‘Your Free Speech Does Not Apply’: Suspended UC Berkeley Lecturer Speaks Out
Arguments Over Genocide Dominate Stanford Protester Trial Hearing
Congress Launches New Antisemitism Investigation Into Berkeley Schools
Protests at Microsoft Conference Target Tech Giant’s Ties With Israeli Military
Stanford Protesters Negotiating Plea Deals as Trial Begins
Golden Gate Bridge Agency Drops $163K Restitution Claim Against Pro-Palestinian Protesters
A Village With Close Ties to the Bay Area, Facing Demolition in the West Bank
Law Students Say UC Berkeley Likely Violated Civil Rights of Pro-Palestinian Protesters
California Journalist, Others on Second Gaza Aid Flotilla Released From Israeli Prison
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"content": "\u003cp>The suspension of a UC Berkeley computer science lecturer \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059351/the-cal-lecturer-who-went-on-a-38-day-hunger-strike-for-gaza\">who went on a hunger strike over the war in Gaza\u003c/a> and made pro-Palestinian remarks in the classroom has raised questions about free speech and the scope of academic freedom on the Bay Area campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Late last week, UC Berkeley administrators notified Peyrin Kao, 26, of his six-month unpaid suspension, effective Jan. 1, 2026. The suspension, handed down at a time of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032030/uc-berkeley-faculty-rally-to-defend-free-speech-and-protest-cuts\">heightened tensions over free speech on campus\u003c/a>, drew criticism from groups and faculty advocates, who immediately called for his reinstatement and launched a hunger strike in solidarity on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some argued that the university’s decision was a blatant violation of Kao’s First Amendment rights and part of a broader effort to chill pro-Palestinian speech on campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nxdR0hTEkSqv4LcHqp3t7SNU1BcWbrI0/view\">an October letter\u003c/a> from UC Berkeley Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Benjamin Hermalin, Kao misused the classroom “by distorting the instructional process” and deviated from “the responsibilities inherent in academic freedom” during the spring 2024 and fall 2025 semesters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kao maintains that he followed university policy by making the comments outside of official class time. He said his suspension is part of what’s called “\u003ca href=\"https://read.dukeupress.edu/critical-times/article/8/1/1/400618/Beyond-the-Palestine-Exception\">the Palestine exception\u003c/a>,” or the selective enforcement of rules to restrict Palestinian advocacy. Kao questioned whether he would have been suspended if he criticized the U.S. government or international issues that have drawn \u003ca href=\"https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/09/23/with-3-million-gift-berkeley-prepares-to-build-premier-ukrainian-studies-program/\">condemnation\u003c/a> by the university, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12066692\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12066692 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still-1536x864.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still-1200x675.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Peyrin Kao speaking at a UC Regents meeting on Sept. 17, 2025, at UCSF Mission Bay. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Peyrin Kao )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There’s this gaping exception in this so-called free speech that our university and our country champions,” Kao told KQED. “The university loves to talk about how they are ‘the free speech university,’ ‘the home of the free speech movement,’ … but when it comes to Palestine: ‘Sorry, we’re drawing the line, your free speech does not apply.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore declined to comment, saying the university doesn’t comment on confidential personnel matters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Hermalin’s report, Kao was accused of twice violating Regents’ Policy 2301, a \u003ca href=\"https://evcp.berkeley.edu/news/political-advocacy-academic-freedom-and-instruction\">rule\u003c/a> that explicitly prohibits “political indoctrination” as misuse of the classroom and has been frequently cited by the university to regulate campus protest in the wake of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent analysis by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062192/uc-berkeley-law-school-says-school-likely-violated-civil-rights-of-pro-palestinian-protesters\">Berkeley law students found that the university’s administration\u003c/a> enforces the rule more harshly against faculty who speak in support of Palestinians, and Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Bay Area office, said the policy’s vague language lends itself to weaponization against Palestine advocacy.[aside postID=news_12062192 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/uc-berkeley-malak-afaneh-handout_qed-1020x680.jpg']“One very important question: Is the policy being enforced in an even-handed way?” said Eugene Volokh, a former First Amendment law scholar at UCLA. “I do think that people ought to be asking, well, are you doing this fairly with regard to all viewpoints?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Volokh and other free speech advocates, however, questioned whether an argument for pedagogical autonomy works in this case, and argued that Kao’s use of the classroom to advocate for his political beliefs may have gone a step too far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In general, the protection of free speech and academic freedom of students and faculty is essential to providing for the education of students and teaching them how to think — the university’s chief role, Volokh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the same time, we have to recognize that in order for the educational process to work, there have to be limits on what is said in the classroom,” he continued. “In a classroom, I’m talking to a captive audience of students who are there to learn a particular subject, presumably not for political indoctrination.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suspension is not Kao’s first brush with the administration over his vocal support for Palestinian human rights: the letter notes a 2023 censure by a former chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences over the school’s anti-advocacy policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the beginning of the school year, Kao’s name appeared on a list of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055827/uc-berkeley-gives-trump-administration-160-names-in-antisemitism-investigation\">160 staff and faculty members whose identities UC Berkeley disclosed to the federal Department of Education\u003c/a> as part of what the university described as an antisemitism investigation. Around the same time, Kao began a 38-day hunger strike to protest the war and “how our tech is being to fuel genocide in Gaza,” the lecturer told KQED’s The Bay in October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12058103\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12058103\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-11-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-11-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-11-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-11-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sather Tower at UC Berkeley in Berkeley on Sept. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In April 2024, after dismissing students of an introductory computer science course at the end of his last lecture of the semester, Kao spoke for about four minutes about ethics in technology — using Google’s collaboration with the Israeli military as an example — and expressed solidarity with fellow educators in Gaza, according to the university’s report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kao made those comments after the end of class, and prefaced his remarks by saying that students were free to leave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But again, if you want to go, then I don’t take any offense. It’s all good. And I will try not to waste too much of your time because it’s after 2 [pm],” Kao said, according to a transcription created by the university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, Kao drew attention to his hunger strike in class, informing students that he was in poor health due to his activism — without explicitly stating that the act was in protest of the war in Gaza.[aside postID=news_12066592 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-9_qed.jpg']“Just a heads up that the lectures I give may be a little bit wobbly and poor quality,” Kao allegedly said during a class in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Based on these statements, the university determined that Kao “misused” his authority over students. Even without explicit acknowledgement of the advocacy during class time, the “visible toll” of the hunger strike, and Kao’s own admission that the strike may have affected his teaching, was enough for the university to determine it a violation of policy, Hermalin wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The University Council–American Federation of Teachers, the union that represents lecturers, filed a grievance against the “wrongful discipline” of Kao, said field representative Jessica Conte. And \u003ca href=\"https://www.stem4pal.org/\">STEM 4 Palestine\u003c/a>, a campus group that Kao co-founded, announced a hunger strike beginning Wednesday, in solidarity with Kao and other “repressed academics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Peyrin is known as a committed educator. He is not just committed to students at Berkeley,” the group told KQED by email. “Putting his own body on the line, he demonstrated public commitment to the students of Palestine, whose universities have been bombed into rubble using technology our university builds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kao maintained that all of the discussions in question took place outside of official class time, during an optional lecture that many students elected not to attend, and that the hunger strike took place entirely outside of the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were very careful not to talk about it in class with any of our students or any of my students or my staff. And it was something that I think is totally protected by the First Amendment, because I’m doing it in my own capacity,” Kao said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030970\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030970\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1358\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-800x543.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-1020x693.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-1536x1043.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-1920x1304.