San Francisco’s Case Against Pro-Palestinian Activists Who Blocked Bridge Heads to Jury
Activists Defend Golden Gate Bridge Shutdown in Gaza War Protest Trial
Bay Area Residents Among the Hundreds Detained on Flotilla, Deported to Istanbul
Golden Gate Bridge Protest Trial Opens in San Francisco
Search of Golden Gate Bridge Protesters’ Social Media Was Illegal, Attorneys Argue
These Californians Are Setting Sail for Gaza to Show They’re Anything but Powerless
Stanford Pro-Palestinian Protesters Case Ends in Mistrial
‘Your Free Speech Does Not Apply’: Suspended UC Berkeley Lecturer Speaks Out
Arguments Over Genocide Dominate Stanford Protester Trial Hearing
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"content": "\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> jury will decide whether seven pro-Palestinian protesters who halted traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge for hours in 2024 should each spend more than a decade in jail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for the activists began closing arguments on Thursday, arguing that their clients believed their actions were necessary \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12082743/activists-defend-golden-gate-bridge-shutdown-in-gaza-war-protest-trial\">to save the lives of Palestinians\u003c/a> amid Israel’s military strikes on Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Necessary, urgent, lifesaving,” defense attorney Shaffy Moeel said during the trial. “Bhavika Anandpura showed up on the Golden Gate Bridge because she believed it was necessary. She showed up on that bridge because she believed it was urgent. She showed up on that bridge because she believed that it would help save lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The seven Bay Area residents — Anandpura, River Allen, Sara Cantor, Rocky Chau, Conrad de Jesus, Sarah Ferrell and Em Tillotson — are charged with felony conspiracy and a slew of misdemeanors, including false imprisonment, for blocking the span of the bridge by chaining themselves to parked cars and each other in its southbound lanes on April 15, 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Tax Day demonstration was part of an international movement — activists also shut down traffic on Interstate-880 in Oakland, and staged similar protests in San Diego, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Chicago and across Mexico, Vietnam and Australia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086298\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086298\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260604-GGBTRIALCLOSING-06-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260604-GGBTRIALCLOSING-06-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260604-GGBTRIALCLOSING-06-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260604-GGBTRIALCLOSING-06-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">River Allen holds a Palestinian flag during a rally across from the San Francisco Superior Courthouse on June 4, 2026, to support the “Golden Gate 26” ahead of closing arguments in their trial. The defendants are accused of blocking traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge during a 2024 protest against the war in Gaza. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In her final statement, Assistant District Attorney Angela Roze quoted a person who was stuck on the Golden Gate Bridge that day: “We all have a right to protest, but I should have had a right to leave,” she said. “In this case, the defendants unilaterally decided to take that right away from everyone on the road.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said between 8 a.m. and noon, no cars passed through the bridge’s toll plaza, which usually records 5,000 vehicles in that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The evidence in this case is clear. These seven individuals broke the law, regardless of their message or beliefs,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roze spent much of her closing focused on proving conspiracy — the most serious of the charges that carries the longest sentence.[aside postID=news_12082743 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00089_TV-KQED.jpg']She said that the night before the protest, six of the defendants met in Berkeley and devised the plan to block a thoroughfare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s when they became guilty of conspiracy to commit false imprisonment,” Roze said, adding that the seventh defendant received a call the same night telling him to meet at a BART station for the protest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The defendants’ lawyers have focused throughout the trial on setting up a so called “necessity defense” — which requires attorneys to show that the protesters believed they were facing a real, specific and immediate threat to themselves or others; had no reasonable alternative to the action they took; did not create greater danger than the danger they avoided; and did not contribute to or cause the threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The attorneys said the protesters had tried expressing their concern through less disruptive means, like calling their local representatives and participating in marches. At the time, as Israel was weighing whether to invade Rafah, a city along Gaza’s southern border where 1 million displaced Palestinians were seeking refuge, they believed the escalation was necessary to save lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When their words were ignored, they had to get louder. And when the invasion of Rafah was imminent, they had to get loudest of all,” defense attorney John Viola said. “They weren’t there to break the law; they were there to enforce the law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But ahead of closing arguments, Judge Teresa Caffese declined to give jurors special instructions to consider necessity in their deliberation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086300\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086300\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260604-GGBTRIALCLOSING-14-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260604-GGBTRIALCLOSING-14-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260604-GGBTRIALCLOSING-14-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260604-GGBTRIALCLOSING-14-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Violette Mansour, with Palestinian Youth Movement, speaks during a rally across from the San Francisco Superior Courthouse on June 4, 2026, to support the “Golden Gate 26” ahead of closing arguments in their trial. The defendants are accused of blocking traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge during a 2024 protest against the war in Gaza. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Still, attorneys told the jury that because their clients believed they were protected by the legal justification — which has been used in the past to fight charges against animal activists involved in “open rescues” of animals from factory farms — and therefore should not be found guilty of conspiracy, which requires willfully breaking the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The felony conspiracy carries the longest sentence and is one of the harshest filed against activists in comparable cases. Six of the protesters could face 14 years in prison. Cantor could face 15.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A reasonable doubt does not need to be substantial; it just needs to be reasonable, and if it exists, it means Ms. Tillotson and the rest are not guilty,” public defender Anthony Gedeon said during his closing statement on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Closing arguments in the case are expected to wrap up Friday, and the jury could decide on the case as soon as the afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The seven Bay Area residents who shut down the Golden Gate Bridge on Tax Day in 2024 could each face 14 or more years behind bars for their role in the protest. ",
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"headline": "San Francisco’s Case Against Pro-Palestinian Activists Who Blocked Bridge Heads to Jury",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> jury will decide whether seven pro-Palestinian protesters who halted traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge for hours in 2024 should each spend more than a decade in jail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for the activists began closing arguments on Thursday, arguing that their clients believed their actions were necessary \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12082743/activists-defend-golden-gate-bridge-shutdown-in-gaza-war-protest-trial\">to save the lives of Palestinians\u003c/a> amid Israel’s military strikes on Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Necessary, urgent, lifesaving,” defense attorney Shaffy Moeel said during the trial. “Bhavika Anandpura showed up on the Golden Gate Bridge because she believed it was necessary. She showed up on that bridge because she believed it was urgent. She showed up on that bridge because she believed that it would help save lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The seven Bay Area residents — Anandpura, River Allen, Sara Cantor, Rocky Chau, Conrad de Jesus, Sarah Ferrell and Em Tillotson — are charged with felony conspiracy and a slew of misdemeanors, including false imprisonment, for blocking the span of the bridge by chaining themselves to parked cars and each other in its southbound lanes on April 15, 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Tax Day demonstration was part of an international movement — activists also shut down traffic on Interstate-880 in Oakland, and staged similar protests in San Diego, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Chicago and across Mexico, Vietnam and Australia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086298\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086298\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260604-GGBTRIALCLOSING-06-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260604-GGBTRIALCLOSING-06-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260604-GGBTRIALCLOSING-06-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260604-GGBTRIALCLOSING-06-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">River Allen holds a Palestinian flag during a rally across from the San Francisco Superior Courthouse on June 4, 2026, to support the “Golden Gate 26” ahead of closing arguments in their trial. The defendants are accused of blocking traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge during a 2024 protest against the war in Gaza. