‘Do not engage’: As violence erupts elsewhere, Bay Area campuses keep a fragile peace
Caelyn Pender, Sierra Lopez and Julia Prodis Sulek - The Mercury News (TNS)
When a pro-Palestine protester snatched an Israeli flag from a counter-protester on the steps of UC Berkeley’s Sproul Hall this week, it seemed as if it could go the way of violent clashes in universities in Southern California.
But the ensuing scuffle quickly de-escalated, and a relative calm returned to campus Thursday.
At Stanford, when students turned up waving U.S. and Israeli flags, pro-Palestine protesters encamped at White Plaza kept the commitment they had pledged to each other: They will not be provoked.
They are “trying to get a response and a reaction out of us, but we don’t want that,” Emily Williams, a third-year Stanford student and pro-Palestine activist, said Thursday. “So we just ignore them.”
So far, with a combination of relative discipline among protesters, police-as-a-last-resort campus policies and a more progressive Bay Area political culture, the Bay Area’s biggest universities — from Berkeley and Stanford to San Jose State and the University of San Francisco — have largely managed to avoid the kinds of bloody skirmishes and riot police that have made headlines at campuses across the country.
But whether the uneasy peace will last remains uncertain.
“It’s a fragile situation,” said Dan Mogulof, vice-chancellor for public affairs at UC Berkeley, the cradle of protest movements dating back to the 1960s. “The actions of a single individual can lead to really severe consequences because it begins a chain reaction. So we’re not taking anything for granted. We’re not patting ourselves on our backs. But we do have institutional experience.”
UCLA administrators in Southern California had thought they balanced First Amendment rights with safety on campus, but that quickly changed Wednesday night when a bloody melee with fistfights and chemical sprays broke out, lasting for hours before police intervened. At the University of Southern California, 93 people — including 51 students — were arrested last week following reports of vandalism.
The tensions across California follow dramatic scenes at Columbia University, where 217 were arrested and the encampment was removed by police, and scores of other universities where pro-Palestinian students are protesting the Israeli war in Gaza. Some 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in counter-strikes after Hamas militants attacked Israelis on Oct. 7.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden called for calm. “Order must prevail,” he said. “There’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos.”
At Berkeley, Stanford and USF, pro-Gaza protesters said Thursday that while conflict makes headlines, they want the focus to be on their cause, not their scuffles, so they are doing their best to keep the peace and voice their demands for administrators to divest from companies doing business with Israel. San Jose State students have sponsored several pro-Palestine protests but have not set up tents.
At Stanford, protesters at the pro-Palestine encampment erected a large white board with a list of “community norms” they are expected to follow, including this: “Do NOT ENGAGE with counter protestors!”
It’s been a lesson in restraint, Williams said, as they feel goaded by counter protesters waving Israeli flags and one pro-Israeli student in particular who parked himself in the middle of their encampment one afternoon.
“We can’t physically pick him up and boot him out, so we’re just going to leave him,” Williams said. “The main target here is the administration, because they’re the ones that have the endowment, that have access to the investment holdings. We don’t want to be deterred by these individual actors who are trying to agitate us on purpose.”
Stanford officials sent a campus-wide email and handed out fliers warning protesters that they are in continued violation of the university’s rules against overnight encampments, and the Office of Community Standards has initiated disciplinary proceedings against several students.
“We welcome the peaceful expression of diverse viewpoints at Stanford,” university President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez wrote in an email to students last week. However, “while we understand their perspectives on an important global issue, violations of university policy will not be overlooked.”
To avoid being identified and sanctioned, some protesters are wearing masks.
At USF, a private, Catholic university, pro-Palestine protesters have set up more than 50 tents on Welch Field since Monday and intend to stay through graduation later this month. The university set up portable toilets for the protesters, an effort that was not welcomed by protester Susu Steyteyieh, who said that it suggests the university plans to wait them out rather than take their cause seriously.
“We don’t want porta potties,” she said. “We want our demands met!”
At Berkeley, where an estimated 150 tents are set up after 11 days of occupying the steps of Sproul Hall, doctorate student Yazen Kashlan said Thursday his fellow protesters had tried to avoid the kind of conflict over the Israeli flag that erupted Wednesday. His fellow activists had formed a human chain to try to keep the two sides apart, “but still the person managed to grab the Israeli flag,” he said.