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pro-Palestinian protesters set up a tent encampment in front of Sproul Hall on the UC Berkeley campus on April 22, 2024, in Berkeley, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He also pushed back against the university’s claims that his ethics discussion — and his presentation on cloud-computing contracts between Google and Amazon with Israel — was not germane to the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are companies that our students are going to work for. We’re giving our students the tools that they’re then going to use to go and work for these companies and others that are complicit in this ongoing American-Israeli genocide in Gaza,” Kao said. “When you don’t talk about this, that is also making a political decision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Academic freedom enshrined in the First Amendment protects a professor’s right to discuss pedagogically relevant material during class, and allows some breathing room — as long as it’s furthering the purpose of the course, said Zach Greenberg, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.thefire.org/defending-your-rights/legal-support/faculty-legal-defense-fund\">Faculty Legal Defense Fund\u003c/a> at advocacy group FIRE. However, the university has some leeway to limit free speech of faculty within the bounds of the institution’s own academic freedom and, ultimately, to make the judgment call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The question that we always ask when it comes to political speech is, what’s related to the class and what were they speaking as a professor or as a private citizen?” Greenberg said. “And if you’re going on tangents during class or expressing a political advocacy to students during class as a professor, you’re on company time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a California state employee, Kao was entitled to a Skelly hearing, in which the proposed disciplinary action is reviewed by a third party. The lecturer met with Eric Meyer, the dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Information, but his appeal was denied, Kao said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s currently working to \u003ca href=\"https://chuffed.org/project/157643-make-back-peyrins-salary\">fundraise\u003c/a> the salary he will lose for the next semester, about $68,000, Kao said, which he vowed to donate to mutual-aid efforts in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/tgoldberg\">\u003cem>Ted Goldberg\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Peyrin Kao, a computer science instructor, was disciplined over his discussions of his pro-Palestinian activism in the classroom, raising questions about academic freedom and its limits on campus.",
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"title": "‘Your Free Speech Does Not Apply’: Suspended UC Berkeley Lecturer Speaks Out | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The suspension of a UC Berkeley computer science lecturer \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059351/the-cal-lecturer-who-went-on-a-38-day-hunger-strike-for-gaza\">who went on a hunger strike over the war in Gaza\u003c/a> and made pro-Palestinian remarks in the classroom has raised questions about free speech and the scope of academic freedom on the Bay Area campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Late last week, UC Berkeley administrators notified Peyrin Kao, 26, of his six-month unpaid suspension, effective Jan. 1, 2026. The suspension, handed down at a time of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032030/uc-berkeley-faculty-rally-to-defend-free-speech-and-protest-cuts\">heightened tensions over free speech on campus\u003c/a>, drew criticism from groups and faculty advocates, who immediately called for his reinstatement and launched a hunger strike in solidarity on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some argued that the university’s decision was a blatant violation of Kao’s First Amendment rights and part of a broader effort to chill pro-Palestinian speech on campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nxdR0hTEkSqv4LcHqp3t7SNU1BcWbrI0/view\">an October letter\u003c/a> from UC Berkeley Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Benjamin Hermalin, Kao misused the classroom “by distorting the instructional process” and deviated from “the responsibilities inherent in academic freedom” during the spring 2024 and fall 2025 semesters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kao maintains that he followed university policy by making the comments outside of official class time. He said his suspension is part of what’s called “\u003ca href=\"https://read.dukeupress.edu/critical-times/article/8/1/1/400618/Beyond-the-Palestine-Exception\">the Palestine exception\u003c/a>,” or the selective enforcement of rules to restrict Palestinian advocacy. Kao questioned whether he would have been suspended if he criticized the U.S. government or international issues that have drawn \u003ca href=\"https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/09/23/with-3-million-gift-berkeley-prepares-to-build-premier-ukrainian-studies-program/\">condemnation\u003c/a> by the university, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12066692\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12066692 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still-1536x864.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/Peyrin-at-Regents-meeting-still-1200x675.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Peyrin Kao speaking at a UC Regents meeting on Sept. 17, 2025, at UCSF Mission Bay. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Peyrin Kao )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There’s this gaping exception in this so-called free speech that our university and our country champions,” Kao told KQED. “The university loves to talk about how they are ‘the free speech university,’ ‘the home of the free speech movement,’ … but when it comes to Palestine: ‘Sorry, we’re drawing the line, your free speech does not apply.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley spokesperson Janet Gilmore declined to comment, saying the university doesn’t comment on confidential personnel matters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Hermalin’s report, Kao was accused of twice violating Regents’ Policy 2301, a \u003ca href=\"https://evcp.berkeley.edu/news/political-advocacy-academic-freedom-and-instruction\">rule\u003c/a> that explicitly prohibits “political indoctrination” as misuse of the classroom and has been frequently cited by the university to regulate campus protest in the wake of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent analysis by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062192/uc-berkeley-law-school-says-school-likely-violated-civil-rights-of-pro-palestinian-protesters\">Berkeley law students found that the university’s administration\u003c/a> enforces the rule more harshly against faculty who speak in support of Palestinians, and Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Bay Area office, said the policy’s vague language lends itself to weaponization against Palestine advocacy.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“One very important question: Is the policy being enforced in an even-handed way?” said Eugene Volokh, a former First Amendment law scholar at UCLA. “I do think that people ought to be asking, well, are you doing this fairly with regard to all viewpoints?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Volokh and other free speech advocates, however, questioned whether an argument for pedagogical autonomy works in this case, and argued that Kao’s use of the classroom to advocate for his political beliefs may have gone a step too far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In general, the protection of free speech and academic freedom of students and faculty is essential to providing for the education of students and teaching them how to think — the university’s chief role, Volokh said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the same time, we have to recognize that in order for the educational process to work, there have to be limits on what is said in the classroom,” he continued. “In a classroom, I’m talking to a captive audience of students who are there to learn a particular subject, presumably not for political indoctrination.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The suspension is not Kao’s first brush with the administration over his vocal support for Palestinian human rights: the letter notes a 2023 censure by a former chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences over the school’s anti-advocacy policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the beginning of the school year, Kao’s name appeared on a list of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055827/uc-berkeley-gives-trump-administration-160-names-in-antisemitism-investigation\">160 staff and faculty members whose identities UC Berkeley disclosed to the federal Department of Education\u003c/a> as part of what the university described as an antisemitism investigation. Around the same time, Kao began a 38-day hunger strike to protest the war and “how our tech is being to fuel genocide in Gaza,” the lecturer told KQED’s The Bay in October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12058103\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12058103\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-11-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-11-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-11-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-11-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sather Tower at UC Berkeley in Berkeley on Sept. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In April 2024, after dismissing students of an introductory computer science course at the end of his last lecture of the semester, Kao spoke for about four minutes about ethics in technology — using Google’s collaboration with the Israeli military as an example — and expressed solidarity with fellow educators in Gaza, according to the university’s report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kao made those comments after the end of class, and prefaced his remarks by saying that students were free to leave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But again, if you want to go, then I don’t take any offense. It’s all good. And I will try not to waste too much of your time because it’s after 2 [pm],” Kao said, according to a transcription created by the university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, Kao drew attention to his hunger strike in class, informing students that he was in poor health due to his activism — without explicitly stating that the act was in protest of the war in Gaza.