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"content": "\u003cp>Activists opposed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a>’s contract this week with an Israeli cellphone data extraction company, which they say has been used in Israeli military operations in Gaza and to surveil journalists and activists across the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the Oakland Police Department has contracted with digital intelligence company Cellebrite since 2014, the City Council voted Wednesday to extend the contract through June 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By approving this contract, Oakland has chosen to bring in technology tied directly to Israeli occupation forces, the surveillance of Palestinians, and immigration enforcement here in the U.S.,” said Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the Bay Area’s office of the Council of American-Islamic Relations. “That decision should never have been made without meaningful engagement with the communities most likely to be impacted by expanded surveillance and discriminatory policing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OPD has used some version of Cellebrite’s technology to download cellphone data, but the most updated version, which the department has used since about 2024, allows it to access data from cellphones without a passcode, according to Sgt. Yun Zhou. According to city records, the technology is used in both internal audits of OPD members’ work phones and to aid in criminal investigations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Zhou said, the department used Cellebrite to search more than 200 devices obtained through search warrants and thought to be involved in robberies, homicides and other crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11524304\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11524304\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg.jpg\" alt=\"Oakland police headquarters on Nov. 12, 2016.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1305\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg-800x544.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg-1020x693.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg-1180x802.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg-960x653.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg-240x163.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg-375x255.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg-520x353.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland police headquarters on Nov. 12, 2016. \u003ccite>(Alex Emslie/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The City Council’s vote to extend the contract, for a price of $140,000, was 6 to 2, with Councilmembers Janani Ramachandran and Carroll Fife opposed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Fife, Cellebrite’s technology has been used against journalists in Myanmar and Botswana, and activists in Serbia, whose phones were “secretly” unlocked. CAIR also said the technology has been used to collect data from Palestinians who have been detained in Gaza.[aside postID=news_12081173 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GettyImages-2216992312-2000x1334.jpg']And last year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed a contract to obtain Cellebrite’s tools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just don’t want Oakland to be part of that list of bad actors who continuously violate human rights,” Fife said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zhou said that Oakland’s data is stored locally through \u003ca href=\"http://evidence.com\">evidence.com\u003c/a> and that Cellebrite does not touch it. According to the Police Department’s 2024 annual report, “OPD has not shared any Cellebrite extraction data with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security or U.S. Customs and Border Protection.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During Wednesday’s meeting, more than 20 people spoke in opposition to the contract, many echoing Fife’s and CAIR’s concerns about human rights violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The tools provide access to phones, messages, location data, photos, deleted files and obviously that’s immensely intrusive,” said Musa Tariq, CAIR Bay Area’s policy coordinator. “This company is kind of part of a broader ecosystem of surveillance where these tools that are developed in militarized or occupation contexts are being exported globally. That’s raising concerns about the normalization of these practices, both abroad and then over here at home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052245\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052245\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250814-OAKLANDPUSHBACK-17-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250814-OAKLANDPUSHBACK-17-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250814-OAKLANDPUSHBACK-17-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250814-OAKLANDPUSHBACK-17-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Councilmember Carroll Fife speaks during a press conference at Oakland City Hall in Oakland on Aug. 14, 2025, condemning President Trump’s recent remarks about Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Zhou said the department “does understand the optics of this company,” but hasn’t been able to identify a comparable alternative for extracting data from Android devices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are tied to it because of necessity,” he told the councilmembers. “If there is a viable replacement, just because of cost alone, I think most of us would switch over.” He said the department has tested alternative technologies, including one in the midst of a 30-day trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, Zhou told the council, the alternative tool has been used to try to unlock eight phones and failed each test. By contrast, he said, Cellebrite has worked to access seven of the eight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilmember Charlene Wang, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, said it was “undeniable” that Cellebrite had been used by authoritarian governments to surveil people without consent, but added that it’s also used in democratic nations to investigate violent organized crime and human trafficking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said not approving the contract would hurt OPD’s ability to solve violent crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We do have trade-offs to make,” she said. “We have an obligation to protect our citizens, and to use this technology wisely here in the city of Oakland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082805\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12082805 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2215577954.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2215577954.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2215577954-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2215577954-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charlene Wang speaks after being sworn in as a city council member for District 2 at City Hall in Oakland, California, on May 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Brontë Wittpenn/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wang said next year, she would like to see a competitive bidding process for the phone-extraction contract — a usual process for city contracts that was waived in this case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fife asked the department to conduct a review of other vendors that might be available to offer similar technology, as well as an independent legal analysis assessing Cellebrite’s access to the city’s data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also asked that the department publicly report concrete statistics of how the data extraction technology is leading to a decrease in crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We keep having to approve contracts that have been shown around the world to have proven violations of people’s human rights,” Fife said. “I don’t support the use of this vendor. Israel is a genocide state. They are utilizing their power and their control and their monopolies in the public safety sector to monopolize law enforcement agencies around the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Bay Area civil rights groups criticized the move, citing privacy concerns and use of the technology in military operations in Gaza and in immigration enforcement in the U.S.\r\n",
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"title": "Oakland Approves Police Contract With Israeli Intelligence Firm for Phone Searches | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Activists opposed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a>’s contract this week with an Israeli cellphone data extraction company, which they say has been used in Israeli military operations in Gaza and to surveil journalists and activists across the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the Oakland Police Department has contracted with digital intelligence company Cellebrite since 2014, the City Council voted Wednesday to extend the contract through June 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By approving this contract, Oakland has chosen to bring in technology tied directly to Israeli occupation forces, the surveillance of Palestinians, and immigration enforcement here in the U.S.,” said Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the Bay Area’s office of the Council of American-Islamic Relations. “That decision should never have been made without meaningful engagement with the communities most likely to be impacted by expanded surveillance and discriminatory policing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OPD has used some version of Cellebrite’s technology to download cellphone data, but the most updated version, which the department has used since about 2024, allows it to access data from cellphones without a passcode, according to Sgt. Yun Zhou. According to city records, the technology is used in both internal audits of OPD members’ work phones and to aid in criminal investigations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Zhou said, the department used Cellebrite to search more than 200 devices obtained through search warrants and thought to be involved in robberies, homicides and other crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11524304\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11524304\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg.jpg\" alt=\"Oakland police headquarters on Nov. 12, 2016.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1305\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg-800x544.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg-1020x693.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg-1180x802.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg-960x653.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg-240x163.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg-375x255.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/06/OPDbldg-520x353.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland police headquarters on Nov. 12, 2016. \u003ccite>(Alex Emslie/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The City Council’s vote to extend the contract, for a price of $140,000, was 6 to 2, with Councilmembers Janani Ramachandran and Carroll Fife opposed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Fife, Cellebrite’s technology has been used against journalists in Myanmar and Botswana, and activists in Serbia, whose phones were “secretly” unlocked. CAIR also said the technology has been used to collect data from Palestinians who have been detained in Gaza.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>And last year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed a contract to obtain Cellebrite’s tools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just don’t want Oakland to be part of that list of bad actors who continuously violate human rights,” Fife said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zhou said that Oakland’s data is stored locally through \u003ca href=\"http://evidence.com\">evidence.com\u003c/a> and that Cellebrite does not touch it. According to the Police Department’s 2024 annual report, “OPD has not shared any Cellebrite extraction data with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security or U.S. Customs and Border Protection.