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In her final statement, Assistant District Attorney Angela Roze quoted a person who was stuck on the Golden Gate Bridge that day: “We all have a right to protest, but I should have had a right to leave,” she said. “In this case, the defendants unilaterally decided to take that right away from everyone on the road.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said between 8 a.m. and noon, no cars passed through the bridge’s toll plaza, which usually records 5,000 vehicles in that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The evidence in this case is clear. These seven individuals broke the law, regardless of their message or beliefs,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roze spent much of her closing focused on proving conspiracy — the most serious of the charges that carries the longest sentence.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>She said that the night before the protest, six of the defendants met in Berkeley and devised the plan to block a thoroughfare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s when they became guilty of conspiracy to commit false imprisonment,” Roze said, adding that the seventh defendant received a call the same night telling him to meet at a BART station for the protest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The defendants’ lawyers have focused throughout the trial on setting up a so called “necessity defense” — which requires attorneys to show that the protesters believed they were facing a real, specific and immediate threat to themselves or others; had no reasonable alternative to the action they took; did not create greater danger than the danger they avoided; and did not contribute to or cause the threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The attorneys said the protesters had tried expressing their concern through less disruptive means, like calling their local representatives and participating in marches. At the time, as Israel was weighing whether to invade Rafah, a city along Gaza’s southern border where 1 million displaced Palestinians were seeking refuge, they believed the escalation was necessary to save lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When their words were ignored, they had to get louder. And when the invasion of Rafah was imminent, they had to get loudest of all,” defense attorney John Viola said. “They weren’t there to break the law; they were there to enforce the law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But ahead of closing arguments, Judge Teresa Caffese declined to give jurors special instructions to consider necessity in their deliberation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086300\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086300\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260604-GGBTRIALCLOSING-14-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260604-GGBTRIALCLOSING-14-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260604-GGBTRIALCLOSING-14-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260604-GGBTRIALCLOSING-14-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Violette Mansour, with Palestinian Youth Movement, speaks during a rally across from the San Francisco Superior Courthouse on June 4, 2026, to support the “Golden Gate 26” ahead of closing arguments in their trial. The defendants are accused of blocking traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge during a 2024 protest against the war in Gaza. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Still, attorneys told the jury that because their clients believed they were protected by the legal justification — which has been used in the past to fight charges against animal activists involved in “open rescues” of animals from factory farms — and therefore should not be found guilty of conspiracy, which requires willfully breaking the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The felony conspiracy carries the longest sentence and is one of the harshest filed against activists in comparable cases. Six of the protesters could face 14 years in prison. Cantor could face 15.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A reasonable doubt does not need to be substantial; it just needs to be reasonable, and if it exists, it means Ms. Tillotson and the rest are not guilty,” public defender Anthony Gedeon said during his closing statement on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Closing arguments in the case are expected to wrap up Friday, and the jury could decide on the case as soon as the afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Activists Defend Golden Gate Bridge Shutdown in Gaza War Protest Trial",
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"headTitle": "Activists Defend Golden Gate Bridge Shutdown in Gaza War Protest Trial | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Pro-Palestinian protesters who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12084403/golden-gate-bridge-protest-trial-opens-in-san-francisco\">halted traffic across the Golden Gate Bridge\u003c/a> in 2024 say they believed their actions were necessary to save lives amid Israel’s military strikes on Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Activists facing more than a decade in prison told a San Francisco court on Friday that they felt they had exhausted other options to oppose the U.S.’s involvement in the war.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believed that it was an emergency; we needed to act very quickly,” said Conrad de Jesus, one of the seven defendants charged in connection with an April 15, 2024, protest that shut down travel across the Golden Gate Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The defendants face felony conspiracy and several misdemeanors, including unlawful assembly, willful restriction of free movement and multiple counts of false imprisonment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>De Jesus’ testimony marked the first time he has spoken publicly about his involvement in the protest more than two years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office argues that the defendants’ actions “clearly” broke the law: they planned to block traffic and trapped commuters when they chained themselves to parked vehicles and each other across the southbound lanes of the bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12085595\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12085595\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00445_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00445_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00445_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00445_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The San Francisco Superior Courthouse in San Francisco on May 29, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The demonstration was part of a multi-city effort to disrupt local and global economies and put pressure on the U.S. government to halt support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Protesters \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982940/protesters-shut-down-880-freeway-in-oakland-as-part-of-economic-blockade-for-gaza\">shut down traffic on Interstate 880 in Oakland\u003c/a> and staged similar actions in San Diego, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Chicago and Tallahassee, Florida.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Witnesses who took the stand earlier this week said that they were stalled in traffic trying to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, they missed shifts at work and went hours without access to bathrooms and water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regina Schneider said she was taking U.S. Interstate 101 from Marin into San Francisco for a doctor’s appointment. Sitting in her car, she was anxious and short of breath, she said.[aside postID=news_12084628 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GlobalSumudFlotillaGetty-scaled.jpg']But attorneys for the protesters are trying to prove that their clients believed their actions were justified under a necessity defense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ll need to show that the activists believed they were facing a real, specific and imminent threat to themselves or others; had no reasonable alternative to the action they took; did not create a greater danger than the danger they avoided; and did not contribute to or cause the threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>De Jesus said that, at the time of the protest, he’d already been involved with pro-Palestinian activism and had “exhausted” other means of trying to get the attention of political forces, including attending marches and writing to his local U.S. representative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said at the time Israel was weighing whether to invade Rafah, a city along Gaza’s southern border where 1 million displaced Palestinians were seeking refuge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We knew there were talks in the Israeli government to attack Rafah, and we knew it was a good time to take action,” he said on the stand on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said he understands people’s anger and that the protest was inconvenient, but believed his actions were justified “because it was to prevent a greater evil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12085589\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12085589\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00210_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00210_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00210_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00210_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Manan Kocher, one of dozens of people who blocked the Golden Gate Bridge for a pro-Palestinian protest, poses for a portrait at the San Francisco Superior Courthouse in San Francisco on May 29, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I believed that, in doing so, we would be saving lives,” he testified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sara Cantor, who faces the steepest sentence of the protesters for her role as their “police liaison,” testified that she believed her actions “would save at least one life, for at least one day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she believed the coordinated day of action had the possibility to be more impactful than any individual protest, and that she saw herself as a “lightning rod” in the operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It felt important for me to try to keep people safe, and I knew as a white woman, I am typically treated with respect by the police,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prosecution focused much of its cross-examination of the protesters, trying to clarify the timeline of events that led up to the protest on April 15, angling to develop a record of conspiracy by the defendants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assistant District Attorney Angela Roze asked de Jesus about a call he’d gotten from a friend the day prior to the protest, telling him where to meet in the morning. She asked if de Jesus knew where he would be going and what the action was going to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He testified that he didn’t recall and said the first time he knew he was going to the Golden Gate Bridge was that day, at the meeting location.