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Just a heads up that the lectures I give may be a little bit wobbly and poor quality,” Kao allegedly said during a class in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Based on these statements, the university determined that Kao “misused” his authority over students. Even without explicit acknowledgement of the advocacy during class time, the “visible toll” of the hunger strike, and Kao’s own admission that the strike may have affected his teaching, was enough for the university to determine it a violation of policy, Hermalin wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The University Council–American Federation of Teachers, the union that represents lecturers, filed a grievance against the “wrongful discipline” of Kao, said field representative Jessica Conte. And \u003ca href=\"https://www.stem4pal.org/\">STEM 4 Palestine\u003c/a>, a campus group that Kao co-founded, announced a hunger strike beginning Wednesday, in solidarity with Kao and other “repressed academics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Peyrin is known as a committed educator. He is not just committed to students at Berkeley,” the group told KQED by email. “Putting his own body on the line, he demonstrated public commitment to the students of Palestine, whose universities have been bombed into rubble using technology our university builds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kao maintained that all of the discussions in question took place outside of official class time, during an optional lecture that many students elected not to attend, and that the hunger strike took place entirely outside of the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were very careful not to talk about it in class with any of our students or any of my students or my staff. And it was something that I think is totally protected by the First Amendment, because I’m doing it in my own capacity,” Kao said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12030970\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12030970\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1358\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-800x543.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-1020x693.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-1536x1043.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/GettyImages-2149730456-1920x1304.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pro-Palestinian protesters set up a tent encampment in front of Sproul Hall on the UC Berkeley campus on April 22, 2024, in Berkeley, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He also pushed back against the university’s claims that his ethics discussion — and his presentation on cloud-computing contracts between Google and Amazon with Israel — was not germane to the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are companies that our students are going to work for. We’re giving our students the tools that they’re then going to use to go and work for these companies and others that are complicit in this ongoing American-Israeli genocide in Gaza,” Kao said. “When you don’t talk about this, that is also making a political decision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Academic freedom enshrined in the First Amendment protects a professor’s right to discuss pedagogically relevant material during class, and allows some breathing room — as long as it’s furthering the purpose of the course, said Zach Greenberg, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.thefire.org/defending-your-rights/legal-support/faculty-legal-defense-fund\">Faculty Legal Defense Fund\u003c/a> at advocacy group FIRE. However, the university has some leeway to limit free speech of faculty within the bounds of the institution’s own academic freedom and, ultimately, to make the judgment call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The question that we always ask when it comes to political speech is, what’s related to the class and what were they speaking as a professor or as a private citizen?” Greenberg said. “And if you’re going on tangents during class or expressing a political advocacy to students during class as a professor, you’re on company time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a California state employee, Kao was entitled to a Skelly hearing, in which the proposed disciplinary action is reviewed by a third party. The lecturer met with Eric Meyer, the dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Information, but his appeal was denied, Kao said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s currently working to \u003ca href=\"https://chuffed.org/project/157643-make-back-peyrins-salary\">fundraise\u003c/a> the salary he will lose for the next semester, about $68,000, Kao said, which he vowed to donate to mutual-aid efforts in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/tgoldberg\">\u003cem>Ted Goldberg\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A hearing in the case of pro-Palestinian protesters arrested for breaking into and vandalizing the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford-university\">Stanford University\u003c/a> president’s office was marked Tuesday by heated discussions over the word genocide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the court session focused on pretrial motions — which attorneys and the judge use to lay out the ground rules for a trial — a debate over whether the term genocide should be allowed during the proceedings elicited the most impassioned arguments from defense attorneys and a deputy district attorney alike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point, defense attorneys and the county prosecutor verbally sparred over whether Israel’s actions in Gaza being characterized as a genocide is a settled fact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Using the word genocide is the same as saying the sky is blue. It is what it is,” Leah Gillis, a defense attorney in the case, said in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Robert Baker, the prosecutor heading up the case for the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, said Gillis’ comment was offensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s absolutely absurd. And I think there’s people who were murdered in World War II that would probably think that the word genocide is a lot different than just the word blue,” Baker said, raising his voice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flashpoint between attorneys in court stemmed from discussions on Tuesday about one of the central fights in the case thus far: the motivations of the protesters during their action on June 5, 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12066600\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12066600\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Robert Baker listens during a Dec. 9, 2025, pretrial hearing in San José in the case of a group of pro-Palestinian protesters charged with vandalism and conspiracy for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office last year. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gillis and other defense attorneys representing the five former and current Stanford students in the trial have emphasized in court filings and in court on Tuesday that their clients’ actions were motivated by what they believe is a genocide in Gaza, and their protest was aimed at saving Palestinian lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prosecution has questioned the validity of those arguments and has tried to limit the scope of what the jury could be influenced by during the trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very clear the whole point of this argument is to prevent the defense from blaming a country that is currently litigating that very point,” Baker said of Israel’s dispute over its actions being labeled as genocide. “It is currently the subject of litigation in the United Nations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Hanley Chew ultimately agreed to allow the use of the word genocide, he asked defense attorneys to be “very judicious” about it, and warned that if he felt they overused it, he would change his mind.[aside postID=news_12064351 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-7_qed.jpg']“I’m not going to exclude the use of the word genocide, but I don’t want the word genocide paraded throughout this trial. And if it is, I will exclude it,” Chew said. “As all of you have pointed out, the word genocide is very powerful and is very politically charged. And if I feel that the parties are exploiting that word with their own use … I will exclude its further use.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The courtroom at the Hall of Justice in San José was packed with several dozen people on Tuesday, nearly all of whom appeared to be supporting the protesters and donning keffiyehs, patterned black and white scarves that have become a visible signifier of Palestinian solidarity and resistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group of what was 12 protesters said on social media at the time they entered the university offices that they wanted Stanford leaders to “address their role in enabling and profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The action came amid a series of larger campus demonstrations aimed at pressuring the school to divest from companies that support Israel’s military bombardment in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys emphasized that international bodies and experts, such as the International Association of Genocide Scholars and an independent United Nations commission, have labeled Israel’s actions genocide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using a word like genocide is “setting the stage” for what was in the minds of their clients when they took their actions, Gillis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062229\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062229\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of Hoover Tower on the Stanford University campus in Stanford on Oct. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The prosecution asked the court to bar all use of the word genocide, arguing it is “inflammatory” and could prejudice the case, and also sought to exclude explanations of the motives of the protesters during testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker said the motives of the protesters are irrelevant to a jury trying to decide whether they are guilty of felony vandalism and conspiracy charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they were protesting the Gaza War, if they were protesting the 2020 election, if they were protesting President Biden, if they were protesting President Trump, it makes no difference,” Baker said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re going to transform this trial into a political forum rather than a search for the truth and determinative facts,” Baker said. “I think there needs to be significant limitations to sanitize what is presented to a jury.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Chew took a middle stance in his ruling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062228\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062228\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students walk and bike past the fountain outside Memorial Auditorium at Stanford University in Stanford on Oct. