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Dear Comrades,
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<div>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 <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sf-state-speaking-engagement-with-mayor-nir-barkat-tickets-33283963230"
target="_blank">event link</a> and attached are
shareable copies of the below statement for use on
different media platforms.</div>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center"
align="center"><font size="4"><b><span
style="color:black">Get Ethnic Cleanser Nir
Barakat Out of SFSU - Mobilize Thursday April 6 -
10am</span></b><span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span
style="color:black">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. </span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span
style="color:black">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.</span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span
style="color:black">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. </span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span
style="color:black">This has been a <b>pattern of
SFSU administration</b>: 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. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span
style="color:black">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. </span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span
style="color:black">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 </span><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sf-state-speaking-engagement-with-mayor-nir-barkat-tickets-33283963230"
target="_blank">event</a><span style="color:black">
and:</span><span></span></p>
<ul style="margin-top:0in" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"
style="color:black;vertical-align:baseline">Demand
that Wong revoke the call for invitation of Nir
Barkat;</li>
<li class="MsoNormal"
style="color:black;vertical-align:baseline">End ties
with fascists, racists and Zionists on SFSU campus;<span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"
style="color:black;vertical-align:baseline">Demand a
sanctuary campus for Arab, Palestinian, Muslim,
refugees, undocumented students and all vulnerable
communities; <span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"
style="color:black;vertical-align:baseline">Protect
the students and faculty from heightened
militarization on campus, and stop the targeting by
the office of Student Services and their policies; <span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"
style="color:black;vertical-align:baseline">Provide
structural support and resources to the Arab and
Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas studies program and
reinstate the 2 tenure track lines; and <span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"
style="color:black;vertical-align:baseline"><b>Disrupt
business as usual</b> until the university ensures a
just approach to the threatening of its student
constituencies in favor of fiscal and public imaging
ties.<span></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Justice
Now!</span><span></span></p>
<span style="color:black">Bay4Palestine <a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:bay4palestine@gmail.com">bay4palestine@gmail.com</a></span><span></span>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415
863.9977 <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
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