‘We fight for Palestinian lives’: Encampment on Sac State continues as protests roil other campuses

Sacramento State students barely glanced at the circle of tents pitched Wednesday in the library quad and signs declaring support for Palestinians amid the war between Israel and Hamas.

Wind swept through high trees shading the area where professors brought their students to hold class just outside the encampment. A protester sat by a nearby fountain and read a book as music drifted through the area.

Wednesday marked the third consecutive day various groups erected tents outside the commons to demand the California State University system divest from companies backing Israel.

Protesters initially had permission from university officials until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday to stay on the grounds. That deadline was extended Tuesday night so long as the demonstration stayed “peaceful” and met the school’s codes of conduct guiding protests, as has been the case so far, Sac State officials said.

“It has been really its own community,” said Sac State senior Hamzah, who has been protesting. He declined to provide his last name due to fears of being doxxed by counterprotesters.

Groups taking part in the protest include the Sacramento State branch of Students for Justice in Palestine, which sent a list of demands to the university, the Jewish Voice for Peace and myriad others.

The protest must not “incite or promote illegal activity or disrupt the educational process,” according to Sac State’s guidelines.

The scene, and the tactics by protesters and the university here, were far different than the protests and unrest over the Mideast conflict that have erupted into arrests and violence elsewhere in California and across the nation.

That chaos came into full view hours earlier, on Tuesday night, as police swarmed and cleared out a building at Columbia University occupied by pro-Palestinian demonstrators while dueling protesters clashed at UCLA before police moved in to quell the violence.

Sacramento State has given the protesters until May 8 to continue their protests, university officials said late Wednesday.

SJP made several demands to school officials as part of their protest, mirroring the same requests made at other campuses. They include disclosing all companies and organizations providing support to the Israeli government and military. The university must then divest from those entities, the group said.

Protesters asked the university to defend student activism and provide amnesty for those who have faced “racist and Islamophobic attacks.” SJP also expects the university to “declare the occupation, colonization, and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, as well as the U.S.-Israeli genocide in Gaza, illegal and indefensible.”

Sac State spokeswoman Lanaya Lewis said the university has responded to SJP’s demands but did not detail what that response was. Hamzah said dialogue about the demands was continuing with school officials.

Sac State officials also erected a metal fence cordoning off the library quad’s from a yard just across a walkway. Hamzah said the school agreed to put up the fence to ease fears of counterprotesters inciting violence, which happened for several hours at UCLA before police stepped in to make arrests.

University of California officials have since ordered an investigation into authorities’ handling of the incident at the Westwood campus, according to a letter by UC President Michael V. Drake obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Meanwhile, in the wake of 31 arrests Tuesday morning at another CSU campus, Cal Poly Humboldt, a letter from school officials including university President Tom Jackson Jr. acknowledged the “emotional impact” of the police action but vowed the “unlawful actions that took place this past week stand in contrast to our values and beliefs — and can never happen again.”

“We unequivocally support the rights of students and others to assemble peacefully, to protest, and to have their voices heard,” the letter sent to the campus community said. “We must also recognize the difference between free speech and unlawful activities that put others and protesters themselves at risk. This is something we simply cannot tolerate.

“As we call for peace, we must all practice it.”

In Sacramento, protests have remained quiet and calm — with a brief exception on Monday night when three students, unaffiliated with the encampment, were cited for vandalizing Sac State’s property, according to university officials.

Sac State students near the protest said Wednesday that there had been no interruptions to campus life after the encampment was established.

Fernando Arias, 21, said he watched the clashes between protesters that exploded Tuesday in Los Angeles, and worried about whether the same thing could happen in Sacramento.

“This makes me feel ... unsure,” he said.

Adrien Manzi, however, said they joined the encampment Wednesday and wants to end their senior year by protesting.

“The greatest power we have as citizens and as students is power in numbers — uniting for the long game to prove the message that we fight for Palestinian lives,” they said.