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’m not going to do a blanket prohibition on defendants speaking about their motivation. However, I will severely limit that ability to speak about motivation,” Chew said, noting he would ban any hearsay evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chew also decided to exclude, for now, testimony from a professor of human rights whom Gillis argued the defense should be able to use during the trial as an expert witness, to help establish facts around “Palestine and the genocide and the motivations of these young people in their request to Stanford to divest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point during the hearing, some people in the audience of the courtroom chuckled, sighed or let out brief comments in response to arguments from Baker, prompting Chew to later issue a warning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the court, and you should act in accordance with the fact that you are in a courtroom. If there are any additional outbursts, I will clear this courtroom. You understand that?” Chew said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hunter Taylor-Black, one of the defendants, said the trial amounts to “political persecution.”[aside postID=news_12065375 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-03_qed.jpg']Taylor-Black said the case from prosecutors feels “meant to discourage future student activists from acting on the things they believe in in the ways that student activists have acted in the past.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While students at campuses across the country were arrested last spring for Gaza-related demonstrations, few of those arrests resulted in felony charges or trials, making the Stanford case unusual. And defense attorneys argued earlier this year that the District Attorney’s office was overcharging the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The five defendants chose to go to trial last month, after six other protesters who were charged in the case entered into mental health diversion programs, or indicated they would take a court-offered deal that would include pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges, with a pathway to potential dismissal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One other protester, Jack Richardson, served as a witness for prosecutors in a grand jury indictment and is now enrolled in a youth deferred entry of judgment program. Such programs allow young people to eventually have a charge dismissed if they do not commit crimes while free, and often include rehabilitative requirements like counseling and community service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Germán González, also a defendant in the trial, said after the court hearing that it was disheartening to hear “genocide denialism” in the courtroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Throughout this sort of fear and anxiety that I do feel in the courtroom, I am just reminding myself that it is a privilege,” González said. “Nothing that happens in a courtroom or what happened to me is as severe as what’s happening to the Palestinians, who are facing genocide right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More pretrial conferences are scheduled this week, including a hearing over whether or not the provost of Stanford, Jenny Martinez, will be called to testify as a witness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jury selection in the trial is set to begin in early January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Robert Baker, the prosecutor heading up the case for the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, said Gillis’ comment was offensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s absolutely absurd. And I think there’s people who were murdered in World War II that would probably think that the word genocide is a lot different than just the word blue,” Baker said, raising his voice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flashpoint between attorneys in court stemmed from discussions on Tuesday about one of the central fights in the case thus far: the motivations of the protesters during their action on June 5, 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12066600\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12066600\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Robert Baker listens during a Dec. 9, 2025, pretrial hearing in San José in the case of a group of pro-Palestinian protesters charged with vandalism and conspiracy for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office last year. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gillis and other defense attorneys representing the five former and current Stanford students in the trial have emphasized in court filings and in court on Tuesday that their clients’ actions were motivated by what they believe is a genocide in Gaza, and their protest was aimed at saving Palestinian lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prosecution has questioned the validity of those arguments and has tried to limit the scope of what the jury could be influenced by during the trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very clear the whole point of this argument is to prevent the defense from blaming a country that is currently litigating that very point,” Baker said of Israel’s dispute over its actions being labeled as genocide. “It is currently the subject of litigation in the United Nations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Hanley Chew ultimately agreed to allow the use of the word genocide, he asked defense attorneys to be “very judicious” about it, and warned that if he felt they overused it, he would change his mind.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I’m not going to exclude the use of the word genocide, but I don’t want the word genocide paraded throughout this trial. And if it is, I will exclude it,” Chew said. “As all of you have pointed out, the word genocide is very powerful and is very politically charged. And if I feel that the parties are exploiting that word with their own use … I will exclude its further use.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The courtroom at the Hall of Justice in San José was packed with several dozen people on Tuesday, nearly all of whom appeared to be supporting the protesters and donning keffiyehs, patterned black and white scarves that have become a visible signifier of Palestinian solidarity and resistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group of what was 12 protesters said on social media at the time they entered the university offices that they wanted Stanford leaders to “address their role in enabling and profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The action came amid a series of larger campus demonstrations aimed at pressuring the school to divest from companies that support Israel’s military bombardment in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys emphasized that international bodies and experts, such as the International Association of Genocide Scholars and an independent United Nations commission, have labeled Israel’s actions genocide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using a word like genocide is “setting the stage” for what was in the minds of their clients when they took their actions, Gillis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062229\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062229\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of Hoover Tower on the Stanford University campus in Stanford on Oct. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The prosecution asked the court to bar all use of the word genocide, arguing it is “inflammatory” and could prejudice the case, and also sought to exclude explanations of the motives of the protesters during testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker said the motives of the protesters are irrelevant to a jury trying to decide whether they are guilty of felony vandalism and conspiracy charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they were protesting the Gaza War, if they were protesting the 2020 election, if they were protesting President Biden, if they were protesting President Trump, it makes no difference,” Baker said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re going to transform this trial into a political forum rather than a search for the truth and determinative facts,” Baker said. “I think there needs to be significant limitations to sanitize what is presented to a jury.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Chew took a middle stance in his ruling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062228\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062228\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students walk and bike past the fountain outside Memorial Auditorium at Stanford University in Stanford on Oct. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’m not going to do a blanket prohibition on defendants speaking about their motivation. However, I will severely limit that ability to speak about motivation,” Chew said, noting he would ban any hearsay evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chew also decided to exclude, for now, testimony from a professor of human rights whom Gillis argued the defense should be able to use during the trial as an expert witness, to help establish facts around “Palestine and the genocide and the motivations of these young people in their request to Stanford to divest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point during the hearing, some people in the audience of the courtroom chuckled, sighed or let out brief comments in response to arguments from Baker, prompting Chew to later issue a warning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the court, and you should act in accordance with the fact that you are in a courtroom. If there are any additional outbursts, I will clear this courtroom. You understand that?” Chew said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hunter Taylor-Black, one of the defendants, said the trial amounts to “political persecution.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Taylor-Black said the case from prosecutors feels “meant to discourage future student activists from acting on the things they believe in in the ways that student activists have acted in the past.