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During Wednesday’s meeting, more than 20 people spoke in opposition to the contract, many echoing Fife’s and CAIR’s concerns about human rights violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The tools provide access to phones, messages, location data, photos, deleted files and obviously that’s immensely intrusive,” said Musa Tariq, CAIR Bay Area’s policy coordinator. “This company is kind of part of a broader ecosystem of surveillance where these tools that are developed in militarized or occupation contexts are being exported globally. That’s raising concerns about the normalization of these practices, both abroad and then over here at home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052245\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052245\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250814-OAKLANDPUSHBACK-17-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250814-OAKLANDPUSHBACK-17-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250814-OAKLANDPUSHBACK-17-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250814-OAKLANDPUSHBACK-17-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Councilmember Carroll Fife speaks during a press conference at Oakland City Hall in Oakland on Aug. 14, 2025, condemning President Trump’s recent remarks about Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Zhou said the department “does understand the optics of this company,” but hasn’t been able to identify a comparable alternative for extracting data from Android devices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are tied to it because of necessity,” he told the councilmembers. “If there is a viable replacement, just because of cost alone, I think most of us would switch over.” He said the department has tested alternative technologies, including one in the midst of a 30-day trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, Zhou told the council, the alternative tool has been used to try to unlock eight phones and failed each test. By contrast, he said, Cellebrite has worked to access seven of the eight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilmember Charlene Wang, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, said it was “undeniable” that Cellebrite had been used by authoritarian governments to surveil people without consent, but added that it’s also used in democratic nations to investigate violent organized crime and human trafficking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said not approving the contract would hurt OPD’s ability to solve violent crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We do have trade-offs to make,” she said. “We have an obligation to protect our citizens, and to use this technology wisely here in the city of Oakland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082805\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12082805 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2215577954.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2215577954.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2215577954-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2215577954-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charlene Wang speaks after being sworn in as a city council member for District 2 at City Hall in Oakland, California, on May 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Brontë Wittpenn/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wang said next year, she would like to see a competitive bidding process for the phone-extraction contract — a usual process for city contracts that was waived in this case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fife asked the department to conduct a review of other vendors that might be available to offer similar technology, as well as an independent legal analysis assessing Cellebrite’s access to the city’s data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also asked that the department publicly report concrete statistics of how the data extraction technology is leading to a decrease in crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We keep having to approve contracts that have been shown around the world to have proven violations of people’s human rights,” Fife said. “I don’t support the use of this vendor. Israel is a genocide state. They are utilizing their power and their control and their monopolies in the public safety sector to monopolize law enforcement agencies around the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "palestinian-and-israeli-peacebuilders-find-brotherhood-through-grief",
"title": "Palestinian and Israeli Peacebuilders Find Brotherhood Through Grief",
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"content": "\u003cp>Aziz Abu Sarah, who is Palestinian, hesitated before sending a condolence message to his Israeli acquaintance, Maoz Inon. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11974526/bay-area-jewish-community-heartbroken-by-harrowing-stories-from-oct-7-survivors\">It was Oct. 8, 2023\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One day earlier, Hamas militants had fatally shot Inon’s parents, Yakovi and Bilha, and set fire to their home near the Gaza border. Abu Sarah wondered whether hearing a Palestinian voice would only magnify Inon’s pain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he sent it because he knew from experience it was the right thing to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inon replied within a few hours. His heart was broken, he said, but his grief did not stop with his parents. He was also crying for the “children being killed in Gaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both men had lost family members to violence tied to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/israel-hamas-war\">Israel-Hamas war\u003c/a>. Instead of retreating further into grief and anger, they built an unlikely friendship grounded in dialogue, shared loss and a belief that coexistence remains possible even amid war.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082165\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082165\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-1757397061.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-1757397061.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-1757397061-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-1757397061-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maoz Inon, a peace activist who lost both his parents when they were killed in an assault by Hamas on Israeli communities near Gaza. \u003ccite>(Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That exchange became the beginning of a friendship neither man expected. Today, they describe it as something closer to brotherhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I lost so many,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101913639/when-the-world-expects-hate-a-palestinian-and-an-israeli-choose-peace\">Inon said recently on KQED’s Forum\u003c/a>. “But I won Aziz. I won Aziz as a brother.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Abu Sarah grew up in occupied Jerusalem. One Ramadan morning, Israeli soldiers with machine guns stormed his home and took his 18-year-old brother, Tayseer, who was accused of throwing rocks. Tayseer refused to confess.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was tortured, imprisoned and released with grave internal injuries. He died soon after.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Abu Sarah was 10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was very angry. I was very bitter,” he said. “I think it felt more like if I don’t avenge his death, then I’m a terrible brother.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082172\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082172\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2153510497.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1321\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2153510497.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2153510497-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2153510497-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pope Francis greets Maoz Inon and Aziz Sarah, two entrepreneurs from Israel and Palestine, respectively, from whom the war has torn away their family members, during the meeting ‘Arena of Peace’ at the Verona Arena on May 18, 2024, in Verona, Italy. \u003ccite>(Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Eventually, though, something changed in Abu Sarah. He’d refused to learn Hebrew in high school because it was the “language of the enemy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But then, realizing he couldn’t go to college or get a job without it, he began his studies. “That,” he said, “was my first introduction to Israelis who treated me like a human being.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A teacher greeted him in Arabic. Classmates spoke to him as an equal. It did not erase his loss, but it disrupted the story he had been telling about himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not Israelis versus Palestinians anymore,” he said. “It’s those of us who believe in justice… and those who don’t yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Shared travel\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Inon and Abu Sarah’s friendship grew not just through conversation, but through shared travel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both men have backgrounds in tourism. When they began working together, they built “dual narrative” tours, led by both an Israeli and a Palestinian. People told them it would fail. Instead, their company, MEJDI Tours, became a model for citizen diplomacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082173\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1959px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082173\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2269561567.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1959\" height=\"1306\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2269561567.jpg 1959w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2269561567-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2269561567-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1959px) 100vw, 1959px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Israeli forces conduct identity checks and close a road to traffic during a raid on Ain Sara Street in Hebron, southern West Bank, Palestine, on April 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Amer Shallodi/Anadolu via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For their new book, “The Future Is Peace,” the men took an eight-day journey across Israel and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062258/a-village-with-close-ties-to-the-bay-area-facing-demolition-in-the-west-bank\">West Bank\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Abu Sarah, returning to his hometown of Bethany meant painful memories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 16, he was denied an ID card because his home fell outside newly drawn municipal boundaries. To get to school, he ran around checkpoints, risking beatings or worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If soldiers see you, you get shot at,” he said.[aside postID=forum_2010101913639 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/43/2026/04/future-is-peace-credit-uri-levi.png']For Inon, the journey revealed something equally unsettling: He had once been stationed just miles from that same town during his military service. At the time, he had little understanding of what life looked like on the other side of the checkpoint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was my friends… my unit members,” he said, referring to soldiers enforcing the occupation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Admitting that to Abu Sarah was difficult. Their lives had run parallel, close in geography but separated by structural inequities. It was a separation that they said extended beyond individuals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes I’m wondering, am I in the same location?” Abu Sarah said, describing how differently the same events are reported in Hebrew and Arabic media.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Listeners respond\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As their story unfolded, Forum listeners responded. Caller Radhika wondered whether their approach managed to convince people on either side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inon responded that those who believe that war will bring safety are naive. “The only way to achieve security… is through dialogue.” He pointed to a growing movement of Israelis and Palestinians working together, even as political leaders remain entrenched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A rabbi from Sonoma County described taking one of the guests’ dual-narrative tours, finding it “challenging and eye-opening,” and said Inon and Abu Sarah’s work has shown how we can “rehumanize each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another listener, Maureen, expressed despair. “It seems like peaceful coexistence is impossible, at least in my lifetime,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12051787\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12051787\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250811-ISRAELICONSULATE_00956_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250811-ISRAELICONSULATE_00956_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250811-ISRAELICONSULATE_00956_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250811-ISRAELICONSULATE_00956_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters block Montgomery Street outside the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest in San Francisco on Aug. 11, 2025. Jewish community members are calling on the Israeli government to let food aid into Palestine as starvation progressively gets worse. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Abu Sarah did not dismiss that feeling, but he pushed back on its conclusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We cannot allow ourselves to put this responsibility… on the next generation,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then came sharper critique.