During the past months, college students across the nation held protests standing in support of Palestine. The main focus of the protests has been to raise awareness of the ongoing war in Gaza. Students are demanding that their universities financially divest from Israel.
Students, faculty, and community members of California State University, Bakersfield held a protest on campus on May 8, to stand in support for Palestine and show solidarity with other protesting college students across the nation.
Prior to the solidarity protest, Carolyn Lane, lecturer and doctoral student studying educational leadership, stood in front of the Student Union at CSUB as the only protester, holding a poster of the Palestinian flag her daughter made. Students showed interest and as a result, it led them to seek information on how to protest.
During the protest on campus, CSUB members were joined by members of the United Liberation Front, a Pro-Palestinian organization that has been involved in events and protests around Bakersfield, including at the Bakersfield City Council meetings.
Lane said that although the conflict between Palestine and Israel has been going on for decades, now that people can see what is happening worldwide through social media it has called students into action.
“This problem has been going on for like what over 75 years, but we haven’t seen the genocide, you know, right up close. Seeing it happen in real time on peoples’ phones kind of changed the view,” said Lane.
Lane said how students are not looking at news or mainstream media, rather students are going to Instagram and TikTok, or people gather their information from sharing what they see through social media.
Lane unintentionally became the leader of the protest as students started coming to her seeking information regarding how CSUB could have a protest on campus. Lane, and other CSUB students, wanted to show their support for Palestine, yet wanted to make sure it was in a peaceful manner.
To make sure the protests stayed peaceful Lane met with the chief of campus police, Marty Willamson, and was told there would be no problems as long as they did not block any doors, were not too loud, and there was no destruction of property.
“I came out to show my support for Palestine to draw attention to the genocide going on over there,” said community member Amiyah Rodriguez.
Aside from standing in support of Palestine, CSUB student protesters are asking CSUB’s administration where their money is going.
Julnar Alazzam, CSUB biochemistry major and member of the United Liberation Front, said that their demand is to have an open line of communication with the university’s administration, to be aware of where money from CSUB is going, including where research and other work from CSUB is going.
Another demand is that, “going forwards for any investments in the current genocide in Palestine to be cut immediately,” said Alazzam.
“We are here today just standing in solidarity with all of the students that are protesting at their universities. We are also here to ask our university to be more transparent with where our funding, where all of our fees are going,” said Sarah Alame, Director of Sustainability for the Associated Student Inc.
Before the hour-long march, protesters were reminded that it was a peaceful protest and not to interact with any counter protesters.
As they marched through campus, they were chanting sayings such as, “Free, free, free Palestine,” “From the valley to the sea, hands of the middle east,” “Palestine is not for sale,” and “We are all Palestinian.”
Students in other California State Universities such as Cal Poly Humbolt, Sacramento State, Cal State LA, have set up encampments in their campuses, refusing to leave until administration meets their demands.
Students at CSUB come from a lower income and Lane does not think they can afford to camp due to resources and time, however, they can afford to protest.
“I think this is really going to get the word out that these sorts of marches are going to be happening at CSUB from now on. And that activism is going to start to become a growing part of CSUB’s campus,” said Alazzam.