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While students at campuses across the country were arrested last spring for Gaza-related demonstrations, few of those arrests resulted in felony charges or trials, making the Stanford case unusual. And defense attorneys argued earlier this year that the District Attorney’s office was overcharging the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The five defendants chose to go to trial last month, after six other protesters who were charged in the case entered into mental health diversion programs, or indicated they would take a court-offered deal that would include pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges, with a pathway to potential dismissal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One other protester, Jack Richardson, served as a witness for prosecutors in a grand jury indictment and is now enrolled in a youth deferred entry of judgment program. Such programs allow young people to eventually have a charge dismissed if they do not commit crimes while free, and often include rehabilitative requirements like counseling and community service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Germán González, also a defendant in the trial, said after the court hearing that it was disheartening to hear “genocide denialism” in the courtroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Throughout this sort of fear and anxiety that I do feel in the courtroom, I am just reminding myself that it is a privilege,” González said. “Nothing that happens in a courtroom or what happened to me is as severe as what’s happening to the Palestinians, who are facing genocide right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More pretrial conferences are scheduled this week, including a hearing over whether or not the provost of Stanford, Jenny Martinez, will be called to testify as a witness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jury selection in the trial is set to begin in early January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A congressional committee on Monday launched a new investigation into reports of antisemitism into \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/berkeley-unified-school-district\">Berkeley’s school district\u003c/a>, raising concerns that the schools failed to protect Jewish students’ civil rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The House of Representatives’ Education and Workforce Committee outlined the allegations in a letter sent to three school districts nationwide: Berkeley Unified School District, Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia and the School District of Philadelphia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Jewish and Israeli students have allegedly been regularly bullied and harassed,” since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the letter from Education and Workforce Committee Chair Tim Walberg (R–Michigan) and Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee Chair Kevin Kiley (R–California).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The committee said that Jewish students in Berkeley schools were “subjected to open antisemitism in their classrooms and hallways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some teachers and administrators across BUSD allegedly facilitate and encourage this hostility, while others fail to act in response to it,” the letter from Walberg and Kiley continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley’s school district has been at the center of federal antisemitism investigations in K-12 schools since February 2024, when the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League filed a formal complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, alleging that Jewish students had been subject to “severe and persistent” discrimination in Berkeley schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12065383\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12065383\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Berkeley High School in Berkeley on May 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That May, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985599/berkeley-antisemitism-hearing\">BUSD’s Superintendent, Enikia Ford Morthel, testified\u003c/a> before Congress in proceedings led by Republican lawmakers — similar to those held months earlier with leaders of prominent colleges and universities. She said that antisemitism is not pervasive in Berkeley schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Berkeley parents and advocates who believe the district has continuously failed to investigate alleged antisemitism praised the new investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s necessary and … good because the complaints against Berkeley Unified have not yet been resolved,” said Marci Miller, the Director of Legal Investigations with the Brandeis Center, which is run by a former education department official from Trump’s first administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And, because when the Superintendent was called before Congress last time, there seemed to be a lack of accountability or even acknowledging that there was an issue in the first place,” she continued.[aside postID=news_11985599 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/GettyImages-2152066925-1020x680.jpg']The committee letter cited specific incidents of antisemitism at BUSD schools in recent years, including an allegation that during a pro-Palestinian walkout at Berkeley High School in 2023, students yelled “\u003ca href=\"https://brandeiscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Brandeis-Center-ADL-Complaint.pdf\">Kill the Jews\u003c/a>,” and that a teacher at the school displayed a photo of a fist destroying the Star of David, describing it as “\u003ca href=\"https://defendinged.org/incidents/berkeley-high-school-teacher-displays-image-to-class-of-a-fist-destroying-the-star-of-david-over-israel/\">standing up for social justice\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parent Ilana Pearlman, who pulled one of her children out of BUSD over antisemitism concerns, said she’s filed multiple complaints with the district that have gone unaddressed for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s that sense of, ‘I told my parents something, I told my teacher something that happened, and nobody did anything,’” she told KQED. “That’s kind of how I feel in the district in general. I, as an adult, said, ‘These things have happened,’ and nobody’s done anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller said there have been more than 100 such complaints lodged with BUSD since January 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What matters is the takeaway and the impact that that still has on my children of this noticing … that it might be unsafe to be Jewish,” Pearlman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district said in an email on Tuesday that it would respond “appropriately” to the Committee’s letter, which demands a plethora of documents related to curriculum, school activities, partnerships and contracts that refer or relate to Jews, Judaism, Israel, Palestine, Zionism or antisemitism, as well as a chart of all complaints of antisemitism the district has received since Oct. 7, 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11973563\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11973563 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/1st-Day-of-Middle-School-10-1-scaled-1-e1764117061286.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman stands with her hands raised next to a white woman in a classroom.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Enikia Ford Morthel, Berkeley schools superintendent, right, speaks to a classroom on the first day of middle school on Aug. 16, 2003. \u003ccite>(Kelly Sullivan/Berkeleyside)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A BUSD spokesperson added that Ford Morthel addressed the specific claims of the letter at the May 2024 hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our babies sometimes say hurtful things. We are mindful that all kids make mistakes,” Ford Morthel told lawmakers at the time. “We know that our staff are not immune to missteps either, and we don’t ignore them when they occur.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also said that when students and staff district addressed alleged incidents of antisemitism through education, restorative justice and discipline.[aside postID=news_12064351 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-7_qed.jpg']“We do not publish our actions because student information is private and legally protected under federal and state law,” she told lawmakers at the time. “As a result, some believe we do nothing. This is not true.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley substitute teacher Christina Harb, who is Palestinian American, said that some of the allegations had been disproven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s only one parent that makes the claim that she heard [‘Kill the Jews’],” during the walkout mentioned in the letter, Harb told KQED. She said another incident lawmakers cited, that a teacher allegedly put a drawing by students that said ‘Stop Bombing Babies’ outside the one Jewish teacher at the school’s classroom, was taken out of context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was not placed outside of her classroom because it’s her classroom. It was placed on an anti-hate wall that’s been in place since 2017,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harb believes that BUSD teachers and administrators have done their due diligence to address antisemitism concerns. She said she’s worried that the current investigation will instead be used to silence Muslim and Palestinian kids in Berkeley schools — a number of whom have reported incidents of discrimination to the district, and even filed their own ongoing federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just really clear that BUSD is just being used really as a chess piece in a much, much broader agenda — a pro-Israel agenda,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A congressional committee on Monday launched a new investigation into reports of antisemitism into \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/berkeley-unified-school-district\">Berkeley’s school district\u003c/a>, raising concerns that the schools failed to protect Jewish students’ civil rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The House of Representatives’ Education and Workforce Committee outlined the allegations in a letter sent to three school districts nationwide: Berkeley Unified School District, Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia and the School District of Philadelphia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Jewish and Israeli students have allegedly been regularly bullied and harassed,” since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the letter from Education and Workforce Committee Chair Tim Walberg (R–Michigan) and Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee Chair Kevin Kiley (R–California).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The committee said that Jewish students in Berkeley schools were “subjected to open antisemitism in their classrooms and hallways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some teachers and administrators across BUSD allegedly facilitate and encourage this hostility, while others fail to act in response to it,” the letter from Walberg and Kiley continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley’s school district has been at the center of federal antisemitism investigations in K-12 schools since February 2024, when the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League filed a formal complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, alleging that Jewish students had been subject to “severe and persistent” discrimination in Berkeley schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12065383\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12065383\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-02_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Berkeley High School in Berkeley on May 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That May, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985599/berkeley-antisemitism-hearing\">BUSD’s Superintendent, Enikia Ford Morthel, testified\u003c/a> before Congress in proceedings led by Republican lawmakers — similar to those held months earlier with leaders of prominent colleges and universities. She said that antisemitism is not pervasive in Berkeley schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Berkeley parents and advocates who believe the district has continuously failed to investigate alleged antisemitism praised the new investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s necessary and … good because the complaints against Berkeley Unified have not yet been resolved,” said Marci Miller, the Director of Legal Investigations with the Brandeis Center, which is run by a former education department official from Trump’s first administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And, because when the Superintendent was called before Congress last time, there seemed to be a lack of accountability or even acknowledging that there was an issue in the first place,” she continued.