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One listener wrote that efforts like this risk “equalizing” histories that are not equal. “If this was Nazi Germany,” the listener asked, “and they were offering German and Jewish tours to share stories, would it be OK?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Working with Israelis, Abu Sarah said, is not about ignoring injustice. It is about working with people who share values, including equality, dignity and a future where neither side dominates the other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact he’s Israeli doesn’t make him my enemy,” he said of Inon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also acknowledged the criticism from within his own community, including accusations of betrayal and “normalization.” But if people only “sit and cry and do nothing,” the situation will not change.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Friendship\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If their friendship has a philosophy, it is not rooted in agreement about the past but a shared commitment to a better future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will not agree on everything in history,” Abu Sarah said. “But… we can definitely agree on everything in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That idea surfaced again and again: listening without forcing consensus, allowing different narratives to exist and recognizing that empathy is not betrayal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12051789\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12051789\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250811-ISRAELICONSULATE_00998_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250811-ISRAELICONSULATE_00998_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250811-ISRAELICONSULATE_00998_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250811-ISRAELICONSULATE_00998_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters hold one another on Montgomery Street outside the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest in San Francisco on Aug. 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Inon, that recognition includes confronting his own upbringing. He was raised on a narrative of a land largely empty before Jewish settlement. Only later did he learn the scale of Palestinian presence and displacement. That realization did not erase his identity but rather complicated it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Without doubting my own narrative,” he said, “I would never… recognize that there is another people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Near the end of the program, a listener named Joyce wrote that she was “still in tears,” but felt something else, too: hope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wish their voices could be heard all over the world,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Palestinian peacebuilder Aziz Abu Sarah and Israeli activist Maoz Inon discussed grief, reconciliation, dialogue and coexistence on KQED’s Forum after both lost family members to violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Aziz Abu Sarah, who is Palestinian, hesitated before sending a condolence message to his Israeli acquaintance, Maoz Inon. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11974526/bay-area-jewish-community-heartbroken-by-harrowing-stories-from-oct-7-survivors\">It was Oct. 8, 2023\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One day earlier, Hamas militants had fatally shot Inon’s parents, Yakovi and Bilha, and set fire to their home near the Gaza border. Abu Sarah wondered whether hearing a Palestinian voice would only magnify Inon’s pain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he sent it because he knew from experience it was the right thing to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inon replied within a few hours. His heart was broken, he said, but his grief did not stop with his parents. He was also crying for the “children being killed in Gaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both men had lost family members to violence tied to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/israel-hamas-war\">Israel-Hamas war\u003c/a>. Instead of retreating further into grief and anger, they built an unlikely friendship grounded in dialogue, shared loss and a belief that coexistence remains possible even amid war.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082165\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082165\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-1757397061.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-1757397061.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-1757397061-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-1757397061-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maoz Inon, a peace activist who lost both his parents when they were killed in an assault by Hamas on Israeli communities near Gaza. \u003ccite>(Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That exchange became the beginning of a friendship neither man expected. Today, they describe it as something closer to brotherhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I lost so many,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101913639/when-the-world-expects-hate-a-palestinian-and-an-israeli-choose-peace\">Inon said recently on KQED’s Forum\u003c/a>. “But I won Aziz. I won Aziz as a brother.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Abu Sarah grew up in occupied Jerusalem. One Ramadan morning, Israeli soldiers with machine guns stormed his home and took his 18-year-old brother, Tayseer, who was accused of throwing rocks. Tayseer refused to confess.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was tortured, imprisoned and released with grave internal injuries. He died soon after.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Abu Sarah was 10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was very angry. I was very bitter,” he said. “I think it felt more like if I don’t avenge his death, then I’m a terrible brother.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082172\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082172\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2153510497.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1321\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2153510497.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2153510497-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2153510497-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pope Francis greets Maoz Inon and Aziz Sarah, two entrepreneurs from Israel and Palestine, respectively, from whom the war has torn away their family members, during the meeting ‘Arena of Peace’ at the Verona Arena on May 18, 2024, in Verona, Italy. \u003ccite>(Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Eventually, though, something changed in Abu Sarah. He’d refused to learn Hebrew in high school because it was the “language of the enemy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But then, realizing he couldn’t go to college or get a job without it, he began his studies. “That,” he said, “was my first introduction to Israelis who treated me like a human being.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A teacher greeted him in Arabic. Classmates spoke to him as an equal. It did not erase his loss, but it disrupted the story he had been telling about himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not Israelis versus Palestinians anymore,” he said. “It’s those of us who believe in justice… and those who don’t yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Shared travel\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Inon and Abu Sarah’s friendship grew not just through conversation, but through shared travel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both men have backgrounds in tourism. When they began working together, they built “dual narrative” tours, led by both an Israeli and a Palestinian. People told them it would fail. Instead, their company, MEJDI Tours, became a model for citizen diplomacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082173\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1959px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082173\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2269561567.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1959\" height=\"1306\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2269561567.jpg 1959w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2269561567-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GettyImages-2269561567-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1959px) 100vw, 1959px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Israeli forces conduct identity checks and close a road to traffic during a raid on Ain Sara Street in Hebron, southern West Bank, Palestine, on April 6, 2026. \u003ccite>(Amer Shallodi/Anadolu via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For their new book, “The Future Is Peace,” the men took an eight-day journey across Israel and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062258/a-village-with-close-ties-to-the-bay-area-facing-demolition-in-the-west-bank\">West Bank\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Abu Sarah, returning to his hometown of Bethany meant painful memories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 16, he was denied an ID card because his home fell outside newly drawn municipal boundaries. To get to school, he ran around checkpoints, risking beatings or worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If soldiers see you, you get shot at,” he said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For Inon, the journey revealed something equally unsettling: He had once been stationed just miles from that same town during his military service. At the time, he had little understanding of what life looked like on the other side of the checkpoint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was my friends… my unit members,” he said, referring to soldiers enforcing the occupation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Admitting that to Abu Sarah was difficult. Their lives had run parallel, close in geography but separated by structural inequities. It was a separation that they said extended beyond individuals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes I’m wondering, am I in the same location?” Abu Sarah said, describing how differently the same events are reported in Hebrew and Arabic media.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Listeners respond\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As their story unfolded, Forum listeners responded. Caller Radhika wondered whether their approach managed to convince people on either side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inon responded that those who believe that war will bring safety are naive. “The only way to achieve security… is through dialogue.” He pointed to a growing movement of Israelis and Palestinians working together, even as political leaders remain entrenched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A rabbi from Sonoma County described taking one of the guests’ dual-narrative tours, finding it “challenging and eye-opening,” and said Inon and Abu Sarah’s work has shown how we can “rehumanize each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another listener, Maureen, expressed despair. “It seems like peaceful coexistence is impossible, at least in my lifetime,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12051787\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12051787\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250811-ISRAELICONSULATE_00956_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250811-ISRAELICONSULATE_00956_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250811-ISRAELICONSULATE_00956_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250811-ISRAELICONSULATE_00956_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters block Montgomery Street outside the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest in San Francisco on Aug. 11, 2025. Jewish community members are calling on the Israeli government to let food aid into Palestine as starvation progressively gets worse. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Abu Sarah did not dismiss that feeling, but he pushed back on its conclusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We cannot allow ourselves to put this responsibility… on the next generation,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then came sharper critique.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One listener wrote that efforts like this risk “equalizing” histories that are not equal. “If this was Nazi Germany,” the listener asked, “and they were offering German and Jewish tours to share stories, would it be OK?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Working with Israelis, Abu Sarah said, is not about ignoring injustice. It is about working with people who share values, including equality, dignity and a future where neither side dominates the other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact he’s Israeli doesn’t make him my enemy,” he said of Inon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also acknowledged the criticism from within his own community, including accusations of betrayal and “normalization.” But if people only “sit and cry and do nothing,” the situation will not change.