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cantor testified that protesters decided to target the bridge during a planning meeting in West Berkeley the night before the demonstration, attended by roughly 50 people, including all of the other defendants except de Jesus, where participants volunteered for specific roles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12085592\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12085592\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00301_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00301_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00301_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00301_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People wait at the San Francisco Superior Courthouse in San Francisco on May 29, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12011165/felony-charges-against-golden-gate-bridge-protesters-can-go-to-trial-judge-rules\">felony conspiracy\u003c/a> carries the longest sentence and is one of the harshest brought against activists involved in similar actions in the past. Six of the protesters could face 14 years in prison. Cantor could face 15.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters who shut down westbound travel on the Bay Bridge in November 2023 were charged with misdemeanors and reached a deal with the San Francisco DA’s office to avoid jail time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys asked a judge last year to downgrade the felonies to misdemeanors, arguing that the protesters had been overcharged and targeted for their political beliefs, but the judge allowed the charges to stand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charges against another 19 protesters, who rounded out the group that refers to itself as the “Golden Gate 26,” have been dropped or thrown out over the last year and a half. Sixteen defendants’ cases were dismissed after they agreed to a diversion program, which included paying restitution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Pro-Palestinian protesters charged in the 2024 Golden Gate Bridge shutdown testified in a San Francisco court that they believed blocking traffic was necessary to save lives during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Pro-Palestinian protesters who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12084403/golden-gate-bridge-protest-trial-opens-in-san-francisco\">halted traffic across the Golden Gate Bridge\u003c/a> in 2024 say they believed their actions were necessary to save lives amid Israel’s military strikes on Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Activists facing more than a decade in prison told a San Francisco court on Friday that they felt they had exhausted other options to oppose the U.S.’s involvement in the war.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believed that it was an emergency; we needed to act very quickly,” said Conrad de Jesus, one of the seven defendants charged in connection with an April 15, 2024, protest that shut down travel across the Golden Gate Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The defendants face felony conspiracy and several misdemeanors, including unlawful assembly, willful restriction of free movement and multiple counts of false imprisonment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>De Jesus’ testimony marked the first time he has spoken publicly about his involvement in the protest more than two years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office argues that the defendants’ actions “clearly” broke the law: they planned to block traffic and trapped commuters when they chained themselves to parked vehicles and each other across the southbound lanes of the bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12085595\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12085595\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00445_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00445_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00445_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00445_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The San Francisco Superior Courthouse in San Francisco on May 29, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The demonstration was part of a multi-city effort to disrupt local and global economies and put pressure on the U.S. government to halt support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Protesters \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982940/protesters-shut-down-880-freeway-in-oakland-as-part-of-economic-blockade-for-gaza\">shut down traffic on Interstate 880 in Oakland\u003c/a> and staged similar actions in San Diego, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Chicago and Tallahassee, Florida.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Witnesses who took the stand earlier this week said that they were stalled in traffic trying to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, they missed shifts at work and went hours without access to bathrooms and water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regina Schneider said she was taking U.S. Interstate 101 from Marin into San Francisco for a doctor’s appointment. Sitting in her car, she was anxious and short of breath, she said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But attorneys for the protesters are trying to prove that their clients believed their actions were justified under a necessity defense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ll need to show that the activists believed they were facing a real, specific and imminent threat to themselves or others; had no reasonable alternative to the action they took; did not create a greater danger than the danger they avoided; and did not contribute to or cause the threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>De Jesus said that, at the time of the protest, he’d already been involved with pro-Palestinian activism and had “exhausted” other means of trying to get the attention of political forces, including attending marches and writing to his local U.S. representative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said at the time Israel was weighing whether to invade Rafah, a city along Gaza’s southern border where 1 million displaced Palestinians were seeking refuge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We knew there were talks in the Israeli government to attack Rafah, and we knew it was a good time to take action,” he said on the stand on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said he understands people’s anger and that the protest was inconvenient, but believed his actions were justified “because it was to prevent a greater evil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12085589\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12085589\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00210_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00210_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00210_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00210_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Manan Kocher, one of dozens of people who blocked the Golden Gate Bridge for a pro-Palestinian protest, poses for a portrait at the San Francisco Superior Courthouse in San Francisco on May 29, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I believed that, in doing so, we would be saving lives,” he testified.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sara Cantor, who faces the steepest sentence of the protesters for her role as their “police liaison,” testified that she believed her actions “would save at least one life, for at least one day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she believed the coordinated day of action had the possibility to be more impactful than any individual protest, and that she saw herself as a “lightning rod” in the operation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It felt important for me to try to keep people safe, and I knew as a white woman, I am typically treated with respect by the police,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prosecution focused much of its cross-examination of the protesters, trying to clarify the timeline of events that led up to the protest on April 15, angling to develop a record of conspiracy by the defendants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assistant District Attorney Angela Roze asked de Jesus about a call he’d gotten from a friend the day prior to the protest, telling him where to meet in the morning. She asked if de Jesus knew where he would be going and what the action was going to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He testified that he didn’t recall and said the first time he knew he was going to the Golden Gate Bridge was that day, at the meeting location.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cantor testified that protesters decided to target the bridge during a planning meeting in West Berkeley the night before the demonstration, attended by roughly 50 people, including all of the other defendants except de Jesus, where participants volunteered for specific roles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12085592\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12085592\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00301_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00301_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00301_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260529-GGBTRIALTESTIMONY00301_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People wait at the San Francisco Superior Courthouse in San Francisco on May 29, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12011165/felony-charges-against-golden-gate-bridge-protesters-can-go-to-trial-judge-rules\">felony conspiracy\u003c/a> carries the longest sentence and is one of the harshest brought against activists involved in similar actions in the past. Six of the protesters could face 14 years in prison. Cantor could face 15.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters who shut down westbound travel on the Bay Bridge in November 2023 were charged with misdemeanors and reached a deal with the San Francisco DA’s office to avoid jail time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys asked a judge last year to downgrade the felonies to misdemeanors, arguing that the protesters had been overcharged and targeted for their political beliefs, but the judge allowed the charges to stand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charges against another 19 protesters, who rounded out the group that refers to itself as the “Golden Gate 26,” have been dropped or thrown out over the last year and a half. Sixteen defendants’ cases were dismissed after they agreed to a diversion program, which included paying restitution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Bay Area Residents Among the Hundreds Detained on Flotilla, Deported to Istanbul",