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The committee letter cited specific incidents of antisemitism at BUSD schools in recent years, including an allegation that during a pro-Palestinian walkout at Berkeley High School in 2023, students yelled “\u003ca href=\"https://brandeiscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Brandeis-Center-ADL-Complaint.pdf\">Kill the Jews\u003c/a>,” and that a teacher at the school displayed a photo of a fist destroying the Star of David, describing it as “\u003ca href=\"https://defendinged.org/incidents/berkeley-high-school-teacher-displays-image-to-class-of-a-fist-destroying-the-star-of-david-over-israel/\">standing up for social justice\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parent Ilana Pearlman, who pulled one of her children out of BUSD over antisemitism concerns, said she’s filed multiple complaints with the district that have gone unaddressed for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s that sense of, ‘I told my parents something, I told my teacher something that happened, and nobody did anything,’” she told KQED. “That’s kind of how I feel in the district in general. I, as an adult, said, ‘These things have happened,’ and nobody’s done anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller said there have been more than 100 such complaints lodged with BUSD since January 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What matters is the takeaway and the impact that that still has on my children of this noticing … that it might be unsafe to be Jewish,” Pearlman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district said in an email on Tuesday that it would respond “appropriately” to the Committee’s letter, which demands a plethora of documents related to curriculum, school activities, partnerships and contracts that refer or relate to Jews, Judaism, Israel, Palestine, Zionism or antisemitism, as well as a chart of all complaints of antisemitism the district has received since Oct. 7, 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11973563\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11973563 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/1st-Day-of-Middle-School-10-1-scaled-1-e1764117061286.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman stands with her hands raised next to a white woman in a classroom.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Enikia Ford Morthel, Berkeley schools superintendent, right, speaks to a classroom on the first day of middle school on Aug. 16, 2003. \u003ccite>(Kelly Sullivan/Berkeleyside)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A BUSD spokesperson added that Ford Morthel addressed the specific claims of the letter at the May 2024 hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our babies sometimes say hurtful things. We are mindful that all kids make mistakes,” Ford Morthel told lawmakers at the time. “We know that our staff are not immune to missteps either, and we don’t ignore them when they occur.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also said that when students and staff district addressed alleged incidents of antisemitism through education, restorative justice and discipline.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We do not publish our actions because student information is private and legally protected under federal and state law,” she told lawmakers at the time. “As a result, some believe we do nothing. This is not true.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley substitute teacher Christina Harb, who is Palestinian American, said that some of the allegations had been disproven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s only one parent that makes the claim that she heard [‘Kill the Jews’],” during the walkout mentioned in the letter, Harb told KQED. She said another incident lawmakers cited, that a teacher allegedly put a drawing by students that said ‘Stop Bombing Babies’ outside the one Jewish teacher at the school’s classroom, was taken out of context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was not placed outside of her classroom because it’s her classroom. It was placed on an anti-hate wall that’s been in place since 2017,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harb believes that BUSD teachers and administrators have done their due diligence to address antisemitism concerns. She said she’s worried that the current investigation will instead be used to silence Muslim and Palestinian kids in Berkeley schools — a number of whom have reported incidents of discrimination to the district, and even filed their own ongoing federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just really clear that BUSD is just being used really as a chess piece in a much, much broader agenda — a pro-Israel agenda,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Protestors gathered outside \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>’s George Moscone Center on Tuesday at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/microsoft\">Microsoft\u003c/a>’s largest annual conference to demand that the tech giant cut all remaining ties with the Israeli military.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group of former and current Microsoft workers descended on Microsoft Ignite, which had attracted over 15,000 attendees to showcase the company’s latest cloud and Artificial Intelligence innovations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Organized by the group No Azure for Apartheid, the demonstrators claim that despite recent policy changes, Microsoft continues to provide essential cloud computing services supporting Israel’s military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Microsoft thinks that they can pacify us with these half measures,” said Joe Lopez, a former engineer who disrupted CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote speech in May. “We are here until Microsoft cuts all ties with Israel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After reports surfaced that the company’s technology was being used for mass surveillance of Palestinians, Microsoft reportedly cut off access to some of its services for Unit 8200, an Israeli military intelligence unit. It also introduced a new internal reporting mechanism for employees to flag practices that they believe may violate company policies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064638\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064638\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-07-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-07-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-07-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Microsoft employee Hossam Nasr leads pro-Palestinian protesters rallying outside of the Microsoft Ignite conference in San Francisco in chants and calling on the company to cut ties with the Israeli military and government on Nov. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the protesters argued that this step was insufficient, claiming the company still maintains contracts with other branches of the Israeli military and government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also called attention to Microsoft Azure, a cloud computing platform that allows clients to rent powerful computing and storage capacity over the internet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Organizer and former Microsoft worker Hossam Nasr explained that modern military operations require massive data processing for surveillance and AI targeting systems, capabilities that the Israeli government cannot maintain without external support from major tech firms.[aside postID=news_12064351 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-7_qed.jpg']He referred to cloud and AI services as “the bombs and bullets of the 21st century.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Israeli military would not have been able to be as destructive, as deadly, as brutal in its genocide in Gaza, if it were not for the technology provided by Microsoft,” Nasr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the rally unfolded outside the conference center, there was a disruption inside — Microsoft employee Patrick Fort interrupted CEO Judson Althoff’s opening keynote speech and resigned in protest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fort, a senior software engineer who had been at Microsoft for seven years, worked on systems supporting the Azure platform. He said he sent a mass resignation email to his colleagues before standing up in the bleachers to shout at Althoff. He was then escorted out by personnel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I recognize that my work at Microsoft, my labor, is enabling the genocide in some small way,” Fort told KQED shortly after leaving the venue. “The only way I saw to effectively stop that was to leave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064642\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064642\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-09-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Patrick Fort and other pro-Palestinian protesters rally outside of the Microsoft Ignite conference in San Francisco to call on the company to cut ties with the Israel military and government on Nov. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a statement responding to Monday’s protest, a Microsoft spokesperson said that “appropriate teams are engaged to help minimize these disruptions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We respect the right to peaceful assembly and ask that it be done in a way that does not cause business disruption,” the statement read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fort acknowledged that for many tech workers, the conflict can feel distant, but he urged his former colleagues to consider the downstream effects of the software they build.