“We realized what might tip the scale and invoke the law enforcement to ensure order,” Kashlan said, “so we’re working on just keeping things civil and nonviolent.”
It helps that Berkeley is a longtime liberal city where passersby mostly tend to be sympathetic to their cause. It’s also encouraging, he said, that university officials have been meeting with protesters.
“That’s evolving slowly, but they’re listening,” Kashlan said.
Mogulof said two campus committees in particular are playing roles in keeping the peace, including the longstanding Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Jewish student life and the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Muslim and Palestinian students.
“We have faculty with relationships and connections to a wide variety of student groups who have been doing really important work behind the scenes to keep communication channels open,” the vice chancellor said.
At the same time, he said, officials are making it clear that “we will respond to violence.”
Any decision to send in police would not be made lightly.
“You can go and you can affect arrests. You can use law enforcement. But what happens the next day?” he asked. “Are the protesters likely to simply say, ‘Oh, sorry, we’re done?’ Or could you wind up in a situation like Columbia where the protests tripled in size?”
是。这里的基本“价值观”还是那个两个半世纪前的“Life, liberty and the pursuit-----
of happiness”。只是，“境内”有法律与社会文化规范，把这个权利“送给”其他人，尤其是中东这个历史大阴影区域内的人，不是一个简单的“喊口号”问题。孩子们的“天真”是好事情，人类的“善意”源泉，只是从意愿到结果的过程是他们一生要体验的过程。以前可能说过，Berkeley 城有“抗议基因”。笑话是路人见到抗议游行的队伍，会先加入队伍，然后再问“What is the protest for?”。胜过磕头文化不知多少，^_^。古纸兄周日开心。
他们有的并不仅仅是对弱者的“同理心”，还有对在美国能保证有言论自由，人权，社会公正的诉求。你不知道吗？现在在美国已经没有言论自由了，凡是批评以色列或犹太人的都是antisemitic, 轻着丢工作，重着被抓起来关监狱。这些话我在这里可能还能说，在英文网站上会被删掉或根本就发不出去。不信你可以试试：把下面这句话copy and paste 到YouTube 上任何一个 video下，然后refresh一下，看看是不是还在。
There are many rich Jewish people in Power in America. Their influence on America is overwhelming. They can forbid free speech; fire presidents of universities; arrest students who protesting the brutal war in Gaza……They may fire the president of America too. They define what "antisemitic" is and who is "antisemitic". They control America.
美国校园在系统性的教育孩子们要有同理心，要拥抱博爱文化。
这种系统教育出来的孩子，看到巴勒斯坦区域的孩子们的死亡，如果不用同理心去显示关爱，只能说送孩子们去美国校园受教育的爸妈都白花那个昂贵的教育费了。
校园的孩子们表达自己对巴勒斯坦孩子们的同理心没有问题。
可是，巴勒斯坦是处在“中东”地区。那里，“同理心”可以被看做“软弱可欺”。“你软弱可欺？好吧，是把你灭了的好机会。”
如果以色列不把在2023年10月7日被屠杀时的“凶犯”哈马斯惩罚至“胆寒”的程度，哈马斯日后每五年前进以色列“再屠杀”的可能就会被大大促进。不是说以色列“伤及无辜”是好事----那是非常可悲的不该发生的事情---可战争中死难许多“无辜”是战争的历史常态。比如，二战中的诺曼底登陆，两万名法国平民在联军的轰炸中死亡，而他们，绝大多数是痛恨希特勒而欢迎盟军登陆的。
战争发生，平民会遭殃。这些，所有的巴勒斯坦居民在哈马斯于2023年10月7日“屠以”时应该明白。战争不是以色列发动的。
校园内同情巴勒斯坦人此刻遭遇的孩子们有同理心拥抱博爱没错，但是，这个同理心与博爱被“平推”至中东与以色列属简单粗暴，是对中东问题的一种“帝国主义心态”，无知。
孩子们在校园表达个人观点没问题，教育呢，就是从无知走向有知的一个过程，只要不暴力的把自己的无知强加给校园内的所有人就是了。
这有一篇湾区学校学生抗议情况的报导：
‘Do not engage’: As violence erupts elsewhere, Bay Area campuses keep a fragile peace | National | hastingstribune.com
把文章转贴在这儿：
‘Do not engage’: As violence erupts elsewhere, Bay Area campuses keep a fragile peace
Caelyn Pender, Sierra Lopez and Julia Prodis Sulek - The Mercury News (TNS)
When a pro-Palestine protester snatched an Israeli flag from a counter-protester on the steps of UC Berkeley’s Sproul Hall this week, it seemed as if it could go the way of violent clashes in universities in Southern California.