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"content": "\u003cp>Multiple \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a> residents detained by the Israeli military aboard an aid flotilla to Gaza have been deported to Istanbul, according to family members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least three North Bay residents and a San Francisco native who now resides in Arizona were among more than 400 people who were detained early this week in international waters, more than 100 miles from Gaza’s coastline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The detainees were part of a Global Sumud Flotilla that first departed from Barcelona on April 12, carrying humanitarian aid workers, food and supplies. Israeli forces intercepted about half of the original fleet of ships at the end of April, and those activists were taken to Greece.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, another 20 or so ships joined the fleet for the final leg of the journey in Turkey. But Israeli forces on Monday intercepted all of the remaining ships in international waters off Cyprus, according to the global flotilla.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The activists were deported Thursday morning amid international outrage after the office of Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir released \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/itamarbengvir/status/2057046925417824697\">video footage\u003c/a> on social media showing the far-right leader taunting detained activists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One video featured a woman who yelled “Free Palestine” being pushed to the ground as Ben-Gvir walked past, while another showed dozens of activists with their hands tied behind their backs and their faces pressed to the ground in what appears to be a makeshift detention space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080621\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12080621 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FLOTILLA-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FLOTILLA-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FLOTILLA-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FLOTILLA-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Shireen and other boats docked in Augusta, Sicily, on April 18, 2026, as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla. The mission included around 70 vessels and nearly 1,000 participants from 70 countries, making it significantly larger than a previous mission in September 2025, with 42 boats and 462 participants. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Chad Ashby)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the footage, Ben-Gvir said, “Welcome to Israel, we are the landlords,” while waving an Israeli flag. He also said he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “give them a long, long time, give them to us for the terrorist prisons.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Logan Hollarsmith, one of the flotilla participants, grew up in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Israelis kidnapped these people in international waters,” his mother, Sidney Hollar, told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least six of the more than a thousand flotilla participants had ties to California, and at least four with Bay Area connections — Hollarsmith, 34, and North Bay residents Kelly Riggle, Gregory Elias Terry and Silas Beaver, were among the most recent detainees.[aside postID=news_12080402 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041526_CHADASHBY_9485-KQED.jpg']“I’m calling on Secretary Rubio and the State Department to ensure their safety and fair treatment,” North Bay Rep. Jared Huffman said in a statement on Thursday. “The U.S. has an obligation to protect Americans abroad, and my team and I are working to safely get them home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Ben-Gvir’s treatment of the activists “betrayed dignity of his nation,” while globally, the prime ministers of Spain and Italy, along with the president of the European Council, condemned the behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Netanyahu also made a rare condemnation of Ben-Gvir’s behavior, releasing a statement that it was “not in line with Israel’s values and norms” and demanding that the participants be deported as soon as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollar said that the detainees were initially held in a makeshift detention area on a military cargo ship, before they were taken through the city of Ashdod, to the maximum security prison Ktzi’ot, where they were held briefly before being deported to Istanbul.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said that upon their arrival in Turkey, many detainees were taken to receive medical care via stretchers, and others appeared barely able to walk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was really, really disconcerting, the torture that these people experienced,” Hollar said. She added that she had spoken to Hollarsmith, who said he was not tortured.\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>Hollar said that while her son was detained in Ashdod, she and others tried calling the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem to ask for welfare checks on him, but were either hung up on or “cross-examined” when they mentioned the flotilla.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollar said she was told that the flotilla was a “terrorist organization connected with Hamas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The activists will likely remain in Turkey for a few days to receive medical care and meet with a legal team before flying home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While I’m super glad he’s coming home, the focus should remain on the need to stop the genocide,” Hollar told KQED. “That’s where the focus of everything should be, the point of what their mission was.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Multiple \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a> residents detained by the Israeli military aboard an aid flotilla to Gaza have been deported to Istanbul, according to family members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least three North Bay residents and a San Francisco native who now resides in Arizona were among more than 400 people who were detained early this week in international waters, more than 100 miles from Gaza’s coastline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The detainees were part of a Global Sumud Flotilla that first departed from Barcelona on April 12, carrying humanitarian aid workers, food and supplies. Israeli forces intercepted about half of the original fleet of ships at the end of April, and those activists were taken to Greece.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, another 20 or so ships joined the fleet for the final leg of the journey in Turkey. But Israeli forces on Monday intercepted all of the remaining ships in international waters off Cyprus, according to the global flotilla.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The activists were deported Thursday morning amid international outrage after the office of Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir released \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/itamarbengvir/status/2057046925417824697\">video footage\u003c/a> on social media showing the far-right leader taunting detained activists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One video featured a woman who yelled “Free Palestine” being pushed to the ground as Ben-Gvir walked past, while another showed dozens of activists with their hands tied behind their backs and their faces pressed to the ground in what appears to be a makeshift detention space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080621\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12080621 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FLOTILLA-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FLOTILLA-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FLOTILLA-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260420-GAZA-FLOTILLA-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Shireen and other boats docked in Augusta, Sicily, on April 18, 2026, as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla. The mission included around 70 vessels and nearly 1,000 participants from 70 countries, making it significantly larger than a previous mission in September 2025, with 42 boats and 462 participants. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Chad Ashby)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the footage, Ben-Gvir said, “Welcome to Israel, we are the landlords,” while waving an Israeli flag. He also said he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “give them a long, long time, give them to us for the terrorist prisons.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Logan Hollarsmith, one of the flotilla participants, grew up in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Israelis kidnapped these people in international waters,” his mother, Sidney Hollar, told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least six of the more than a thousand flotilla participants had ties to California, and at least four with Bay Area connections — Hollarsmith, 34, and North Bay residents Kelly Riggle, Gregory Elias Terry and Silas Beaver, were among the most recent detainees.