In Their Own Words: Messages From The Pro-Palestine Protesters Arrested In UW Occupation

Students rally to support the 22 students suspended over occupation of Boeing-funded building

After police arrested more than 30 protesters for occupying and waging an estimated $1 million in property damage in a Boeing-funded building at the University of Washington, students rallied in front of the school’s administrative building to condemn the repression of pro-Palestininan activists. The speakers emphasized the toll on the students — the UW suspended 22 students, evicted those living in the dorms, barred those with UW jobs from returning to work, and banned the students and other community members from campus. Since they could not speak to the crowd on Red Square, a SUPER UW representative read anonymous statements from those arrested out loud. While every outlet from the student paper to national broadcasts buzz about the action, supporters finally got to hear from protesters for the first time. 

I included their statements in full. 

From Sha’ban Al-Dalou To Manuel Ellis

“I (metaphorically) stand in front of you all today as a testament to the strength of the resistance. On Monday night we achieved a victory, holding the Sha'ban al-Dalou building for over 10 hours before succumbing to police violence. I am so grateful for my experiences, if only for the renewed understanding of the brutality of the criminal justice system, the growth of my own skills, and the strengthened connection I feel with my comrades in Seattle, in Palestine, in New York, and worldwide. 

Yesterday, as 25 people were brutally arrested by cops at Basel Al Araj Popular Library, I felt the solidarity of the resistance and I felt angry. I felt anger as I watched videos of comrades in chokeholds and being brutalized by pigs. On Monday night, when over 30 of us were arrested, I felt anger as I heard my own comrades scream in pain. I felt anger as 3-4 cops held me down and compromised my airway. I felt angry for George Floyd, for Sha'ban who asphyxiated and burned to death while still attached to an IV in a hospital, for Manuel Ellis. This anger reminded me that this is an intersectional fight. We are fighting against oppression worldwide, fighting for our martyrs in Palestine and our comrades facing criminalization here on Turtle Island. 

This anger has only grown with the suspension and repression of the students on campus in the name of "antisemitism" and the doxxing many have faced not only for themselves but for their families. The safety of our people is compromised but we must stand strong. The repression we are facing is but a distraction from the genocide, means to quiet people down and attempt to force them into submission with fear tactics. This is not enough to quiet us, nothing will be.  My anger feeds my resolve, and the fight is far from over. The people in Palestine cannot afford to be scared and neither can I, not when the lives of so many hang in a treacherous, cruel balance. I will continue my fight for the people in Palestine, until it is free, from the river to the sea.”

Students Of The Revolution

“I am so deeply proud of our movement and the bravery of the individuals who risked so much to resist imperialism, zionism, and UWs role in the ongoing genocide in palestine. As the genocidal violence of the occupation escalates, despite the false “ceasefire” The global movement must respond accordingly. As anti imperialist struggles grow from Palestine to Kashmir to the Alliance of Sahel States to right here on turtle island, we find ourselves at a critical moment in history. The people who took part in this action and all those who support them, understand our obligation living in the imperial core to become students of the revolution, and active participants in struggle. The state is intimidated, that is why they are suspending us and repressing us. The state is intimidated because our movement vibrates with strength and spirit. With the guidance of the armed resistance in Palestine and internationally, we light our path towards victory. We will honor all our martyrs, we will break the chains of our prisoners, we will free the land and free the people. This is only the beginning!!”

You Don’t Have To Support, But You Have To Understand

“I hope this one will be short. I want to commend the bravery of every person who stood firm against the fascist repression on May 5th. I have never felt so proud, to the point I am tearing up as I write this. The people of Palestine must be free. We here in the US, and abroad across the world, have a choice. This is not a choice that those in Palestine have. We must understand that resistance to a genocidal regime is brutal. Resistance to occupation is brutal. To stand in the imperial core and condemn resistance you fail your basic moral duty to understand, even at the most basic level, the material conditions that become struggle. Those who struggle in resistance are exactly those who have been subjected to the conditions of the occupation, to the conditions of genocide, to the conditions of deprivation, starvation, torture, loss. I do not ask that you support their actions, but I think its your duty to understand. I hope you can find points of unity with their struggle, to fight in some way alongside the people of Palestine. Fight if only so that this struggle need not continue, so that one day the people can return to their land, and this brutality can fall back into history. Nurture the spark inside of you that pushes you to act, know that we are stronger than ever despite the repression, and that we will welcome you with open arms.”

From The Stonewall Inn To The Gaza Strip, Resistance Is Always Justified.

“Ana Mari Cauce is a coward, weaponizing the identities of jewish students on campus in order to justify her repression of those of us brutalized and arrested by police on May 5th. Of course... weaponizing identities wouldn’t be new to her. A strategy of weaponizing the racial and ethnic identities of students involved in the Liberated Zone Encampment of last year was central to her administration securing capitulation from the movement. Before that even, she was quick to weaponize her own identity as a gay person to demonize the palestinian resistance and pink wash the genocide of the palestinian people.

HEAR ME TRANS PEOPLE! HEAR ME QUEERS! HEAR ME ALL PEOPLE FACING OPPRESSION ACROSS OUR CAMPUS AND ACROSS THE WORLD! The zionists and other settler colonialists such as American nationalists, who fly their flag on stolen land, who build bombs on that stolen land, who use those bombs to try to take more land in Palestine... AND WHO FAIL DUE TO THE STEADFAST RESISTANCE OF THE BRAVE FIGHTERS OF HAMAS AND OTHER RESISTANCE GROUPS ACROSS THE ARAB WORLD... these same people will weaponize our identities to destabilize mass movements at the first chance they get. They will claim that they condemn the oppression of queer and trans people, then they will weaponize the pigs against us, putting us through the physical and psychological trauma of being brutally detained and put into solitary, and they will condemn our violence towards their genocide training building ignoring its role in the violence carried out by their beloved Boeing and its ties to the genocide in Palestine and other American colonial and imperialist projects around the world. However, we as queer people should know, we as all oppressed people should know by now that violence is absolutely necessary when people are facing displacement. From the stonewall inn to the Gaza Strip resistance is always justified.

My experience further highlighted the deep connections between imperial control and subjugation waged by police, both here and in Palestine. The brutality we faced on one night is absolutely nothing compared to the bombing and famine inflicted on Palestinians right now. Yet, they utilize the same rhetoric: because we expose contradictions between imperial interests and the interests of the people, we therefore deserve to be brutalized, deported, and displaced.

Cops and correctional officers were quick to get buddy-buddy with some of us shortly after brutalizing us. I saw this behavior as the very same method of normalization that the israeli state and its collaborators, such as the Palestinian Authority, wage, to sustain diplomatic relations and continue land-grabbing in Palestine.

Let this moment not lead us to despair, in fact, it would be exactly what UW admin, trump, bibi want. We must not let our enemies dictate our allies. Continue speaking up, showing up, and sacrificing. The Palestinian resistance shattered the illusion of the imperial project, thus we must continue to destroy its remnants.”