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UC Berkeley BDS Coalition Statement
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UC Berkeley BDS Coalition Statement:

Dear UC Berkeley Community,

Over the past eleven months, Palestinians in Gaza have faced relentless Israeli bombardment, with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians martyred, wounded, or missing beneath the rubble.

The University of California (UC) stands complicit in this genocidal onslaught – through its investments, its partnerships, and its suppression of Palestine solidarity. We must answer the urgent call of Palestinian civil society and implement Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) of the Israeli settler-colonial state.

The BDS movement demands: (1) an immediate end to the Zionist colonization of Arab lands, including the genocidal siege of Gaza; (2) full freedom and equality for Palestinians, from the river to the sea; and (3) the right of return for Palestinian refugees to their homes and properties.

We, the UC Berkeley community, must hold the UC accountable for its direct support for the ongoing genocide. Our demands are as follows:

1. We demand the total divestment of the UC Berkeley Foundation and the UC General Endowment Pool from the Israeli state and from all companies profiting from the colonization of Palestine. Most urgently, we demand the immediate withdrawal of the hundreds of millions of UC dollars invested, directly and indirectly through large asset managers like BlackRock, in weapons manufacturers that arm and sustain the genocide in Gaza, including Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and General Electric.

2. We call for UC Berkeley, including student groups and government, to boycott all products and services that are complicit in the occupation and genocide of Palestinians, as specified by the BDS movement.

3. We endorse the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), urging UC Berkeley and its researchers to sever all ties to Israeli academic and cultural institutions.

As students of a U.S.-based university that benefits from both U.S. and Israeli settler-colonialism, we must leverage our unique position within the heart of empire and the flow of global capital to call for a free Palestine. As history has shown, UC Berkeley students have power to wield — from student strikes against the Vietnam War, to playing a key role in ending apartheid in South Africa. We can win what we fight for. We must join the growing list of schools, including UC Davis, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Santa Cruz and UC Los Angeles, in the affirmation of a UC-wide commitment to BDS.

As letter signatories, we pledge our commitment to join a broad-based campus BDS coalition. BDS is a call for each of us, with our unique positionalities, to take meaningful and continued action in support of Palestinian liberation. We call on the UC Berkeley community to join this growing movement, setting an example of steadfast solidarity for other institutions to follow. We affirm that Palestinian liberation is intertwined with all struggles for liberation. The struggle for a free Palestine leads us toward a free world.

In solidarity, without compromise, from the river to the sea.

[Organizations only] Sign onto the letter here: http://tinyurl.com/SignCalBDS 

List of Coalition Signatories:

  1. A.N.T.I.: Artistic Nerds 4 Theatre Inclusivity
  2. Adventist Christian Fellowship
  3. African History Working Group
  4. Afrikan Maghreb Student Union
  5. Afterlives of Fanon Research Collective
  6. Ahlul Bayt Student Association (ABSA) of Berkeley
  7. Alianza Latine for Public Health Action
  8. Amores Valientes
  9. Animal Legal Defense Fund at Berkeley Law
  10. Anti-Imperialism Committee
  11. Arab Student Union at UC Berkeley
  12. Asian Pacific American Student Development (APASD) Intern Cohort
  13. ASUC Office of Senator Doty
  14. ASUC Office of Senator Mishra
  15. ASUC Office of Senator Sultan
  16. ASUC Senator Prasad
  17. ASUC Superb
  18. Bear Closet
  19. Bears for Palestine
  20. Berkeley B-Side
  21. Berkeley Dance Studies Working Group.
  22. Berkeley Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Law
  23. Berkeley Law and Organizing Collective
  24. Berkeley Law Jews for Justice in Palestine
  25. Berkeley Law National Lawyers Guild
  26. Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine
  27. Berkeley Palestinian Studies Working Group
  28. Berkeley Student Cooperative
  29. Berkeley Student Cooperative
  30. Berkeley Student Farms
  31. Berkeley Student Food Collective
  32. Black Student Union
  33. Brown Issues UC Berkeley
  34. Cal Berkeley Democrats
  35. Cal Climbing
  36. Cal MEMSSA (Middle Eastern, Muslim, Sikh, South Asian)
  37. Cal Queer & Asian
  38. CED Students of Color
  39. Central Americans for Empowerment, UC Berkeley
  40. Community Insights Collaborative, LLC.
  41. Critical Environmental Justice Lab
  42. Critical Pacific Island Studies Collective
  43. DAES' Black Film Collective
  44. Disabled Ecologies Lab
  45. Epsilon Eta UC Berkeley
  46. ESPM Graduate Diversity Council
  47. ESPM Stewards
  48. Faces of Afro-Muslims
  49. Furries at Berkeley
  50. GAG! Magazine
  51. Gamma alpha chapter of kappa alpha psi fraternity inc
  52. Gen Eq Intern Cohort
  53. GIA MAG
  54. Graduate Social Club
  55. Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine, UC Berkeley
  56. Guatemala Scholar-Activists
  57. Indigenous Graduate Student Association
  58. Jakara Movement Chapter
  59. Jewish Voice for Peace at UC Berkeley
  60. Justice4Ivonne
  61. Koreans 4 Decolonization
  62. Koreans for Decolonization
  63. Latinx Social Work Caucus
  64. Law Students of African Descent
  65. League of Filipino Students UC Berkeley
  66. LUCHA
  67. {m}aganda magazine
  68. Master of Social Welfare's White Accountability Group
  69. Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health Student Interest Group
  70. MCC Intern Cohort
  71. Muslim Student Association, UC Berkeley
  72. Muslims of Haas
  73. OaxaCal
  74. Odd Yard Zine
  75. Outsiders
  76. Palestinian Public Health at UC Berkeley
  77. Partnership for Pre-Professional Pilipinxs
  78. Payment for Placements at Berkeley
  79. Performing Asian American & Diasporic Sexualities Working Group
  80. Pilipino Association for Health Careers
  81. Pilipinx American Alliance
  82. Planning Student Association
  83. Project RISHI Exec 2024-25
  84. QARC Board of Directors
  85. Queers for Palestine at Berkeley
  86. Queers United in Revolutionary Subversion
  87. RAD Lab: Research in Agriculture lab
  88. Raíces Recruitment and Retention Center
  89. REACH! Asian and Asian-American Diaspora Recruitment and Retention Center
  90. Researchers Against War
  91. Revolutionary Communist of America Bay Area
  92. Revolutionary Marxist Students, UC Berkeley Chapter
  93. Science for the People, Bay Area chapter
  94. SERC Environmentalists of Color Team
  95. Speak out Now Berkeley
  96. Students for International Labor Solidarity UC Berkeley
  97. Students of Color Environmental Collective, SCEC Council 2023-2024
  98. Suitcase Clinic
  99. Teach in Prison, UC Berkeley
  100. Telegraph for People
  101. threads Magazine
  102. UAW 4811
  103. UC Alumni for Justice in Palestine
  104. UC Berkeley Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine
  105. UC Lecturers for Justice in Palestine
  106. Young Communist League Berkeley
  107. Young Democratic Socialist of America, UC Berkeley