From the 1960’s, the 1980’s, early 2000’s, and now into the 2020’s, UC Berkeley has been a center for protesting for civil and human rights. 

On October 8th, 2024 at the Crescent Lawn on Berkeley Campus, students and labor leaders organized a cross-campus protest on the anniversary of the start of Israel’s attacks on Palestine. 

This included pro-Palestinian Jewish groups, socialist groups, political activist groups, and more all united in the desire for an independent Palestine and an end to the attacks on Palestine.

Students from around the Bay Area took turns passionately speaking about the events happening in Palestine. These students included people from SF State, UC Berkeley and Berkeley high schools, and more. 

Other organizations included teachers unions, Google employees, and various workers speaking about Prop 6 (Remove Involuntary Servitude as Punishment for Crime Amendment 2024).

Students spoke about the lives of those who have died while teachers unions spoke about where retirement funds have been invested. There were calls from all groups to divest from companies that are profiting from the conflict.

Bryan Y, a student and media liaison for the event, spoke on how money from tuition and our taxes goes toward this conflict instead of being spent on their own students and education.

This sentiment was echoed by many other speakers talking about how different programs have had funding cut or were ended altogether, yet money is still going elsewhere. 

Bryan also said that solidarity and unity is what they want in order to obtain their goals, and additionally emphasized that people can go through the Students for Gaza Instagram for their help with clubs, students or groups seeking forms and ways to get involved in similar cross campus actions or protests.