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Friendship\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If their friendship has a philosophy, it is not rooted in agreement about the past but a shared commitment to a better future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will not agree on everything in history,” Abu Sarah said. “But… we can definitely agree on everything in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That idea surfaced again and again: listening without forcing consensus, allowing different narratives to exist and recognizing that empathy is not betrayal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12051789\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12051789\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250811-ISRAELICONSULATE_00998_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250811-ISRAELICONSULATE_00998_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250811-ISRAELICONSULATE_00998_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250811-ISRAELICONSULATE_00998_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters hold one another on Montgomery Street outside the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest in San Francisco on Aug. 11, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Inon, that recognition includes confronting his own upbringing. He was raised on a narrative of a land largely empty before Jewish settlement. Only later did he learn the scale of Palestinian presence and displacement. That realization did not erase his identity but rather complicated it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Without doubting my own narrative,” he said, “I would never… recognize that there is another people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Near the end of the program, a listener named Joyce wrote that she was “still in tears,” but felt something else, too: hope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wish their voices could be heard all over the world,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>As seven pro-Palestinian activists who blocked the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/golden-gate-bridge\">Golden Gate Bridge\u003c/a> two years ago prepare for felony trial, their attorneys are raising First Amendment concerns about a wide-ranging search of their social media activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Highway Patrol’s search warrant identified Facebook and Instagram accounts they believe belong to the defendants and sought three months of records from parent company Meta, including private messages, contact lists, liked posts, passwords and financial information. Defense attorneys aiming to block the data that was handed over from being used in court argue that the warrant was unconstitutionally broad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t just say, ‘I’m looking for evidence of any crime,’” attorney Shaffy Moeel said. “You have to actually have a very particularized, specified thing that you’re looking for if you’re going to ask a judge to sign off on a warrant like this. And so what they got from Meta is hundreds of gigs of data related to what we think is absolutely First Amendment-protected activity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moeel filed a motion to suppress that evidence in court \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12011165/felony-charges-against-golden-gate-bridge-protesters-can-go-to-trial-judge-rules\">ahead of trial\u003c/a>, where defendants face maximum sentences of 14 or 15 years in prison for charges including felony conspiracy, false imprisonment and trespassing to interfere with a business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the requested information, such as content from accounts the defendants allegedly interacted with, has no relevance to the question of whether the protesters conspired to block traffic, Moeel argued in the motion. Instead, she told KQED, authorities were looking to build “a map of political association.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have the district attorney using law enforcement and the court to get data from people, Americans, regarding their political association, what accounts they’re liking, what accounts they’re reposting, what comments they’re posting related to accounts that might have a political message on it,” Moeel said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031870\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031870\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-1246387515-scaled-e1742325160899.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The exterior of the Phillip Burton Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in San Francisco, California, on Jan. 20, 2019. \u003ccite>(Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco district attorney’s office declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A CHP analyst looked into Instagram accounts that “supported one another with spreading knowledge of events” as part of the agency’s assessment of protests, according to a CHP officer’s affidavit for the warrant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the list were accounts for some of the groups most consistently responsible for planning pro-Palestinian protests in the Bay Area in recent years, including local chapters for the Palestinian Youth Movement, Jewish Voice for Peace and the Arab Resource and Organizing Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CHP declined to comment, citing the pending case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meta said in a statement that the company pushes back or refuses requests that are illegal. It did not do so in this case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trial comes more than two years after protesters\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11975859/golden-gate-bridge-blocked-by-activists-calling-for-cease-fire-in-gaza\"> blocked vehicle lanes\u003c/a> for hours on the Golden Gate Bridge as part of a broader day of demonstrations against U.S. economic support for Israel amid its war in Gaza. In Oakland, protesters also blocked lanes on Interstate 880.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jury selection and opening statements are expected in the coming weeks, Moeel said.[aside postID=news_12080402 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041526_CHADASHBY_9485-KQED.jpg']The defendants had previously hoped to avoid trial altogether and convince a judge to downgrade the felony charges to misdemeanors, but two judges ruled against them, most recently in March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Historically, San Francisco has had other protests where they’ve blocked bridges for environmental justice or to raise awareness regarding \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvKAIPOBWlY\">disparities in providing AIDS treatment\u003c/a>,” Moeel said. “And so, I think this is a part of San Francisco history, and the district attorney here in this case took the unprecedented step of charging felony conspiracy to commit misdemeanor crimes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along with those two demonstrations, which occurred in 1996 and 1989 respectively, protesters have also flocked to the Golden Gate Bridge more recently. The environmental justice protest, which involved actor Woody Harrelson, is \u003ca href=\"https://www.goldengate.org/bridge/history-research/moments-events/key-dates/#1990s\">listed among key dates \u003c/a>on the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District’s website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anti-war protesters were also arrested on the bridge in 2002, though only one was charged with a felony for assaulting an officer, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Anti-war-rally-ties-up-bridge-Cops-stop-traffic-2818029.php\">SFGate.\u003c/a> In 2020, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11823356/day-8-of-protests-around-the-bay-taking-a-knee-for-change-and-a-march-across-the-golden-gate-bridge\">thousands marched\u003c/a> across the bridge as part of the wave of Black Lives Matter protests without incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The defendants in this case note that their action two years ago was seemingly the first time the bridge district filed a restitution claim against protesters, originally set at $163,000 in lost toll revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When lawyers for the defendants first argued that the felony charges should be reduced, Judge Brendan P. Conroy said he would have considered the motion more seriously because the defendants seemed well-intentioned, but\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12011165/felony-charges-against-golden-gate-bridge-protesters-can-go-to-trial-judge-rules\"> the considerable restitution\u003c/a> amount stopped him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the bridge district \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12063531/golden-gate-bridge-agency-drops-163k-restitution-claim-against-pro-palestinian-protesters\">withdrew its restitution claim\u003c/a> last year, attorneys tried again, but again a separate judge denied the motion, which defense attorneys called disappointing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As seven pro-Palestinian activists who blocked the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/golden-gate-bridge\">Golden Gate Bridge\u003c/a> two years ago prepare for felony trial, their attorneys are raising First Amendment concerns about a wide-ranging search of their social media activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Highway Patrol’s search warrant identified Facebook and Instagram accounts they believe belong to the defendants and sought three months of records from parent company Meta, including private messages, contact lists, liked posts, passwords and financial information. Defense attorneys aiming to block the data that was handed over from being used in court argue that the warrant was unconstitutionally broad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t just say, ‘I’m looking for evidence of any crime,’” attorney Shaffy Moeel said. “You have to actually have a very particularized, specified thing that you’re looking for if you’re going to ask a judge to sign off on a warrant like this. And so what they got from Meta is hundreds of gigs of data related to what we think is absolutely First Amendment-protected activity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moeel filed a motion to suppress that evidence in court \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12011165/felony-charges-against-golden-gate-bridge-protesters-can-go-to-trial-judge-rules\">ahead of trial\u003c/a>, where defendants face maximum sentences of 14 or 15 years in prison for charges including felony conspiracy, false imprisonment and trespassing to interfere with a business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the requested information, such as content from accounts the defendants allegedly interacted with, has no relevance to the question of whether the protesters conspired to block traffic, Moeel argued in the motion. Instead, she told KQED, authorities were looking to build “a map of political association.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have the district attorney using law enforcement and the court to get data from people, Americans, regarding their political association, what accounts they’re liking, what accounts they’re reposting, what comments they’re posting related to accounts that might have a political message on it,” Moeel said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031870\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031870\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-1246387515-scaled-e1742325160899.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The exterior of the Phillip Burton Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in San Francisco, California, on Jan. 20, 2019. \u003ccite>(Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco district attorney’s office declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A CHP analyst looked into Instagram accounts that “supported one another with spreading knowledge of events” as part of the agency’s assessment of protests, according to a CHP officer’s affidavit for the warrant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the list were accounts for some of the groups most consistently responsible for planning pro-Palestinian protests in the Bay Area in recent years, including local chapters for the Palestinian Youth Movement, Jewish Voice for Peace and the Arab Resource and Organizing Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The CHP declined to comment, citing the pending case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meta said in a statement that the company pushes back or refuses requests that are illegal. It did not do so in this case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trial comes more than two years after protesters\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11975859/golden-gate-bridge-blocked-by-activists-calling-for-cease-fire-in-gaza\"> blocked vehicle lanes\u003c/a> for hours on the Golden Gate Bridge as part of a broader day of demonstrations against U.S. economic support for Israel amid its war in Gaza. In Oakland, protesters also blocked lanes on Interstate 880.