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We all have to draw a line for what our work enables,” Fort said. “Ultimately, I believe that we, as individuals, have to think more than just [about] our own self-interest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Microsoft thinks that they can pacify us with these half measures,” said Joe Lopez, a former engineer who disrupted CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote speech in May. “We are here until Microsoft cuts all ties with Israel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After reports surfaced that the company’s technology was being used for mass surveillance of Palestinians, Microsoft reportedly cut off access to some of its services for Unit 8200, an Israeli military intelligence unit. It also introduced a new internal reporting mechanism for employees to flag practices that they believe may violate company policies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064638\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064638\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-07-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-07-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-07-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Microsoft employee Hossam Nasr leads pro-Palestinian protesters rallying outside of the Microsoft Ignite conference in San Francisco in chants and calling on the company to cut ties with the Israeli military and government on Nov. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the protesters argued that this step was insufficient, claiming the company still maintains contracts with other branches of the Israeli military and government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also called attention to Microsoft Azure, a cloud computing platform that allows clients to rent powerful computing and storage capacity over the internet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Organizer and former Microsoft worker Hossam Nasr explained that modern military operations require massive data processing for surveillance and AI targeting systems, capabilities that the Israeli government cannot maintain without external support from major tech firms.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>He referred to cloud and AI services as “the bombs and bullets of the 21st century.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Israeli military would not have been able to be as destructive, as deadly, as brutal in its genocide in Gaza, if it were not for the technology provided by Microsoft,” Nasr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the rally unfolded outside the conference center, there was a disruption inside — Microsoft employee Patrick Fort interrupted CEO Judson Althoff’s opening keynote speech and resigned in protest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fort, a senior software engineer who had been at Microsoft for seven years, worked on systems supporting the Azure platform. He said he sent a mass resignation email to his colleagues before standing up in the bleachers to shout at Althoff. He was then escorted out by personnel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I recognize that my work at Microsoft, my labor, is enabling the genocide in some small way,” Fort told KQED shortly after leaving the venue. “The only way I saw to effectively stop that was to leave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064642\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064642\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251119-MICROSOFT-GAZA-PROTEST-MD-09-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Patrick Fort and other pro-Palestinian protesters rally outside of the Microsoft Ignite conference in San Francisco to call on the company to cut ties with the Israel military and government on Nov. 18, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a statement responding to Monday’s protest, a Microsoft spokesperson said that “appropriate teams are engaged to help minimize these disruptions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We respect the right to peaceful assembly and ask that it be done in a way that does not cause business disruption,” the statement read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fort acknowledged that for many tech workers, the conflict can feel distant, but he urged his former colleagues to consider the downstream effects of the software they build.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We all have to draw a line for what our work enables,” Fort said. “Ultimately, I believe that we, as individuals, have to think more than just [about] our own self-interest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Nearly a year and a half after a group of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/pro-palestinian-protest\">pro-Palestinian protesters\u003c/a> were arrested for breaking into and vandalizing the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford-university\">Stanford University\u003c/a> president’s office, a trial is set to get underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of five protesters is scheduled to go to trial on Nov. 24. They face felony vandalism and conspiracy charges stemming from a grand jury indictment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While hundreds of students have been arrested at college campuses across the country for protest-related activity since the war in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gaza\">Gaza\u003c/a> began, few of the cases have progressed this far. Attorneys for the defendants and their supporters have accused the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office of seeking overly harsh punishment to quell further protests and speech.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday morning, three other protesters told the court they intend to take a deal offered to them by a judge, which would require them to plead guilty to misdemeanors, a plan opposed by prosecutors. Three other protesters recently enrolled in mental health diversion programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The details of the misdemeanor deal remain vague for now, but attorneys for those defendants said it would likely include a path for their clients to ultimately have the charges dismissed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EmilyRose Johns, an attorney representing Cameron Pennington, said the deal would likely require her client to perform community service and avoid any criminal behavior for a certain amount of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064524\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064524\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hunter Taylor-Black, center, one of five pro-Palestinian protesters going to trial for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office, speaks to a group of supporters outside the Hall of Justice in San José on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The court has indicated that if they’re successful, it may ultimately allow withdrawal of the plea and a diversion deal, which would mean that the clients have no conviction history,” Johns told KQED after a court hearing on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office oppose the deal, which attorneys said was offered late last week to all the defendants by Judge Deborah Ryan, following private discussions between attorneys and Ryan in court chambers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office didn’t respond to a request for comment on Monday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The judge is the current arbiter of justice. The judge is the person who decides what is just and appropriate and can dismiss cases over the district attorney’s objection and can make court offers to clients over the district attorney’s objection,” Johns said.[aside postID=news_12035346 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-10-KQED-1020x680.jpg']“The reason that misdemeanors are even on the table is that Judge Ryan has indicated that she didn’t believe this resembled felony conduct,” Johns said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case stems from a June 5, 2024, action by a group of a dozen protesters, mostly made up of current or former Stanford students at the time, who broke into the president’s office in the early morning hours and barricaded themselves inside before being arrested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group said on social media at the time they wanted Stanford leaders to “address their role in enabling and profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.” It came amid a series of larger campus demonstrations aimed at pressuring the school to divest from companies that support Israel’s military bombardment in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in April, when he brought initial felony charges against the group, that they “crossed the clear and bright line between dissent and destruction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiden Wang, one of the defendants who intends to take the court deal, said the group’s actions fit into a legacy of protest in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that our action is part of the long history of activism in the Bay Area,” Wang said. “The Bay Area seems to be one of the earliest brewing grounds for these types of actions and these kinds of resistance towards systems of oppression.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11989555\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11989555\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-15-1-e1744310968489.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Building 10 at Stanford University, where pro-Palestinian protesters broke into the university president’s office and occupied it before being arrested on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The protesters who intend to take the deal, as well as those who are headed to trial, will all still have to contend with the issue of a $329,000 claim for restitution by Stanford for damages caused by the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tony Brass, an attorney representing Hunter Taylor-Black, who is proceeding to trial, said Stanford has refused to talk with attorneys about the figure, which could amount to “crippling debt” for some of the protesters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brass said the number could increase or decrease after a restitution hearing, and Stanford’s lack of engagement on the topic makes it hard to know what consequences his client and others may face, and is part of the reason they are going to trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What they’re trying to avoid is unknown consequences, unfair consequences, extreme consequences. And this could all be clarified,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064526\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064526\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A group of supporters gathered for a rally outside the Hall of Justice in San José on Nov. 17, 2025, after a court hearing for a group of pro-Palestinian protesters indicted for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One other protester, Jack Richardson, served as a witness for prosecutors in the grand jury and is now enrolled in a youth deferred judgment program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brass and other attorneys have also taken issue with the district attorney’s motions asking a judge to ban any mention of the word “genocide” from the trial. In those filings, the DA’s office said the word “genocide” is “inflammatory” and would prejudice the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rosen’s office also filed motions asking to exclude the motives behind the actions of the protesters, saying the defense will likely “attempt to use this trial as another form of protest,” instead of focusing on guilt or innocence.