But the ensuing scuffle quickly de-escalated, and a relative calm returned to campus Thursday.
At Stanford, when students turned up waving U.S. and Israeli flags, pro-Palestine protesters encamped at White Plaza kept the commitment they had pledged to each other: They will not be provoked.
They are “trying to get a response and a reaction out of us, but we don’t want that,” Emily Williams, a third-year Stanford student and pro-Palestine activist, said Thursday. “So we just ignore them.”
So far, with a combination of relative discipline among protesters, police-as-a-last-resort campus policies and a more progressive Bay Area political culture, the Bay Area’s biggest universities — from Berkeley and Stanford to San Jose State and the University of San Francisco — have largely managed to avoid the kinds of bloody skirmishes and riot police that have made headlines at campuses across the country.
But whether the uneasy peace will last remains uncertain.
“It’s a fragile situation,” said Dan Mogulof, vice-chancellor for public affairs at UC Berkeley, the cradle of protest movements dating back to the 1960s. “The actions of a single individual can lead to really severe consequences because it begins a chain reaction. So we’re not taking anything for granted. We’re not patting ourselves on our backs. But we do have institutional experience.”
UCLA administrators in Southern California had thought they balanced First Amendment rights with safety on campus, but that quickly changed Wednesday night when a bloody melee with fistfights and chemical sprays broke out, lasting for hours before police intervened. At the University of Southern California, 93 people — including 51 students — were arrested last week following reports of vandalism.
The tensions across California follow dramatic scenes at Columbia University, where 217 were arrested and the encampment was removed by police, and scores of other universities where pro-Palestinian students are protesting the Israeli war in Gaza. Some 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in counter-strikes after Hamas militants attacked Israelis on Oct. 7.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden called for calm. “Order must prevail,” he said. “There’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos.”
At Berkeley, Stanford and USF, pro-Gaza protesters said Thursday that while conflict makes headlines, they want the focus to be on their cause, not their scuffles, so they are doing their best to keep the peace and voice their demands for administrators to divest from companies doing business with Israel. San Jose State students have sponsored several pro-Palestine protests but have not set up tents.
At Stanford, protesters at the pro-Palestine encampment erected a large white board with a list of “community norms” they are expected to follow, including this: “Do NOT ENGAGE with counter protestors!”
It’s been a lesson in restraint, Williams said, as they feel goaded by counter protesters waving Israeli flags and one pro-Israeli student in particular who parked himself in the middle of their encampment one afternoon.
“We can’t physically pick him up and boot him out, so we’re just going to leave him,” Williams said. “The main target here is the administration, because they’re the ones that have the endowment, that have access to the investment holdings. We don’t want to be deterred by these individual actors who are trying to agitate us on purpose.”
Stanford officials sent a campus-wide email and handed out fliers warning protesters that they are in continued violation of the university’s rules against overnight encampments, and the Office of Community Standards has initiated disciplinary proceedings against several students.
“We welcome the peaceful expression of diverse viewpoints at Stanford,” university President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez wrote in an email to students last week. However, “while we understand their perspectives on an important global issue, violations of university policy will not be overlooked.”
To avoid being identified and sanctioned, some protesters are wearing masks.
At USF, a private, Catholic university, pro-Palestine protesters have set up more than 50 tents on Welch Field since Monday and intend to stay through graduation later this month. The university set up portable toilets for the protesters, an effort that was not welcomed by protester Susu Steyteyieh, who said that it suggests the university plans to wait them out rather than take their cause seriously.
“We don’t want porta potties,” she said. “We want our demands met!”