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I’m calling on Secretary Rubio and the State Department to ensure their safety and fair treatment,” North Bay Rep. Jared Huffman said in a statement on Thursday. “The U.S. has an obligation to protect Americans abroad, and my team and I are working to safely get them home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Ben-Gvir’s treatment of the activists “betrayed dignity of his nation,” while globally, the prime ministers of Spain and Italy, along with the president of the European Council, condemned the behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Netanyahu also made a rare condemnation of Ben-Gvir’s behavior, releasing a statement that it was “not in line with Israel’s values and norms” and demanding that the participants be deported as soon as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollar said that the detainees were initially held in a makeshift detention area on a military cargo ship, before they were taken through the city of Ashdod, to the maximum security prison Ktzi’ot, where they were held briefly before being deported to Istanbul.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said that upon their arrival in Turkey, many detainees were taken to receive medical care via stretchers, and others appeared barely able to walk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was really, really disconcerting, the torture that these people experienced,” Hollar said. She added that she had spoken to Hollarsmith, who said he was not tortured.\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>Hollar said that while her son was detained in Ashdod, she and others tried calling the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem to ask for welfare checks on him, but were either hung up on or “cross-examined” when they mentioned the flotilla.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hollar said she was told that the flotilla was a “terrorist organization connected with Hamas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The activists will likely remain in Turkey for a few days to receive medical care and meet with a legal team before flying home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While I’m super glad he’s coming home, the focus should remain on the need to stop the genocide,” Hollar told KQED. “That’s where the focus of everything should be, the point of what their mission was.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The felony trial for seven pro-Palestinian protesters who blocked \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12011165/felony-charges-against-golden-gate-bridge-protesters-can-go-to-trial-judge-rules\">traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge\u003c/a> in 2024 opened in San Francisco on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The District Attorney’s office has alleged that the activists conspired to and restricted commuters’ freedom of movement, trapping them suspended over a body of water. If found guilty, they could each face 14- or 15-year prison sentences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for the activists said they plan to make the case that their clients believed their actions were necessary to save the lives of Palestinians amid Israel’s military strikes on Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorney Shaffy Moeel said her client, Bhavika Anandpura, felt it was “immediate, urgent [and] necessary” to join the protesters, who chained themselves to parked vehicles and each other across the southbound lanes of the bridge, shutting down traffic in both directions for about four hours in the early morning of April 15, 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She posted on social media, she called Congress, she wrote letters, she joined protests … but nothing changes. The bombings continued, hunger spread,” Moeel said during her opening statement. “By April, this does not feel theoretical anymore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She thought an economic boycott could create real economic consequences that people in power can’t ignore,” Moeel told the courtroom packed with supporters donning keffiyehs. Some of the attendees have also participated in protests calling on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11984203/pro-palestinian-protests-sweep-california-college-campuses-amid-israel-hamas-war\">local colleges to divest\u003c/a> from Israeli companies and weapons manufacturers and on the Port of Oakland to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12056544/bay-area-groups-call-for-end-of-military-shipments-to-israel-from-oakland-airport\">end military cargo shipping\u003c/a> through the city’s airport.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084463\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12084463 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260520-GGB-PROTEST-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260520-GGB-PROTEST-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260520-GGB-PROTEST-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260520-GGB-PROTEST-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">First responders on The Golden Gate 26 on April 15, 2024. A group of Bay Area residents was arrested during a protest against the U.S. role in the war in Gaza on Tax Day. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Saman Qadir)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The seven are part of a larger group that participated in a multi-city effort to disrupt local and global economies and put pressure on the U.S. government to halt support for Israel’s war in Gaza on Tax Day 2024. Demonstrators also \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982940/protesters-shut-down-880-freeway-in-oakland-as-part-of-economic-blockade-for-gaza\">shut down traffic on Interstate-880 in Oakland\u003c/a>, and staged similar protests in San Diego, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Chicago and Tallahassee, Florida. Demonstrations were also held internationally, across Mexico, Vietnam and Australia, among others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Months later, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins charged 26 Bay Area protesters, self-identified as the “Golden Gate 26,” in connection with the action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cases against 18 of the defendants, who faced misdemeanor charges, have been dropped since, and an eighth person who initially faced felony charges had their case thrown out by a judge in 2024 due to lack of evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the past, San Francisco has seen \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12081802/search-of-golden-gate-bridge-protesters-social-media-was-illegal-attorneys-argue\">Golden Gate Bridge protests\u003c/a> related to environmental justice and the handling of the AIDS crisis. More recently, dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters who shut down westbound travel on the Bay Bridge in November 2023 were charged with misdemeanors and reached a deal with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11970376/demonstrators-pack-the-court-to-support-activists-arrested-for-blocking-bay-bridge-last-month\">San Francisco DA’s office\u003c/a> to avoid jail time.[aside postID=news_12080402 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041526_CHADASHBY_9485-KQED.jpg']Compared to those, the charges against the remaining Golden Gate Bridge 26 defendants represent some of the harshest. Each is charged with felony conspiracy, along with a slew of misdemeanors, including unlawful assembly, willful restriction of free movement and multiple counts of false imprisonment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for the defendants asked a judge last year to downgrade the felonies to misdemeanors, arguing their clients had been overcharged and targeted for their political beliefs. But the judge declined, saying his decision was influenced in part by a significant restitution claim from the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bridge operators initially sought \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12063531/golden-gate-bridge-agency-drops-163k-restitution-claim-against-pro-palestinian-protesters\">more than $160,000 from the protesters\u003c/a> for lost toll revenue, though they reached a confidential deal last year and dropped their claim. Several individuals who were stuck on the bridge also filed restitution claims, mostly for the day’s lost wages. In a separate deal, 16 of the defendants, not including those facing felony charges, agreed to pay nine claimants a collective $5,300.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The protesters’ attorneys are not disputing that their clients blocked bridge travel, but plan to make the case that they felt their actions were necessary to stop a genocide in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To prove a \u003ca href=\"https://www.justia.com/criminal/defenses/necessity/\">necessity defense\u003c/a>, they’ll need to show that the protesters believed they were facing a real, specific and immediate threat to themselves or others; had no reasonable alternative to the action they took; did not create greater danger than the danger they avoided; and did not contribute to or cause the threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During opening statements, attorneys laid out each protester’s individual circumstances leading up to the action — from one who traveled to Palestine herself, to another who heard a trauma surgeon’s account of treating patients in Gaza, and multiple who said their clients had attended protests, sit-ins and called their representatives without response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011174\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011174\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/GGBridgeProtestAprilGetty2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/GGBridgeProtestAprilGetty2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/GGBridgeProtestAprilGetty2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/GGBridgeProtestAprilGetty2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/GGBridgeProtestAprilGetty2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/GGBridgeProtestAprilGetty2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/GGBridgeProtestAprilGetty2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge on April 15, 2024, completely halting traffic for hours as part of a coordinated day of action against Israel’s war in Gaza. \u003ccite>(Paul Kuroda / AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Attorney Nuha Abusamra said her client “believed this was the only way to get U.S. officials to stop sending arms to Israel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Assistant District Attorney Angela Roze cited significant inconveniences the action caused for those trying to travel across the Golden Gate Bridge that morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People missed doctors’ appointments, nurses were missing from their jobs, children were forced to defecate in bags, people had little to no water,” Roze said. “Because these seven individuals decided that their cause, their message, was more important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roze said it is against the law to block traffic, restrict others’ movement and make a plan to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The evidence is clear: these individuals broke the law,” Roze told the jury. “And while you may agree with their message, their cause, and it may be an important one, it does not justify breaking the law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that defendants paid Golden Gate Bridge operators $5,300 to settle a restitution claim. That total was paid to settle restitution claims from private individuals.