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jury selection and opening statements are expected in the coming weeks, Moeel said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The defendants had previously hoped to avoid trial altogether and convince a judge to downgrade the felony charges to misdemeanors, but two judges ruled against them, most recently in March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Historically, San Francisco has had other protests where they’ve blocked bridges for environmental justice or to raise awareness regarding \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvKAIPOBWlY\">disparities in providing AIDS treatment\u003c/a>,” Moeel said. “And so, I think this is a part of San Francisco history, and the district attorney here in this case took the unprecedented step of charging felony conspiracy to commit misdemeanor crimes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along with those two demonstrations, which occurred in 1996 and 1989 respectively, protesters have also flocked to the Golden Gate Bridge more recently. The environmental justice protest, which involved actor Woody Harrelson, is \u003ca href=\"https://www.goldengate.org/bridge/history-research/moments-events/key-dates/#1990s\">listed among key dates \u003c/a>on the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District’s website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anti-war protesters were also arrested on the bridge in 2002, though only one was charged with a felony for assaulting an officer, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Anti-war-rally-ties-up-bridge-Cops-stop-traffic-2818029.php\">SFGate.\u003c/a> In 2020, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11823356/day-8-of-protests-around-the-bay-taking-a-knee-for-change-and-a-march-across-the-golden-gate-bridge\">thousands marched\u003c/a> across the bridge as part of the wave of Black Lives Matter protests without incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The defendants in this case note that their action two years ago was seemingly the first time the bridge district filed a restitution claim against protesters, originally set at $163,000 in lost toll revenue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When lawyers for the defendants first argued that the felony charges should be reduced, Judge Brendan P. Conroy said he would have considered the motion more seriously because the defendants seemed well-intentioned, but\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12011165/felony-charges-against-golden-gate-bridge-protesters-can-go-to-trial-judge-rules\"> the considerable restitution\u003c/a> amount stopped him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the bridge district \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12063531/golden-gate-bridge-agency-drops-163k-restitution-claim-against-pro-palestinian-protesters\">withdrew its restitution claim\u003c/a> last year, attorneys tried again, but again a separate judge denied the motion, which defense attorneys called disappointing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Early last Wednesday, it was Gabriel Korty’s turn to take watch while \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059265/california-journalist-others-on-2nd-gaza-aid-flotilla-released-from-israeli-captivity\">sailing\u003c/a> across the Balearic Sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He rose at dawn to look out from the deck of an eight-person wooden \u003ca href=\"https://www.vesselfinder.com/?mmsi=224114520\">sailboat\u003c/a> named Al Quds, an Arabic name for Jerusalem, as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a civilian aid fleet destined for Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back home,\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/gabekorty/\"> the Point Reyes artist\u003c/a> said he often struggled to discuss the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12051743/bay-area-rabbis-jewish-leaders-demand-israel-let-aid-into-gaza-as-crisis-persists\">humanitarian crisis in Gaza\u003c/a> with those around him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some people just don’t have the capacity to talk about it,” Korty, 36, said of his community in the foggy, rural beach town an hour north of San Francisco. “I think maybe because they feel that they can’t do anything about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, he set out to prove that regular people can do something. Today, he’s cruising around the coast of Sicily along with a fleet carrying over 1,000 people from more than 100 countries, and at least six people with ties to California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s significantly larger than a previous mission in September 2025, which included 42 boats and 462 participants, but has the same aim: to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza and remind the world of the enclave’s plight, Korty said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really feels like people were forgetting that this genocide was still happening,” Korty said. “I wanted to be here so people in my community had some sort of connection to this flotilla and maybe would pay Gaza the attention it deserves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080589\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 960px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080589\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FOLITTLA-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FOLITTLA-02-KQED.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FOLITTLA-02-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A portrait of Gabriel Korty, an artist, woodworker and event producer from Point Reyes. Korty is crewing on Al Quds, a sailboat with Spanish flags, headed to Gaza as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Gabriel Korty)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated places on Earth. It is around two-thirds the size of San José, with twice the population. More than half of its residents are children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2007, after Hamas took control of Gaza’s governance from the Palestinian Authority, Israel began a blockade of the strip by air, land and sea, effectively caging in its 2 million Palestinians. Following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and the start of an Israeli military campaign that leveled entire cities and killed, by some estimates, around \u003ca href=\"https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(25)00522-4/fulltext\">75,000 \u003c/a>Palestinians, the stranglehold on humanitarian food, medicine and aid intensified. By April 2025, the blockade pushed \u003ca href=\"https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/gaza-un-experts-urge-general-assembly-respond-famine-and-genocide\">parts of Gaza into famine\u003c/a>, according to the United Nations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of a ceasefire declared Oct. 10, 2025, Israel promised to freely allow aid to pass into Gaza. However, \u003ca href=\"https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/11/how-many-times-has-israel-violated-the-gaza-ceasefire-here-are-the-numbers#:~:text=Israel%20still%20choking%20aid,%2C%20crisps%2C%20and%20soft%20drinks.\">analysis by Al Jazeera\u003c/a> found that aid deliveries in the weeks that followed faced major delays, if allowed in at all. Israel’s military and Hamas, meanwhile, have continued to trade attacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Israel controls all inflow and outflow of personnel and aid on the borders of Gaza,” said Dr. Mohammad Subeh, an emergency room physician based in Saratoga. “Anything that is going to enter, whether it be on trucks or otherwise, has to be vetted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Subeh, who is assisting the flotilla as part of the medical coordination team before heading to Lebanon for an aid mission, has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11981941/hopeandlossingaza\">traveled to Gaza multiple times\u003c/a>, mainly to set up American-style field hospitals to evaluate and treat civilians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There, he experienced firsthand the challenges of providing lifesaving medical care under siege.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Medications that contain ingredients like glycerin, which can be found in Children’s Tylenol, are rejected by the Israeli authorities as “dual-use” because they could be used for military purposes, Subeh said. Physicians have also \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/guelph-doctor-denied-gaza-entry-9.7080727\">reported\u003c/a> that Israel has limited the bringing in of \u003ca href=\"https://peaceandjustice.org/to-get-a-stethoscope-into-gaza-you-needed-to-buy-a-tv/\">stethoscopes\u003c/a>, a tool that is practically synonymous with the practice of medicine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re going through this constant struggle to try to justify all the things that you are bringing in to treat patients,” said Subeh, 41.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12007717\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12007717\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240403-DRSUBEH-005-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240403-DRSUBEH-005-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240403-DRSUBEH-005-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240403-DRSUBEH-005-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240403-DRSUBEH-005-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240403-DRSUBEH-005-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240403-DRSUBEH-005-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr. Mohammad Subeh poses for a portrait in San Francisco on April 3, 2024, after a medical mission in Gaza. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Subeh traveled to Sicily to help train boat medics before another round of ships departs Saturday for the journey across the Mediterranean. Medics will also train in how to provide care in detention, in case the fleet is intercepted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>International activists \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11983361/bay-area-residents-to-join-gaza-aid-flotilla\">have tried to reach Gaza’s shores\u003c/a> multiple times since Israel’s blockade started. None of the attempts has made it past the naval blockade, which has \u003ca href=\"https://casebook.icrc.org/case-study/israel-blockade-gaza-and-flotilla-incident\">closed\u003c/a> Gaza’s coast to maritime traffic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While no international law prohibits civilian vessels from reaching Gaza by boat, Israel said its naval blockade is legal and necessary for self-defense, as an attempt to stop the illegal transport of weapons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many flotilla participants, deemed a security threat, are banned for life from entering Palestinian territories. But Subeh said that’s a risk faced by anyone who provides aid. After being denied entry to Gaza twice, Subeh said he took his \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/12/08/israel-gaza-doctors-denied-entry/\">case\u003c/a> to an Israeli high court.[aside postID=news_12079164 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-SFSUNegotiations-21-BL_qed.jpg']“The question we should be asking is, what right does the state of Israel have of banning folks from going to Palestine?” said Subeh, who is Palestinian and grew up in Kuwait and Los Angeles as a refugee. “Everybody’s silence plays a huge role.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chad Ashby, a ship electrician from Los Angeles, considered joining the Freedom Flotilla, a precursor to the Global Sumud Flotilla, last year and interviewed with organizers at the time. A longtime activist who lived on boats in Bay Area marinas for a decade, Ashby said he’s made more than a dozen humanitarian trips to the Mediterranean with Sea-Watch, a German organization that rescues refugees off the Libyan coast and ferries them to boats bound for Europe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With Sea-Watch, Ashby, 41, has come face to face with Libyan Coast Guard vessels, with machine guns mounted on their bows, as his crew worked to rescue people from sinking rubber boats and life rafts. He said he still remembers how his heart pounded for hours after his first encounter with Libya’s fleet, which is known for firing on migrants and activists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Doing this type of work, your comfort level starts to change, and you just start to become more comfortable with doing things that seem a bit more risky,” Ashby said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, though, Ashby backed out of joining the Freedom Flotilla. In his research, he learned about an Israeli \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/activist-flotilla-seeking-to-break-the-israeli-blockade-of-gaza-says-drones-attacked-its-boats\">raid\u003c/a> on the Mavi Marmara, a passenger ferry headed to Gaza in 2010, that killed nine Turkish activists, including one Turkish American. The attack was condemned globally, and Israel eventually agreed to pay Turkey $20 million in compensation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hearing that story gave me great hesitation,” Ashby said. “It made me [think] I’m not sure if I’m really willing to die for this right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080620\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080620\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FLOTILLA-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FLOTILLA-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FLOTILLA-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FLOTILLA-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the crew of the Shireen, a legal support boat, look out from the port of Augusta, Sicily, on April 18, 2026. The Global Sumud Flotilla includes around 70 vessels and nearly 1,000 participants from 70 countries, making it significantly larger than a previous mission in September 2025, which included 42 boats and 462 participants.