in-antisemitism-investigation\">accused of antisemitism to the federal government\u003c/a>, as part of the Trump administration’s broader investigations into reports of bullying and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11978998/uc-berkeley-jewish-community-members-march-on-campus-amid-rising-tensions\">harassment of Jewish students on campus\u003c/a>. The report’s main finding notably mirrors these accusations by arguing that the university deliberately allowed a hostile environment towards pro-Palestinian demonstrators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“UC Berkeley has and will maintain an unwavering commitment to Free Speech for all, and to doing all that we can so that every student feels safe and a true sense of belonging regardless of their identity, origins or beliefs,” Assistant Vice Chancellor Dan Mogulof said. “The campus also continues to urge anyone who has witnessed or has been subject to alleged identity-based discrimination and/or harassment to report to our Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thursday’s report cited several incidents where authors said the university failed to intervene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When protesters blocked part of Sather Gate in early 2024, they faced “daily harassment and sometimes physical violence,” the report said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11978960\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11978960\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A sign blocks passage through an ornate gateway.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A large pro-Palestine sign held by students blocks the central entrance to Sather Gate on the Berkeley campus. Both walkways on either side remained open. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One person reportedly became aggressive, threatened protesters’ lives and brandished a knife. That person was placed on a week-long restraining order, the report said, but protesters didn’t press charges, and once the order expired, the man returned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April of 2024, during a dinner for law students hosted by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982697/confrontation-at-uc-berkeley-law-school-deans-home-highlights-campus-tensions\">Dean of Berkeley Law Erwin Chemerinsky and his wife,\u003c/a> law professor Catherine Fisk, a Muslim student addressed the group with a microphone to talk about the plight of Palestinian students and the last night of Ramadan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chemerinsky and Fisk repeatedly asked the student to leave, with Fisk also seemingly attempting to take the microphone from the student’s hands. The University later opened a\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985245/uc-berkeley-opens-civil-rights-investigation-into-confrontation-at-deans-home\"> civil rights investigation into Fisk\u003c/a>, on behalf of the student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report accused Chemerinsky of aiming to chill student protest through a statement he made following that incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12042500\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12042500\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1373\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-800x549.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-1020x700.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-1536x1054.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-1920x1318.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">UC Berkeley law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky at his home in Oakland, California, on Jan. 19, 2021. \u003ccite>(Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He wrote that any similar disruptions would be reported to student conduct and noted that student conduct violations are reported to the bar association — a clear threat to protestors’ ability to practice law after they graduate,” the report stated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Fisk incident happened right before I entered in the fall of ‘24,” said Oton De Souza, a second-year law student and one of the authors. “I remember during orientation, it was a very somber moment where Dean Chemerinsky was talking about free speech, but then it turned very cold when he talked about disruption and how that would lead into student conduct [reports].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the university has encouraged all community members to report harassment or discrimination, the report also found that Berkeley did not fully investigate some of those reports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“PALA interviewed a lot of these students who went through this process from the pro-Palestine advocacy side,” De Souza said. “A lot of their requests directly to the university weren’t listened to, and ultimately, some of them just fizzled out and the university never followed up on it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Correction, Nov. 4:\u003c/strong> An earlier version of this story misstated the number of Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza. The story said that nearly 70,000 Palestinian civilians had been killed. That figure represents the total number of Palestinians killed, according to United Nations estimates, and not all were civilians. The story has been updated to remove the word “civilians.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Activists are warning about the erosion of free speech as they demand the release of British political commentator Sami Hamdi, who was detained at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-international-airport\">San Francisco International Airport\u003c/a> on Sunday during a speaking tour of the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The State Department confirmed in a \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/StateDept/status/1982564610759594104\">statement on social media\u003c/a> that Hamdi, who has been a vocal critic of Israel, had his visa revoked and will be removed from the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was traveling across the U.S. to appear at multiple events, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Sacramento chapter’s annual gala Saturday, and another CAIR gala in Florida, scheduled for Sunday night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The organization alleged that Hamdi was detained because of his criticism of Israel and at the urging of right-wing political activists, including Laura Loomer, who has called herself a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election/laura-loomer-islamophobe-republican-primary-florida-a9677066.html\">proud Islamophobe\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Abducting a prominent British Muslim journalist and political commentator on a speaking tour in the United States because he dared to criticize the Israeli government’s genocide is a blatant affront to free speech,” CAIR said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Loomer wrote on X that she demanded federal authorities “treat Hamdi as the major National security threat that he is” and reported him “over his documented support for Islamic terrorism.