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The felony trial for seven pro-Palestinian protesters who blocked \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12011165/felony-charges-against-golden-gate-bridge-protesters-can-go-to-trial-judge-rules\">traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge\u003c/a> in 2024 opened in San Francisco on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The District Attorney’s office has alleged that the activists conspired to and restricted commuters’ freedom of movement, trapping them suspended over a body of water. If found guilty, they could each face 14- or 15-year prison sentences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for the activists said they plan to make the case that their clients believed their actions were necessary to save the lives of Palestinians amid Israel’s military strikes on Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorney Shaffy Moeel said her client, Bhavika Anandpura, felt it was “immediate, urgent [and] necessary” to join the protesters, who chained themselves to parked vehicles and each other across the southbound lanes of the bridge, shutting down traffic in both directions for about four hours in the early morning of April 15, 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She posted on social media, she called Congress, she wrote letters, she joined protests … but nothing changes. The bombings continued, hunger spread,” Moeel said during her opening statement. “By April, this does not feel theoretical anymore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She thought an economic boycott could create real economic consequences that people in power can’t ignore,” Moeel told the courtroom packed with supporters donning keffiyehs. Some of the attendees have also participated in protests calling on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11984203/pro-palestinian-protests-sweep-california-college-campuses-amid-israel-hamas-war\">local colleges to divest\u003c/a> from Israeli companies and weapons manufacturers and on the Port of Oakland to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12056544/bay-area-groups-call-for-end-of-military-shipments-to-israel-from-oakland-airport\">end military cargo shipping\u003c/a> through the city’s airport.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084463\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12084463 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260520-GGB-PROTEST-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260520-GGB-PROTEST-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260520-GGB-PROTEST-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260520-GGB-PROTEST-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">First responders on The Golden Gate 26 on April 15, 2024. A group of Bay Area residents was arrested during a protest against the U.S. role in the war in Gaza on Tax Day. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Saman Qadir)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The seven are part of a larger group that participated in a multi-city effort to disrupt local and global economies and put pressure on the U.S. government to halt support for Israel’s war in Gaza on Tax Day 2024. Demonstrators also \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982940/protesters-shut-down-880-freeway-in-oakland-as-part-of-economic-blockade-for-gaza\">shut down traffic on Interstate-880 in Oakland\u003c/a>, and staged similar protests in San Diego, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Chicago and Tallahassee, Florida. Demonstrations were also held internationally, across Mexico, Vietnam and Australia, among others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Months later, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins charged 26 Bay Area protesters, self-identified as the “Golden Gate 26,” in connection with the action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cases against 18 of the defendants, who faced misdemeanor charges, have been dropped since, and an eighth person who initially faced felony charges had their case thrown out by a judge in 2024 due to lack of evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the past, San Francisco has seen \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12081802/search-of-golden-gate-bridge-protesters-social-media-was-illegal-attorneys-argue\">Golden Gate Bridge protests\u003c/a> related to environmental justice and the handling of the AIDS crisis. More recently, dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters who shut down westbound travel on the Bay Bridge in November 2023 were charged with misdemeanors and reached a deal with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11970376/demonstrators-pack-the-court-to-support-activists-arrested-for-blocking-bay-bridge-last-month\">San Francisco DA’s office\u003c/a> to avoid jail time.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Compared to those, the charges against the remaining Golden Gate Bridge 26 defendants represent some of the harshest. Each is charged with felony conspiracy, along with a slew of misdemeanors, including unlawful assembly, willful restriction of free movement and multiple counts of false imprisonment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for the defendants asked a judge last year to downgrade the felonies to misdemeanors, arguing their clients had been overcharged and targeted for their political beliefs. But the judge declined, saying his decision was influenced in part by a significant restitution claim from the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bridge operators initially sought \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12063531/golden-gate-bridge-agency-drops-163k-restitution-claim-against-pro-palestinian-protesters\">more than $160,000 from the protesters\u003c/a> for lost toll revenue, though they reached a confidential deal last year and dropped their claim. Several individuals who were stuck on the bridge also filed restitution claims, mostly for the day’s lost wages. In a separate deal, 16 of the defendants, not including those facing felony charges, agreed to pay nine claimants a collective $5,300.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The protesters’ attorneys are not disputing that their clients blocked bridge travel, but plan to make the case that they felt their actions were necessary to stop a genocide in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To prove a \u003ca href=\"https://www.justia.com/criminal/defenses/necessity/\">necessity defense\u003c/a>, they’ll need to show that the protesters believed they were facing a real, specific and immediate threat to themselves or others; had no reasonable alternative to the action they took; did not create greater danger than the danger they avoided; and did not contribute to or cause the threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During opening statements, attorneys laid out each protester’s individual circumstances leading up to the action — from one who traveled to Palestine herself, to another who heard a trauma surgeon’s account of treating patients in Gaza, and multiple who said their clients had attended protests, sit-ins and called their representatives without response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12011174\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12011174\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/GGBridgeProtestAprilGetty2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/GGBridgeProtestAprilGetty2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/GGBridgeProtestAprilGetty2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/GGBridgeProtestAprilGetty2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/GGBridgeProtestAprilGetty2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/GGBridgeProtestAprilGetty2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/GGBridgeProtestAprilGetty2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge on April 15, 2024, completely halting traffic for hours as part of a coordinated day of action against Israel’s war in Gaza. \u003ccite>(Paul Kuroda / AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Attorney Nuha Abusamra said her client “believed this was the only way to get U.S. officials to stop sending arms to Israel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Assistant District Attorney Angela Roze cited significant inconveniences the action caused for those trying to travel across the Golden Gate Bridge that morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People missed doctors’ appointments, nurses were missing from their jobs, children were forced to defecate in bags, people had little to no water,” Roze said. “Because these seven individuals decided that their cause, their message, was more important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roze said it is against the law to block traffic, restrict others’ movement and make a plan to do so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The evidence is clear: these individuals broke the law,” Roze told the jury. “And while you may agree with their message, their cause, and it may be an important one, it does not justify breaking the law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that defendants paid Golden Gate Bridge operators $5,300 to settle a restitution claim. That total was paid to settle restitution claims from private individuals.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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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>\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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"slug": "these-californians-are-setting-sail-for-gaza-to-show-theyre-anything-but-powerless",