At Berkeley, where an estimated 150 tents are set up after 11 days of occupying the steps of Sproul Hall, doctorate student Yazen Kashlan said Thursday his fellow protesters had tried to avoid the kind of conflict over the Israeli flag that erupted Wednesday. His fellow activists had formed a human chain to try to keep the two sides apart, “but still the person managed to grab the Israeli flag,” he said.
“We realized what might tip the scale and invoke the law enforcement to ensure order,” Kashlan said, “so we’re working on just keeping things civil and nonviolent.”
It helps that Berkeley is a longtime liberal city where passersby mostly tend to be sympathetic to their cause. It’s also encouraging, he said, that university officials have been meeting with protesters.
“That’s evolving slowly, but they’re listening,” Kashlan said.
Mogulof said two campus committees in particular are playing roles in keeping the peace, including the longstanding Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Jewish student life and the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Muslim and Palestinian students.
“We have faculty with relationships and connections to a wide variety of student groups who have been doing really important work behind the scenes to keep communication channels open,” the vice chancellor said.
At the same time, he said, officials are making it clear that “we will respond to violence.”
Any decision to send in police would not be made lightly.
“You can go and you can affect arrests. You can use law enforcement. But what happens the next day?” he asked. “Are the protesters likely to simply say, ‘Oh, sorry, we’re done?’ Or could you wind up in a situation like Columbia where the protests tripled in size?”
自身和自身群体利益去认识感受思考人类世界。在这一点上西方孩子和里海党仇恨教育出来的墙内外各种群体截然不同。
这也是西方文化和酱缸文化之间的一个根本差别。以前说起过，酱缸文化不含人文主义。看最近中文网络上各“派别”围绕中东问题及其在西方各国影响的各种言论，再次给人感觉低端5毛群体的认知思维体现了酱缸文化的“中值” :-)
学生抗议运动这里自然也有。不过“violence”度不比通常抗议运动高 :-)
谢传人兄介绍。周六开心
of happiness”。只是，“境内”有法律与社会文化规范，把这个权利“送给”其他人，尤其是中东这个历史大阴影区域内的人，不是一个简单的“喊口号”问题。孩子们的“天真”是好事情，人类的“善意”源泉，只是从意愿到结果的过程是他们一生要体验的过程。以前可能说过，Berkeley 城有“抗议基因”。笑话是路人见到抗议游行的队伍，会先加入队伍，然后再问“What is the protest for?”。胜过磕头文化不知多少，^_^。古纸兄周日开心。
哈，你叫错pronoun都要被批斗。他们的破爱是悲天悯人式的，用来确认自己的优越感。你一旦要求平等的博爱，他们立刻就跳脚了。
和“红卫兵”的性质南辕北辙。“红卫兵”是拿着皇上的令箭在土匪，而这些学生至此被警察抓捕者以千计。是不是？新的一周开心。
他们有的并不仅仅是对弱者的“同理心”，还有对在美国能保证有言论自由，人权，社会公正的诉求。你不知道吗？现在在美国已经没有言论自由了，凡是批评以色列或犹太人的都是antisemitic, 轻着丢工作，重着被抓起来关监狱。这些话我在这里可能还能说，在英文网站上会被删掉或根本就发不出去。不信你可以试试：把下面这句话copy and paste 到YouTube 上任何一个 video下，然后refresh一下，看看是不是还在。
There are many rich Jewish people in Power in America. Their influence on America is overwhelming. They can forbid free speech; fire presidents of universities; arrest students who protesting the brutal war in Gaza……They may fire the president of America too. They define what "antisemitic" is and who is "antisemitic". They control America.
这不可怕吗？
AIPAC - Wikipedia
众议院已经通过了法律条文：在美国不得有“仇视”以色列或犹太人的言论。什么是“仇视”？怎么界定？谁来定义？怎么处罚？
说好的“言论自由”呢？
人生经验不足，所以最容易被ideology煽动。当年的红卫兵和今天的美国挺哈学生运动这一点都一样。今天美国的学生运动很大成分也是被民主党极左派煽动起来的。
他们这一边？所以你也赞成学生在叫嚣we are the hamas，也赞成他们把一个犹太女学生打晕，也赞成攻击大学犹太学生和教授？？？？