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Homeland Security \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/TriciaOhio/status/1982514569307197749\">revoked Hamdi’s visa\u003c/a> and has him in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody as it moves to deport him, spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.[aside postID=news_12061545 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251023-MAYOR-LEE-PRESSER-MD-05-KQED.jpg']“The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who support terrorism and actively undermine the safety of Americans,” the State Department said on X on Sunday. “We continue to revoke the visas of persons engaged in such activity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hamdi is the managing director of the International Interest, an organization that says it “advises on geopolitical environments and risks across the globe.” He has also appeared on \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/reel/2469842849870782\">Al Jazeera\u003c/a>, Britain’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DP07I53DJsj/?hl=en\">Sky News\u003c/a> and other media outlets to offer commentary on the war in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His detention appears to follow others by DHS under President Trump to revoke visas from people over political speech, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/14/politics/state-department-revoke-visas-charlie-kirk-murder\">including people who the State Department said “celebrated” Charlie Kirk’s\u003c/a> death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sending him to ICE detention, I think, is intentionally trying to put fear into others who are also speaking about this subject and … others who are traveling with visas as well, as public speakers or guests at different events,” said Reshad Noorzay, the executive director of CAIR Sacramento Valley/Central California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s CAIR chapter said Monday that its legal team, as well as attorneys from the Muslim Legal Fund of America and the HMA Law Firm, are seeking Hamdi’s release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Noorzay told KQED on Sunday that the organization is hoping Hamdi can reunite with his family and travel back to the United Kingdom. He said in the future, there should be a longer conversation about what the claims that led to Hamdi’s detention were and the State Department’s willingness to “act so brazenly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an attack on free speech, it’s an attack on the community and it’s really an attack on Americans who dare to criticize a foreign government and its actions,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/shossaini\">\u003cem>Sara Hossaini\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who support terrorism and actively undermine the safety of Americans,” the State Department said on X on Sunday. “We continue to revoke the visas of persons engaged in such activity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hamdi is the managing director of the International Interest, an organization that says it “advises on geopolitical environments and risks across the globe.” He has also appeared on \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/reel/2469842849870782\">Al Jazeera\u003c/a>, Britain’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DP07I53DJsj/?hl=en\">Sky News\u003c/a> and other media outlets to offer commentary on the war in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His detention appears to follow others by DHS under President Trump to revoke visas from people over political speech, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/14/politics/state-department-revoke-visas-charlie-kirk-murder\">including people who the State Department said “celebrated” Charlie Kirk’s\u003c/a> death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sending him to ICE detention, I think, is intentionally trying to put fear into others who are also speaking about this subject and … others who are traveling with visas as well, as public speakers or guests at different events,” said Reshad Noorzay, the executive director of CAIR Sacramento Valley/Central California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s CAIR chapter said Monday that its legal team, as well as attorneys from the Muslim Legal Fund of America and the HMA Law Firm, are seeking Hamdi’s release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Noorzay told KQED on Sunday that the organization is hoping Hamdi can reunite with his family and travel back to the United Kingdom. He said in the future, there should be a longer conversation about what the claims that led to Hamdi’s detention were and the State Department’s willingness to “act so brazenly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an attack on free speech, it’s an attack on the community and it’s really an attack on Americans who dare to criticize a foreign government and its actions,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/shossaini\">\u003cem>Sara Hossaini\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
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},
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"id": "californiareportmagazine",
"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
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"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
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"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"order": 1
},
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"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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"here-and-now": {
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6c3dd23c-93fb-4aab-97ba-1725fa6315f1/hyphenaci%C3%B3n",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
}
},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
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