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some of Ashby’s friends from the Sea-Watch community were on a Freedom Flotilla ship called the \u003ca href=\"https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/conscience-drone-strike-gaza-flotilla-aftermath/\">Conscience\u003c/a> that was anchored off the coast of Malta last May when it was hit twice by drones in the middle of the night, ripping open the ship’s hull. No one claimed responsibility for the attack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the months after, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058820/ca-families-officials-call-for-release-of-us-citizens-detained-with-gaza-aid-flotilla\">more ships embarked for Gaza\u003c/a>, carrying activists including Greta Thunberg and Amazon labor organizer Chris Smalls. That voyage made international news when Israel detained more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0lk292jww4o\">400\u003c/a> participants 70 nautical miles off Gaza’s coast. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058820/ca-families-officials-call-for-release-of-us-citizens-detained-with-gaza-aid-flotilla\">California lawmakers and people around the world\u003c/a> called for the immediate release of the detained activists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hearing about that mission changed a lot of minds for activists, because people before that thought that this is like a death sentence,” Ashby said. “Even though they were not able to deliver the aid, they were able to get the message out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, Ashby packed a small bag, including his electrical equipment and his documents. He also brought his violin, he said, not only to keep up his daily practice but also as a form of meditation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080315\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080315\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041526_CHADASHBY_9530-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041526_CHADASHBY_9530-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041526_CHADASHBY_9530-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041526_CHADASHBY_9530-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chad Ashby plays violin at his home in Topanga on April 15, 2026. \u003ccite>(Lauren Justice for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Then, he traveled to Sicily’s eastern coast to join the crew of the Shireen, a sailboat named for Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank while reporting in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Immediately, the crew got to work on a list of maintenance tasks needed before the boat could leave port. In the evenings, after working, the crew and others in the marina joined together to play music and \u003ca href=\"https://wavezero.world/?podcast=1f13347d-8921-68d2-8710-b31fe50b6f8e\">livestreamed\u003c/a> it as a radio show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s impressive how many people have come together to try to make an effort to put a stop to the genocide,” Ashby said. “I love to see all of the organization and the passion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Shireen doesn’t plan to reach Gaza and will stay in international waters for the duration of the voyage. As a legal support boat, it carries a handful of legal observers as well as a small group of people with the skills to fix other ships’ broken navigational systems, lights and whatever else they need to make it across the sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re just inundated with this horrible information and feeling so bad for what was happening and feeling very powerless,” Ashby said. “And it seemed like a way that I could use my skill to be able to help out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A handful of activists from the Bay Area and Los Angeles have joined a fleet of over 1,000 volunteers on another civilian flotilla that aims to deliver lifesaving aid to Palestinians.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Early last Wednesday, it was Gabriel Korty’s turn to take watch while \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059265/california-journalist-others-on-2nd-gaza-aid-flotilla-released-from-israeli-captivity\">sailing\u003c/a> across the Balearic Sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He rose at dawn to look out from the deck of an eight-person wooden \u003ca href=\"https://www.vesselfinder.com/?mmsi=224114520\">sailboat\u003c/a> named Al Quds, an Arabic name for Jerusalem, as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a civilian aid fleet destined for Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back home,\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/gabekorty/\"> the Point Reyes artist\u003c/a> said he often struggled to discuss the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12051743/bay-area-rabbis-jewish-leaders-demand-israel-let-aid-into-gaza-as-crisis-persists\">humanitarian crisis in Gaza\u003c/a> with those around him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some people just don’t have the capacity to talk about it,” Korty, 36, said of his community in the foggy, rural beach town an hour north of San Francisco. “I think maybe because they feel that they can’t do anything about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, he set out to prove that regular people can do something. Today, he’s cruising around the coast of Sicily along with a fleet carrying over 1,000 people from more than 100 countries, and at least six people with ties to California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s significantly larger than a previous mission in September 2025, which included 42 boats and 462 participants, but has the same aim: to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza and remind the world of the enclave’s plight, Korty said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really feels like people were forgetting that this genocide was still happening,” Korty said. “I wanted to be here so people in my community had some sort of connection to this flotilla and maybe would pay Gaza the attention it deserves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080589\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 960px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080589\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FOLITTLA-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FOLITTLA-02-KQED.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FOLITTLA-02-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A portrait of Gabriel Korty, an artist, woodworker and event producer from Point Reyes. Korty is crewing on Al Quds, a sailboat with Spanish flags, headed to Gaza as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Gabriel Korty)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated places on Earth. It is around two-thirds the size of San José, with twice the population. More than half of its residents are children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2007, after Hamas took control of Gaza’s governance from the Palestinian Authority, Israel began a blockade of the strip by air, land and sea, effectively caging in its 2 million Palestinians. Following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel and the start of an Israeli military campaign that leveled entire cities and killed, by some estimates, around \u003ca href=\"https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(25)00522-4/fulltext\">75,000 \u003c/a>Palestinians, the stranglehold on humanitarian food, medicine and aid intensified. By April 2025, the blockade pushed \u003ca href=\"https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/gaza-un-experts-urge-general-assembly-respond-famine-and-genocide\">parts of Gaza into famine\u003c/a>, according to the United Nations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of a ceasefire declared Oct. 10, 2025, Israel promised to freely allow aid to pass into Gaza. However, \u003ca href=\"https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/11/how-many-times-has-israel-violated-the-gaza-ceasefire-here-are-the-numbers#:~:text=Israel%20still%20choking%20aid,%2C%20crisps%2C%20and%20soft%20drinks.\">analysis by Al Jazeera\u003c/a> found that aid deliveries in the weeks that followed faced major delays, if allowed in at all. Israel’s military and Hamas, meanwhile, have continued to trade attacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Israel controls all inflow and outflow of personnel and aid on the borders of Gaza,” said Dr. Mohammad Subeh, an emergency room physician based in Saratoga. “Anything that is going to enter, whether it be on trucks or otherwise, has to be vetted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Subeh, who is assisting the flotilla as part of the medical coordination team before heading to Lebanon for an aid mission, has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11981941/hopeandlossingaza\">traveled to Gaza multiple times\u003c/a>, mainly to set up American-style field hospitals to evaluate and treat civilians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There, he experienced firsthand the challenges of providing lifesaving medical care under siege.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Medications that contain ingredients like glycerin, which can be found in Children’s Tylenol, are rejected by the Israeli authorities as “dual-use” because they could be used for military purposes, Subeh said. Physicians have also \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/guelph-doctor-denied-gaza-entry-9.7080727\">reported\u003c/a> that Israel has limited the bringing in of \u003ca href=\"https://peaceandjustice.org/to-get-a-stethoscope-into-gaza-you-needed-to-buy-a-tv/\">stethoscopes\u003c/a>, a tool that is practically synonymous with the practice of medicine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re going through this constant struggle to try to justify all the things that you are bringing in to treat patients,” said Subeh, 41.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12007717\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12007717\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240403-DRSUBEH-005-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240403-DRSUBEH-005-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240403-DRSUBEH-005-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240403-DRSUBEH-005-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240403-DRSUBEH-005-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240403-DRSUBEH-005-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240403-DRSUBEH-005-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr. Mohammad Subeh poses for a portrait in San Francisco on April 3, 2024, after a medical mission in Gaza. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Subeh traveled to Sicily to help train boat medics before another round of ships departs Saturday for the journey across the Mediterranean. Medics will also train in how to provide care in detention, in case the fleet is intercepted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>International activists \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11983361/bay-area-residents-to-join-gaza-aid-flotilla\">have tried to reach Gaza’s shores\u003c/a> multiple times since Israel’s blockade started. None of the attempts has made it past the naval blockade, which has \u003ca href=\"https://casebook.icrc.org/case-study/israel-blockade-gaza-and-flotilla-incident\">closed\u003c/a> Gaza’s coast to maritime traffic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While no international law prohibits civilian vessels from reaching Gaza by boat, Israel said its naval blockade is legal and necessary for self-defense, as an attempt to stop the illegal transport of weapons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many flotilla participants, deemed a security threat, are banned for life from entering Palestinian territories. But Subeh said that’s a risk faced by anyone who provides aid. After being denied entry to Gaza twice, Subeh said he took his \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/12/08/israel-gaza-doctors-denied-entry/\">case\u003c/a> to an Israeli high court.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The question we should be asking is, what right does the state of Israel have of banning folks from going to Palestine?” said Subeh, who is Palestinian and grew up in Kuwait and Los Angeles as a refugee. “Everybody’s silence plays a huge role.