Students at Stanford host 'tribunal' to protest against disciplinary action over anti-Israel occupation of president's office
Stanford University faced protests on Oct. 28 from pro-Palestine activists objecting to disciplinary measures for students who occupied the president's office in June.
Demonstrators accused the university of supporting “genocide” and held a tribunal, finding the administration “guilty.”
Dozens of pro-Palestine protesters held a demonstration at Stanford University to rally against disciplinary measures that the school doled out to activists who occupied the school’s president’s office earlier this year.
The protest was held on Oct. 28, and it challenged the 13 arrests that stemmed from the occupation of the president’s office in June, according to The Stanford Daily.
“It has become unquestionably evident that this genocide is happening with the active participation of the United States and substantial financial backings by Stanford University,” stated a speaker at the protest. “As we speak, Stanford students who protested against genocide on June 5 are currently undergoing their disciplinary time.”
During the demonstration, Stanford students played “witnesses” in a “tribunal” that ultimately found the school administration “Guilty” of genocide. The outlet reported that one speaker called Stanford President Jonathan Levin“lying, lifeless Levin.”
Stanford’s chapter of the controversial anti-Israel student group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) posted a statement to Instagram on Oct. 25 advertising the “tribunal and rally.”
“Last spring, 13 of our student peers occupied the President’s office in response to Stanford’s refusal to meet two simple demands: divest from the Zionist entity and disclose investments of the $37 billion endowment,” the student group stated. “The morally backward university administration responded by jailing, dehousing, and banning from campus our valiant students of conscience.”
“While Israel executes a final solution on Jabalia and bombs Lebanon into a regional war,” the post continued, “Stanford admin has chosen to move forwards with prosecuting the 13 students in a closed-door, undemocratic OCS trial on Monday, October 28th.”
“Over a year into the genocide, the popular voice of campus declares: Stanford is not only complicit but is a collaborator to the Zionist entity’s brutal assault on Palestinian life,” Stanford’s SJP chapter concluded.
Campus Reform has recently reported that Stanford has begun enforcing new regulations to prevent pro-Palestine student activists from erecting overnight encampments on the school’s campus.
The new rules prohibit “staying outside between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. on university property or setting up structures that remain between those hours.” The university announced that encampments that have not been approved will be “removed” by the administration.
Stanford’s Board of Trustees recently rejected a divestment proposal that the school’s SJP chapter had put forward.
Campus Reform has contacted Stanford University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
