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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 six months, Palestinians in Gaza have faced relentless Israeli bombardment, with more than 100,000 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. Arab Student Union at UC Berkeley
  11. Asian Pacific American Student Development (APASD) Intern Cohort
  12. ASUC Office of Senator Doty
  13. ASUC Office of Senator Mishra
  14. ASUC Office of Senator Sultan
  15. ASUC Senator Prasad
  16. Bear Closet
  17. Bears for Palestine
  18. Berkeley B-Side
  19. Berkeley Dance Studies Working Group.
  20. Berkeley Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Law
  21. Berkeley Law and Organizing Collective
  22. Berkeley Law Jews for Justice in Palestine
  23. Berkeley Law National Lawyers Guild
  24. Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine
  25. Berkeley Palestinian Studies Working Group
  26. Berkeley Student Cooperative
  27. Berkeley Student Cooperative
  28. Berkeley Student Farms
  29. Berkeley Student Food Collective
  30. Black Student Union
  31. Brown Issues UC Berkeley
  32. Cal Berkeley Democrats
  33. Cal Climbing
  34. Cal MEMSSA (Middle Eastern, Muslim, Sikh, South Asian)
  35. Cal Queer & Asian
  36. CED Students of Color
  37. Central Americans for Empowerment, UC Berkeley
  38. Critical Environmental Justice Lab
  39. Critical Pacific Island Studies Collective
  40. DAES' Black Film Collective
  41. Disabled Ecologies Lab
  42. Epsilon Eta UC Berkeley
  43. ESPM Graduate Diversity Council
  44. ESPM Stewards
  45. Faces of Afro-Muslims
  46. Furries at Berkeley
  47. GAG! Magazine
  48. Gamma alpha chapter of kappa alpha psi fraternity inc
  49. Gen Eq Intern Cohort
  50. GIA MAG
  51. Graduate Social Club
  52. Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine, UC Berkeley
  53. Guatemala Scholar-Activists
  54. Indigenous Graduate Student Association
  55. Jakara Movement Chapter
  56. Jewish Voice for Peace at UC Berkeley
  57. Justice4Ivonne
  58. Koreans 4 Decolonization
  59. Koreans for Decolonization
  60. Latinx Social Work Caucus
  61. Law Students of African Descent
  62. League of Filipino Students UC Berkeley
  63. LUCHA
  64. {m}aganda magazine
  65. Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health Student Interest Group
  66. MCC Intern Cohort
  67. Muslim Student Association, UC Berkeley
  68. Muslims of Haas
  69. OaxaCal
  70. Odd Yard Zine
  71. Outsiders
  72. Palestinian Public Health at UC Berkeley
  73. Partnership for Pre-Professional Pilipinxs
  74. Payment for Placements at Berkeley
  75. Performing Asian American & Diasporic Sexualities Working Group
  76. Pilipino Association for Health Careers
  77. Pilipinx American Alliance
  78. Planning Student Association
  79. Project RISHI Exec 2024-25
  80. QARC Board of Directors
  81. Queers for Palestine, UC Berkeley
  82. Queers United in Revolutionary Subversion
  83. RAD Lab: Research in Agriculture lab
  84. Raíces Recruitment and Retention Center
  85. REACH! Asian and Asian-American Diaspora Recruitment and Retention Center
  86. Researchers Against War
  87. Revolutionary Communist of America Bay Area
  88. Revolutionary Marxist Students, UC Berkeley Chapter
  89. Science for the People, Bay Area chapter
  90. SERC Environmentalists of Color Team
  91. Speak out Now Berkeley
  92. Students for International Labor Solidarity UC Berkeley
  93. Students of Color Environmental Collective, SCEC Council 2023-2024
  94. Suitcase Clinic
  95. Teach in Prison, UC Berkeley
  96. Telegraph for People
  97. threads Magazine
  98. UAW 4811
  99. UC Alumni for Justice in Palestine
  100. UC Berkeley Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine
  101. UC Lecturers for Justice in Palestine
  102. Young Communist League Berkeley
  103. Young Democratic Socialist of America, UC Berkeley