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chad Ashby, a ship electrician from Los Angeles, considered joining the Freedom Flotilla, a precursor to the Global Sumud Flotilla, last year and interviewed with organizers at the time. A longtime activist who lived on boats in Bay Area marinas for a decade, Ashby said he’s made more than a dozen humanitarian trips to the Mediterranean with Sea-Watch, a German organization that rescues refugees off the Libyan coast and ferries them to boats bound for Europe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With Sea-Watch, Ashby, 41, has come face to face with Libyan Coast Guard vessels, with machine guns mounted on their bows, as his crew worked to rescue people from sinking rubber boats and life rafts. He said he still remembers how his heart pounded for hours after his first encounter with Libya’s fleet, which is known for firing on migrants and activists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Doing this type of work, your comfort level starts to change, and you just start to become more comfortable with doing things that seem a bit more risky,” Ashby said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, though, Ashby backed out of joining the Freedom Flotilla. In his research, he learned about an Israeli \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/activist-flotilla-seeking-to-break-the-israeli-blockade-of-gaza-says-drones-attacked-its-boats\">raid\u003c/a> on the Mavi Marmara, a passenger ferry headed to Gaza in 2010, that killed nine Turkish activists, including one Turkish American. The attack was condemned globally, and Israel eventually agreed to pay Turkey $20 million in compensation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hearing that story gave me great hesitation,” Ashby said. “It made me [think] I’m not sure if I’m really willing to die for this right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080620\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080620\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FLOTILLA-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FLOTILLA-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FLOTILLA-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FLOTILLA-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the crew of the Shireen, a legal support boat, look out from the port of Augusta, Sicily, on April 18, 2026. The Global Sumud Flotilla includes around 70 vessels and nearly 1,000 participants from 70 countries, making it significantly larger than a previous mission in September 2025, which included 42 boats and 462 participants.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some of Ashby’s friends from the Sea-Watch community were on a Freedom Flotilla ship called the \u003ca href=\"https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/conscience-drone-strike-gaza-flotilla-aftermath/\">Conscience\u003c/a> that was anchored off the coast of Malta last May when it was hit twice by drones in the middle of the night, ripping open the ship’s hull. No one claimed responsibility for the attack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the months after, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058820/ca-families-officials-call-for-release-of-us-citizens-detained-with-gaza-aid-flotilla\">more ships embarked for Gaza\u003c/a>, carrying activists including Greta Thunberg and Amazon labor organizer Chris Smalls. That voyage made international news when Israel detained more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0lk292jww4o\">400\u003c/a> participants 70 nautical miles off Gaza’s coast. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058820/ca-families-officials-call-for-release-of-us-citizens-detained-with-gaza-aid-flotilla\">California lawmakers and people around the world\u003c/a> called for the immediate release of the detained activists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hearing about that mission changed a lot of minds for activists, because people before that thought that this is like a death sentence,” Ashby said. “Even though they were not able to deliver the aid, they were able to get the message out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, Ashby packed a small bag, including his electrical equipment and his documents. He also brought his violin, he said, not only to keep up his daily practice but also as a form of meditation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080315\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080315\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041526_CHADASHBY_9530-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041526_CHADASHBY_9530-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041526_CHADASHBY_9530-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041526_CHADASHBY_9530-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chad Ashby plays violin at his home in Topanga on April 15, 2026. \u003ccite>(Lauren Justice for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Then, he traveled to Sicily’s eastern coast to join the crew of the Shireen, a sailboat named for Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank while reporting in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Immediately, the crew got to work on a list of maintenance tasks needed before the boat could leave port. In the evenings, after working, the crew and others in the marina joined together to play music and \u003ca href=\"https://wavezero.world/?podcast=1f13347d-8921-68d2-8710-b31fe50b6f8e\">livestreamed\u003c/a> it as a radio show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s impressive how many people have come together to try to make an effort to put a stop to the genocide,” Ashby said. “I love to see all of the organization and the passion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Shireen doesn’t plan to reach Gaza and will stay in international waters for the duration of the voyage. As a legal support boat, it carries a handful of legal observers as well as a small group of people with the skills to fix other ships’ broken navigational systems, lights and whatever else they need to make it across the sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re just inundated with this horrible information and feeling so bad for what was happening and feeling very powerless,” Ashby said. “And it seemed like a way that I could use my skill to be able to help out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "california-democrats-leave-governors-race-unsettled-as-gaza-fight-looms",
"title": "California Democrats Leave Governor’s Race Unsettled as Gaza Fight Looms",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a> Democrats chose “Together We Win” as their slogan for their statewide convention this past weekend in San Francisco, but beyond solidarity in opposing President Donald Trump, there was decidedly little togetherness on the key issue of \u003ca href=\"https://cadem.org/endorsements/\">endorsements\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Getting the party’s official nod is a key indicator for voters deciding whom to support. But they’ll have no such help for the June primary when it comes to gubernatorial candidates, where none of the Democrats seeking that office came close to winning the 60% of delegates needed to secure the endorsement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The closest was Rep. Eric Swalwell, who won just 24% support. The other leading candidates, based on recent polling, were well behind in delegate support:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Betty Yee:\u003c/strong> 17%\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Xavier Becerra:\u003c/strong> 14%\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Tom Steyer:\u003c/strong> 13%\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Katie Porter:\u003c/strong> 9%\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The results also show how out of sync with voters party insiders are. In independent polls, Yee and Becerra are routinely in single digits, sometimes less than 5%. The indecisive result only heightened concerns that too many Democratic candidates could split the vote, leaving Republicans Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton in a November runoff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the convention, party Chair Rusty Hicks told KQED Democrats would “hopefully walk away with clarity” about who the leading candidates were. Nope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonetheless, Hicks did not indicate any interest in using his position to pressure anyone to drop out. “I think that the primary process in and of itself is a natural winnowing process,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12074214\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12074214\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-08-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-08-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-08-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-08-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Betty T. Yee speaks during the California Democratic Party 2026 State Convention on Feb. 21, 2026, in San Francisco. Yee finished second in the party’s endorsement vote, which ended without consensus. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another landmine Democrats navigated was Israel’s war in Gaza and whether or not to use the word “genocide” to describe it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The issue \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069409/scott-wiener-pivots-after-congressional-forum-israel-has-committed-genocide-in-gaza\">exploded at a January forum\u003c/a> in San Francisco for candidates running to replace Nancy Pelosi in Congress, when each was asked to answer “Yes or No” to 10 questions in a lightning round.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To the question, “Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza?” two candidates — San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan and former software engineer Saikat Chakrabarti held up a sign reading “yes” — prompting loud cheers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But state Sen. Scott Wiener declined to hold up either sign, igniting anger and shouts of “shame” from some in the crowd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12074207\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12074207\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters gather outside Moscone West during the California Democratic Party 2026 State Convention on Feb. 21, 2026, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Days later — under fire from progressives — Wiener \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/Scott_Wiener/status/2010464312792404192?s=20\">released a video\u003c/a>. He acknowledged that genocide has occurred. Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener, who is Jewish, said using a word originally used to describe the Nazi Holocaust in this case is painful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“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,” Wiener said in the video.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later, he told KQED, “For Saikat Chakrabarti and for Connie Chan, this issue is not even vaguely personal. This is pure politics for them. For me, it’s not politics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, of course, any issue can be both personal and political. And one thing is clear: After that candidates’ forum, Wiener’s campaign was facing a backlash from supporters, according to political consultant Sam Lauter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12069062\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12069062 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-16-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-16-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-16-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-16-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>“People were saying, ‘I need my congressman to take a moral position on this. And to me, it looks like genocide,’” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lauter has endorsed Wiener for the seat, but said his use of the word genocide to describe Gaza was a gut-punch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But it wasn’t a gut-punch that Scott did it, but that he had to do it,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after acknowledging genocide, Wiener resigned as co-chair of the state Legislature’s Jewish Caucus. Although he said he’d been wanting to step down for a while, it’s clear the caucus was not comfortable with Wiener’s use of the word genocide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Factions within the state party have been meeting for weeks to hammer out platform language both sides could live with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12074586\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12074586\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/022126_GazaDems_GH_008_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/022126_GazaDems_GH_008_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/022126_GazaDems_GH_008_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/022126_GazaDems_GH_008_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mirvette Judeh of the Arab American Caucus gestures during an interview at the California Democratic Party 2026 State Convention on Feb. 21, 2026, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Unlike previous years, Mirvette Judeh, chair of the party’s Arab American Caucus, said she noticed a change of tone from Jewish Democrats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This time, there was a lot of discussion; it wasn’t easy, it was extremely difficult. There were some challenges, victories and losses on both sides,” Judeh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There should be justice for Palestinians, a state of their own, and then there’s where they can live in dignity and peace, and that Israel should remain also a Jewish state where they also can live in dignity and peace,” said Andrew Lachman, president of California Jewish Democrats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the platform language was finalized, Judeh told KQED she “felt that the other side really tried. We tried to work together. It wasn’t easy,” adding she was hopeful. “If we could walk away from this with this hope, and both sides not hating each other, to me that’s a win.