[News] Thursday, April 6 - 10am - Jerusalem Mayor/Ethnic Cleanser Returns - Get Nir Barakat Out of SFSU

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Dear Comrades,

Below is a call to action regarding mayor Nir Barakat's return to SF 
State. We call upon our community and allies to register for the event, 
show up in protest outside the building and/or inside to show support 
for Palestinian communities and to challenge the rhetoric of this ethnic 
cleanser. This could include flyering, holding posters in non-disruptive 
protest, or otherwise. This event has just been made public, hence the 
late notice. Here is the event link 
<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sf-state-speaking-engagement-with-mayor-nir-barkat-tickets-33283963230> and 
attached are shareable copies of the below statement for use on 
different media platforms.

*Get Ethnic Cleanser Nir Barakat Out of SFSU - Mobilize Thursday April 6 
- 10am*

President Wong announced that he extended an invitation to Nir Barkat, 
the mayor of occupied Jerusalem, to return to San Francisco State 
University (SFSU) - exactly one year after his first appearance at SFSU. 
One year ago, Palestinian/Arab students and their allies demonstrated 
against Nir Barakat’s speaking engagement as a person who not only 
symbolizes Zionist settler colonialism, but as someone whose policies as 
mayor of Jerusalem concretely manifest in the ethnic cleansing of 
Palestinian land and people, including home demolitions, village 
expulsion, and the judaization of Jerusalem, a religious center for, 
Muslims, Christians and Jews.

This invitation directly marginalizes and undermines the presence and 
safety of Arab, Muslim and Palestinian students. The General Union of 
Palestine Students (GUPS), Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, the Arab and Muslim 
Ethnicities and Diasporas studies program (AMED), and other campus 
communities have been directly targeted and slandered by the external 
Zionist community. Following Barakat’s visit and the ensuing protests 
against him last year, two women in the GUPS leadership faced 
administrative punishment alongside Zionist backlash, being publicly 
harassed and slandered while discussion of the Barakat protest even lead 
to the promotion of sexual and other violences against these two women. 
After expressing the fear and lack of safety they felt to university 
administration, the university only responded by telling them to call 
campus police to escort them, without considering the types of violence 
that law enforcement perpetrates in the lives of communities of color.

In the past year following Nir Barakat’s presence alone, there have been 
several attacks on the students who participated in the actions against 
Nir, staff and faculty who support the struggle for Palestine, with 
Palestinian, Arab and Muslim individuals absorbing the brunt of attacks. 
In the fall of 2016 a Zionist smear campaign, spearheaded by David 
Horowitz and company, plastered villainizing posters all over campus 
with the names and faces of students and faculty who support freedom and 
justice for Palestine, an action that we have seen rampant across 
several campuses and for which university administration responses have 
greatly differed. The SFSU administration, led by president Lesley Wong, 
delayed any sort of response to remove the posters, and they were 
removed by students before the university sent any instructions to their 
staff. Additionally, the university did not take a clear and firm stand 
condemning the attacks and threats on SFSU community members by those 
outside of SFSU.

This has been a *pattern of SFSU administration*: the perpetual 
undermining of the Arab, Muslim and Palestinian presence on campus and 
indifference, at best, regarding their safety. This act not only shows 
complete disregard for the administration’s constituency in favor of 
private institutions, but it also enacts and reinforces the violences of 
ethnic cleansing that have been enacted upon Palestinians in which their 
mere existence has become a threat. This invitation comes at the expense 
of respect and protection of students and staff who have faced long term 
trauma since Barakat’s initial presence on campus in spring 2016. This 
invitation extended by university president Wong exposes his priorities 
for campus community, and that priority is not the students who pay 
increasing tuition and fees to be part of the campus community.

In the fight for social justice, we actively attempt to critique the 
powers that serve to oppress, and oftentimes that results in a critique 
of the US nation-state, both in the Trump era and before. While critique 
of the US nation-state, the government, is widely accepted and valued 
under the quest for freedom of expression and academic freedom, any 
critique of a state that we do not even live in, the state of Israel, 
becomes increasingly criminalized and delegitimized. Palestinians 
continue to be undermined and criminalized while the state that is the 
root of their oppression continues to be uplifted and protected. This 
reflects the deep-seeded racism rampant in this country and the priority 
of the university and beyond to protect their relationships of financial 
advancement over their relationship to community.

As Palestinian/Arab community members and allies, we will not stand by 
idly while our student and youth population continues to be attacked and 
made vulnerable at their own universities, the institution that should 
ensure their safety. We call on community to take action! Reserve spots 
at the event 
<https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sf-state-speaking-engagement-with-mayor-nir-barkat-tickets-33283963230>and:

  * Demand that Wong revoke the call for invitation of Nir Barkat;
  * End ties with fascists, racists and Zionists on SFSU campus;
  * Demand a sanctuary campus for Arab, Palestinian, Muslim, refugees,
    undocumented students and all vulnerable communities;
  * Protect the students and faculty from heightened militarization on
    campus, and stop the targeting by the office of Student Services and
    their policies;
  * Provide structural support and resources to the Arab and Muslim
    Ethnicities and Diasporas studies program and reinstate the 2 tenure
    track lines; and
  * *Disrupt business as usual* until the university ensures a just
    approach to the threatening of its student constituencies in favor
    of fiscal and public imaging ties.

Justice Now!

Bay4Palestine bay4palestine at gmail.com
-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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