"title": "These Californians Are Setting Sail for Gaza to Show They’re Anything but Powerless",
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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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"content": "\u003cp>A judge has declared a mistrial in the case of five pro-Palestinian protesters arrested for breaking into and vandalizing the Stanford University president’s office. The news on Friday came after more than a week of jury deliberation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Hanley Chew said the jury was “hopelessly deadlocked” on both charges, felony conspiracy to trespass and felony vandalism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The jury favored conviction by a count of 8-4 for the conspiracy charge and 9-3 for the vandalism charge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jurors affirmed to Chew on Friday that more time to deliberate on the counts would not make a difference in the outcome, after which he declared the mistrial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A mistrial ends the case against the five current and former Stanford students, but Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen has the right to retry the case, which he said Friday he would do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12065944\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12065944\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251203-VALLEYFAIRCHARGE-JG-3_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251203-VALLEYFAIRCHARGE-JG-3_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251203-VALLEYFAIRCHARGE-JG-3_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251203-VALLEYFAIRCHARGE-JG-3_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen (center) addresses the media outside the county’s Juvenile Center in San José on Dec. 3, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This case is about a group of people who destroyed someone else’s property and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. That is against the law, and that is why we will retry the case,” Rosen said in an emailed statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deputy Public Defender Avi Singh, one of the defense attorneys in the case, said he is grateful for the jury’s time and attention, even if a verdict wasn’t reached.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our position is that the proof was insufficient. We had a jury really wrestle with the arguments that were presented, and we are appreciative of everyday people who sacrificed so much in order to make due process real,” Singh said Friday afternoon.[aside postID=news_12066592 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-9_qed.jpg']The trial \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069585/felony-trial-begins-for-stanford-pro-palestinian-protesters\">began on Jan. 9\u003c/a>, and closing arguments wrapped on Jan. 30. Jury deliberations began on Feb. 2. During deliberation, jurors sent notes to Chew to let him know they were having trouble reaching consensus on the first count, asking for guidance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chew encouraged them to continue deliberating and reach a verdict if they could. The jury also took a day off during the first week. The case stems from the actions by a group of what were originally 12 protesters, who were arrested on June 5, 2024, after they barricaded themselves inside the president’s office at Stanford in the early morning hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group refused to come out in their effort to get Stanford leaders to “address their role in enabling and profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” the group said on social media at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their 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. The group was charged with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035346/santa-clara-da-charges-12-pro-palestinian-protesters-took-over-stanford-university-presidents-office\">two felonies in April 2025\u003c/a>, when Rosen said the group crossed a “clear and bright line” in their political protest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035380\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035380\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/StanfordGaza1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/StanfordGaza1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/StanfordGaza1-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/StanfordGaza1-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/StanfordGaza1-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/StanfordGaza1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/StanfordGaza1-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen presented a do-it-yourself guide, saying it closely matches what the students brought with them and how they broke in, suggesting they did some research beforehand. \u003ccite>(Gilare Zada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Dissent is American, vandalism is criminal,” Rosen said at the time. His office later secured a grand jury indictment against the group for the two felonies, superseding the initial charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Five defendants chose to go to trial: Hunter Taylor-Black, Maya Burke, Germán González, Taylor McCann and Amy Zhai.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six of the other protesters who were initially charged in the case entered into mental health diversion programs or said late last year they planned to take a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12064351/stanford-protesters-negotiating-plea-deals-as-trial-begins\">court-offered deal\u003c/a> 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 the grand jury indictment and is now enrolled in a youth deferred entry of judgment program, which also offers a path to dismissal, under court-supervised requirements.[aside postID=news_12073176 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/260211-OAKLAND-FEDERAL-COURTHOUSE-MD-01-KQED.jpg']Defense attorneys focused their case on the motivations of the protesters, who they said were acting out of a humanitarian concern during what they view as an ongoing genocide, and fear that doing nothing would lead to more suffering in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anthony Brass, one of the attorneys, said the actions came only after Stanford leaders ignored months of demands for discussion about divestment from companies supporting Israel’s military.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school put the students in an “impossible situation,” he said during opening statements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutor Rob Baker told the jury that the case was simple, and said protesters planned and prepared for their action, including bringing equipment and tools to block doors and cover cameras. He said they caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker, in his closing arguments, told the jury that their verdict “does not mean that you are supporting genocide” or that they don’t support Palestinians, and he said he believed the defendants were good people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh said Friday he hopes the DA’s office takes another look at the motivations of the protesters in its decision to retry the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12069662\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12069662\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A group of supporters gathered for a rally outside the Hall of Justice in San José on Nov. 17, 2025, after a court hearing for a group of pro-Palestinian protesters indicted for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There was no question or dispute that these people were motivated by a deep commitment to human rights. And the district attorney’s office should consider that as they weigh whether the interests of justice support bringing a new case,” Singh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/21/us/campus-protests-arrests.html\">thousands\u003c/a> of protesters were arrested at college campuses across the country for protest-related activity over the Gaza war in 2024, few of the cases saw felony charges filed, and many of the lesser charges were eventually dropped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for the defendants and their supporters accused the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office of seeking overly harsh punishment to chill political protests and speech related to the plight of Palestinians, which the DA’s office refuted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case also saw heated \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12066592/arguments-over-genocide-dominate-stanford-protester-trial-hearing\">pretrial motions\u003c/a> over whether and how often the word “genocide” could be used during the trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A hearing to set a date for a new trial is scheduled for Feb. 25.