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12074208\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12074208\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-02-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andrew Lachman, president of the California Jewish Democrats, at the California Democratic Party 2026 State Convention on Feb. 21, 2026, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For now, that seems to have happened. But the issue of Israel and Gaza will continue to come up, said Erin Covey, who covers congressional races for the Cook Political Report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She notes that willingness to criticize Israel is becoming a litmus test in some elections, especially in liberal districts like this one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They all may be pretty progressive on social issues and on fiscal issues. Israel is one of the few areas where you do oftentimes see clear distinctions,” Covey said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In most campaigns around the country right now, we’re seeing this issue becoming a particularly vivid litmus test in Democratic primaries, and it’s becoming more and more challenging for supporters of Israel to navigate that landscape,” USC political communications expert Dan Schnur said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at this weekend’s Democratic convention, none of the candidates running for governor mentioned Israel or Gaza. And party leaders likely hope to keep it that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a> Democrats chose “Together We Win” as their slogan for their statewide convention this past weekend in San Francisco, but beyond solidarity in opposing President Donald Trump, there was decidedly little togetherness on the key issue of \u003ca href=\"https://cadem.org/endorsements/\">endorsements\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Getting the party’s official nod is a key indicator for voters deciding whom to support. But they’ll have no such help for the June primary when it comes to gubernatorial candidates, where none of the Democrats seeking that office came close to winning the 60% of delegates needed to secure the endorsement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The closest was Rep. Eric Swalwell, who won just 24% support. The other leading candidates, based on recent polling, were well behind in delegate support:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Betty Yee:\u003c/strong> 17%\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Xavier Becerra:\u003c/strong> 14%\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Tom Steyer:\u003c/strong> 13%\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Katie Porter:\u003c/strong> 9%\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The results also show how out of sync with voters party insiders are. In independent polls, Yee and Becerra are routinely in single digits, sometimes less than 5%. The indecisive result only heightened concerns that too many Democratic candidates could split the vote, leaving Republicans Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton in a November runoff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the convention, party Chair Rusty Hicks told KQED Democrats would “hopefully walk away with clarity” about who the leading candidates were. Nope.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonetheless, Hicks did not indicate any interest in using his position to pressure anyone to drop out. “I think that the primary process in and of itself is a natural winnowing process,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12074214\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12074214\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-08-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-08-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-08-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-08-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Betty T. Yee speaks during the California Democratic Party 2026 State Convention on Feb. 21, 2026, in San Francisco. Yee finished second in the party’s endorsement vote, which ended without consensus. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another landmine Democrats navigated was Israel’s war in Gaza and whether or not to use the word “genocide” to describe it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The issue \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069409/scott-wiener-pivots-after-congressional-forum-israel-has-committed-genocide-in-gaza\">exploded at a January forum\u003c/a> in San Francisco for candidates running to replace Nancy Pelosi in Congress, when each was asked to answer “Yes or No” to 10 questions in a lightning round.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To the question, “Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza?” two candidates — San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan and former software engineer Saikat Chakrabarti held up a sign reading “yes” — prompting loud cheers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But state Sen. Scott Wiener declined to hold up either sign, igniting anger and shouts of “shame” from some in the crowd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12074207\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12074207\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters gather outside Moscone West during the California Democratic Party 2026 State Convention on Feb. 21, 2026, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Days later — under fire from progressives — Wiener \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/Scott_Wiener/status/2010464312792404192?s=20\">released a video\u003c/a>. He acknowledged that genocide has occurred. Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener, who is Jewish, said using a word originally used to describe the Nazi Holocaust in this case is painful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“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,” Wiener said in the video.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later, he told KQED, “For Saikat Chakrabarti and for Connie Chan, this issue is not even vaguely personal. This is pure politics for them. For me, it’s not politics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, of course, any issue can be both personal and political. And one thing is clear: After that candidates’ forum, Wiener’s campaign was facing a backlash from supporters, according to political consultant Sam Lauter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12069062\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12069062 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-16-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-16-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-16-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260107-SFCongressionalCandidateForum-16-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>“People were saying, ‘I need my congressman to take a moral position on this. And to me, it looks like genocide,’” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lauter has endorsed Wiener for the seat, but said his use of the word genocide to describe Gaza was a gut-punch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But it wasn’t a gut-punch that Scott did it, but that he had to do it,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after acknowledging genocide, Wiener resigned as co-chair of the state Legislature’s Jewish Caucus. Although he said he’d been wanting to step down for a while, it’s clear the caucus was not comfortable with Wiener’s use of the word genocide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Factions within the state party have been meeting for weeks to hammer out platform language both sides could live with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12074586\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12074586\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/022126_GazaDems_GH_008_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/022126_GazaDems_GH_008_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/022126_GazaDems_GH_008_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/022126_GazaDems_GH_008_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mirvette Judeh of the Arab American Caucus gestures during an interview at the California Democratic Party 2026 State Convention on Feb. 21, 2026, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Unlike previous years, Mirvette Judeh, chair of the party’s Arab American Caucus, said she noticed a change of tone from Jewish Democrats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This time, there was a lot of discussion; it wasn’t easy, it was extremely difficult. There were some challenges, victories and losses on both sides,” Judeh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There should be justice for Palestinians, a state of their own, and then there’s where they can live in dignity and peace, and that Israel should remain also a Jewish state where they also can live in dignity and peace,” said Andrew Lachman, president of California Jewish Democrats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the platform language was finalized, Judeh told KQED she “felt that the other side really tried. We tried to work together. It wasn’t easy,” adding she was hopeful. “If we could walk away from this with this hope, and both sides not hating each other, to me that’s a win.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12074208\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12074208\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260223-GAZA-DEMS-GH-02-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andrew Lachman, president of the California Jewish Democrats, at the California Democratic Party 2026 State Convention on Feb. 21, 2026, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For now, that seems to have happened. But the issue of Israel and Gaza will continue to come up, said Erin Covey, who covers congressional races for the Cook Political Report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She notes that willingness to criticize Israel is becoming a litmus test in some elections, especially in liberal districts like this one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They all may be pretty progressive on social issues and on fiscal issues. Israel is one of the few areas where you do oftentimes see clear distinctions,” Covey said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In most campaigns around the country right now, we’re seeing this issue becoming a particularly vivid litmus test in Democratic primaries, and it’s becoming more and more challenging for supporters of Israel to navigate that landscape,” USC political communications expert Dan Schnur said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at this weekend’s Democratic convention, none of the candidates running for governor mentioned Israel or Gaza. And party leaders likely hope to keep it that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "scott-wiener-pivots-after-congressional-forum-israel-has-committed-genocide-in-gaza",
"title": "Scott Wiener Pivots After Congressional Forum: ‘Israel Has Committed Genocide in Gaza’",
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"headTitle": "Scott Wiener Pivots After Congressional Forum: ‘Israel Has Committed Genocide in Gaza’ | KQED",
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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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"excerpt": "Wiener’s shift comes less than a week after a forum between candidates vying to fill Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s seat.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\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>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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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": "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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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"soldout": {
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"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
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