Annual Rally Marks Palestinian Deaths

Chanting "Free Palestine" and standing in front of a 9-foot cardboard placard that read, "Israel's Wall Must Fall," Students for Justice in Palestine held its annual rally with about 100 people on Dwinelle Plaza Friday, to mark the 56th anniversary of Palestinian deaths at Deir Yasin and urge the university to divest from its investments in Israel.

"We want to address the conflict, the issues," said Ardeshir Jahanian, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine. "Israel is building the wall to keep out ‘Palestinian suicide bombers.'"

While several groups joined together at the rally to show their support against Israeli action in Palestine, others, including students from the Israel Action Committee, stood silently to the side of the rally, waving Israeli flags.

"Israel is striving towards peace as it has for the past 56 years of its existence," said Maya Paley, co-chair of the Israel Action Committee, "It has extended its hands towards peace, and offers have been rejected without further negotiation by the Palestinians, specifically Arafat."

Speaker Alison Weir, from the group If Americans Knew, stressed the importance that UC stay true to the policy it enacted in the early 1980s, when it divested from South Africa to protest the apartheid system, saying it would not support a system based on discrimination.

"We are here today to remind the university of this sterling action, and to help it remain true to this mission," said Weir, who spent one month living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "The principles that I am asking the university to uphold are those which protect all people."

The rally concluded with a march to California Hall to ask the university to also cease its investments in Israel.

"Allowing university funds to support an Israeli system of relentless and cruel discrimination is intolerable, illegal and opposed to the deepest principles of justice and civilization," Weir said.

Tara Moore

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