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A judge has declared a mistrial in the case of five pro-Palestinian protesters arrested for breaking into and vandalizing the Stanford University president’s office. The news on Friday came after more than a week of jury deliberation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Hanley Chew said the jury was “hopelessly deadlocked” on both charges, felony conspiracy to trespass and felony vandalism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The jury favored conviction by a count of 8-4 for the conspiracy charge and 9-3 for the vandalism charge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jurors affirmed to Chew on Friday that more time to deliberate on the counts would not make a difference in the outcome, after which he declared the mistrial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A mistrial ends the case against the five current and former Stanford students, but Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen has the right to retry the case, which he said Friday he would do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12065944\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12065944\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251203-VALLEYFAIRCHARGE-JG-3_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251203-VALLEYFAIRCHARGE-JG-3_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251203-VALLEYFAIRCHARGE-JG-3_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251203-VALLEYFAIRCHARGE-JG-3_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen (center) addresses the media outside the county’s Juvenile Center in San José on Dec. 3, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This case is about a group of people who destroyed someone else’s property and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. That is against the law, and that is why we will retry the case,” Rosen said in an emailed statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deputy Public Defender Avi Singh, one of the defense attorneys in the case, said he is grateful for the jury’s time and attention, even if a verdict wasn’t reached.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our position is that the proof was insufficient. We had a jury really wrestle with the arguments that were presented, and we are appreciative of everyday people who sacrificed so much in order to make due process real,” Singh said Friday afternoon.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The trial \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069585/felony-trial-begins-for-stanford-pro-palestinian-protesters\">began on Jan. 9\u003c/a>, and closing arguments wrapped on Jan. 30. Jury deliberations began on Feb. 2. During deliberation, jurors sent notes to Chew to let him know they were having trouble reaching consensus on the first count, asking for guidance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chew encouraged them to continue deliberating and reach a verdict if they could. The jury also took a day off during the first week. The case stems from the actions by a group of what were originally 12 protesters, who were arrested on June 5, 2024, after they barricaded themselves inside the president’s office at Stanford in the early morning hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group refused to come out in their effort to get Stanford leaders to “address their role in enabling and profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” the group said on social media at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their 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. The group was charged with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035346/santa-clara-da-charges-12-pro-palestinian-protesters-took-over-stanford-university-presidents-office\">two felonies in April 2025\u003c/a>, when Rosen said the group crossed a “clear and bright line” in their political protest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035380\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035380\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/StanfordGaza1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/StanfordGaza1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/StanfordGaza1-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/StanfordGaza1-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/StanfordGaza1-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/StanfordGaza1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/StanfordGaza1-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen presented a do-it-yourself guide, saying it closely matches what the students brought with them and how they broke in, suggesting they did some research beforehand. \u003ccite>(Gilare Zada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Dissent is American, vandalism is criminal,” Rosen said at the time. His office later secured a grand jury indictment against the group for the two felonies, superseding the initial charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Five defendants chose to go to trial: Hunter Taylor-Black, Maya Burke, Germán González, Taylor McCann and Amy Zhai.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six of the other protesters who were initially charged in the case entered into mental health diversion programs or said late last year they planned to take a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12064351/stanford-protesters-negotiating-plea-deals-as-trial-begins\">court-offered deal\u003c/a> 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 the grand jury indictment and is now enrolled in a youth deferred entry of judgment program, which also offers a path to dismissal, under court-supervised requirements.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Defense attorneys focused their case on the motivations of the protesters, who they said were acting out of a humanitarian concern during what they view as an ongoing genocide, and fear that doing nothing would lead to more suffering in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anthony Brass, one of the attorneys, said the actions came only after Stanford leaders ignored months of demands for discussion about divestment from companies supporting Israel’s military.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school put the students in an “impossible situation,” he said during opening statements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutor Rob Baker told the jury that the case was simple, and said protesters planned and prepared for their action, including bringing equipment and tools to block doors and cover cameras. He said they caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker, in his closing arguments, told the jury that their verdict “does not mean that you are supporting genocide” or that they don’t support Palestinians, and he said he believed the defendants were good people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Singh said Friday he hopes the DA’s office takes another look at the motivations of the protesters in its decision to retry the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12069662\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12069662\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A group of supporters gathered for a rally outside the Hall of Justice in San José on Nov. 17, 2025, after a court hearing for a group of pro-Palestinian protesters indicted for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There was no question or dispute that these people were motivated by a deep commitment to human rights. And the district attorney’s office should consider that as they weigh whether the interests of justice support bringing a new case,” Singh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/21/us/campus-protests-arrests.html\">thousands\u003c/a> of protesters were arrested at college campuses across the country for protest-related activity over the Gaza war in 2024, few of the cases saw felony charges filed, and many of the lesser charges were eventually dropped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for the defendants and their supporters accused the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office of seeking overly harsh punishment to chill political protests and speech related to the plight of Palestinians, which the DA’s office refuted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case also saw heated \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12066592/arguments-over-genocide-dominate-stanford-protester-trial-hearing\">pretrial motions\u003c/a> over whether and how often the word “genocide” could be used during the trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A hearing to set a date for a new trial is scheduled for Feb. 25.\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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"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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"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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"title": "Arguments Over Genocide Dominate Stanford Protester Trial Hearing",
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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>\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>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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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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"tagline": "The flip side of gentrification, told through one town",
"info": "Gentrification is changing cities across America, forcing people from neighborhoods they have long called home. Call them the displaced. Now those priced out of the Bay Area are looking for a better life in an unlikely place. American Suburb follows this migration to one California town along the Delta, 45 miles from San Francisco. But is this once sleepy suburb ready for them?",
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},
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"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
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},
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"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
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"order": 8
},
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},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"order": 1
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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}
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"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"hidden-brain": {
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
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"source": "NPR"
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"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"jerrybrown": {
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"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"order": 18
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},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
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},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
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"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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