[aside postID=news_12063531 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg']“What matters is only that they agreed to occupy the building and that vandalism was necessary to accomplish the occupation. Their reasons for doing so have no relevance to the issues the jury will be asked to decide,” the filings say. “While such evidence might be relevant at sentencing, it serves no purpose at jury trial.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DA’s filings said the defense will attempt to “make this proceeding an extension of the June 5, 2024, political protest by falsely accusing Stanford University of supporting genocide.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brass said those motions show Rosen is trying to “present this trial completely sanitized,” without full context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These students were acting for a greater good. And their inaction was something they, out of a sense of conscience, couldn’t live with,” Brass said. “They had to draw more attention to it, had to amplify their voice, and this is what they did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also noted that the protesters went into the building when it was empty and did not harm anyone or threaten anyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maya Burke, one of the protesters going to trial, said the motions trying to limit the scope of the defendant’s arguments are “alarming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Burke said they are seeking justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are war crimes on,” Burke said, “and I would hope to see that acknowledged in the court and acknowledged in public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Nearly a year and a half after a group of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/pro-palestinian-protest\">pro-Palestinian protesters\u003c/a> were arrested for breaking into and vandalizing the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford-university\">Stanford University\u003c/a> president’s office, a trial is set to get underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of five protesters is scheduled to go to trial on Nov. 24. They face felony vandalism and conspiracy charges stemming from a grand jury indictment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While hundreds of students have been arrested at college campuses across the country for protest-related activity since the war in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gaza\">Gaza\u003c/a> began, few of the cases have progressed this far. Attorneys for the defendants and their supporters have accused the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office of seeking overly harsh punishment to quell further protests and speech.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday morning, three other protesters told the court they intend to take a deal offered to them by a judge, which would require them to plead guilty to misdemeanors, a plan opposed by prosecutors. Three other protesters recently enrolled in mental health diversion programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The details of the misdemeanor deal remain vague for now, but attorneys for those defendants said it would likely include a path for their clients to ultimately have the charges dismissed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EmilyRose Johns, an attorney representing Cameron Pennington, said the deal would likely require her client to perform community service and avoid any criminal behavior for a certain amount of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064524\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064524\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hunter Taylor-Black, center, one of five pro-Palestinian protesters going to trial for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office, speaks to a group of supporters outside the Hall of Justice in San José on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The court has indicated that if they’re successful, it may ultimately allow withdrawal of the plea and a diversion deal, which would mean that the clients have no conviction history,” Johns told KQED after a court hearing on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office oppose the deal, which attorneys said was offered late last week to all the defendants by Judge Deborah Ryan, following private discussions between attorneys and Ryan in court chambers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office didn’t respond to a request for comment on Monday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The judge is the current arbiter of justice. The judge is the person who decides what is just and appropriate and can dismiss cases over the district attorney’s objection and can make court offers to clients over the district attorney’s objection,” Johns said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The reason that misdemeanors are even on the table is that Judge Ryan has indicated that she didn’t believe this resembled felony conduct,” Johns said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case stems from a June 5, 2024, action by a group of a dozen protesters, mostly made up of current or former Stanford students at the time, who broke into the president’s office in the early morning hours and barricaded themselves inside before being arrested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group said on social media at the time they wanted Stanford leaders to “address their role in enabling and profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.” It came amid a series of larger campus demonstrations aimed at pressuring the school to divest from companies that support Israel’s military bombardment in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in April, when he brought initial felony charges against the group, that they “crossed the clear and bright line between dissent and destruction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiden Wang, one of the defendants who intends to take the court deal, said the group’s actions fit into a legacy of protest in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that our action is part of the long history of activism in the Bay Area,” Wang said. “The Bay Area seems to be one of the earliest brewing grounds for these types of actions and these kinds of resistance towards systems of oppression.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11989555\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11989555\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-15-1-e1744310968489.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Building 10 at Stanford University, where pro-Palestinian protesters broke into the university president’s office and occupied it before being arrested on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The protesters who intend to take the deal, as well as those who are headed to trial, will all still have to contend with the issue of a $329,000 claim for restitution by Stanford for damages caused by the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tony Brass, an attorney representing Hunter Taylor-Black, who is proceeding to trial, said Stanford has refused to talk with attorneys about the figure, which could amount to “crippling debt” for some of the protesters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brass said the number could increase or decrease after a restitution hearing, and Stanford’s lack of engagement on the topic makes it hard to know what consequences his client and others may face, and is part of the reason they are going to trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What they’re trying to avoid is unknown consequences, unfair consequences, extreme consequences. And this could all be clarified,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064526\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064526\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A group of supporters gathered for a rally outside the Hall of Justice in San José on Nov. 17, 2025, after a court hearing for a group of pro-Palestinian protesters indicted for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One other protester, Jack Richardson, served as a witness for prosecutors in the grand jury and is now enrolled in a youth deferred judgment program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brass and other attorneys have also taken issue with the district attorney’s motions asking a judge to ban any mention of the word “genocide” from the trial. In those filings, the DA’s office said the word “genocide” is “inflammatory” and would prejudice the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rosen’s office also filed motions asking to exclude the motives behind the actions of the protesters, saying the defense will likely “attempt to use this trial as another form of protest,” instead of focusing on guilt or innocence.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“What matters is only that they agreed to occupy the building and that vandalism was necessary to accomplish the occupation. Their reasons for doing so have no relevance to the issues the jury will be asked to decide,” the filings say. “While such evidence might be relevant at sentencing, it serves no purpose at jury trial.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DA’s filings said the defense will attempt to “make this proceeding an extension of the June 5, 2024, political protest by falsely accusing Stanford University of supporting genocide.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brass said those motions show Rosen is trying to “present this trial completely sanitized,” without full context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These students were acting for a greater good. And their inaction was something they, out of a sense of conscience, couldn’t live with,” Brass said. “They had to draw more attention to it, had to amplify their voice, and this is what they did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also noted that the protesters went into the building when it was empty and did not harm anyone or threaten anyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maya Burke, one of the protesters going to trial, said the motions trying to limit the scope of the defendant’s arguments are “alarming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Burke said they are seeking justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are war crimes on,” Burke said, “and I would hope to see that acknowledged in the court and acknowledged in public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "golden-gate-bridge-agency-drops-163k-restitution-claim-against-pro-palestinian-protesters",
"title": "Golden Gate Bridge Agency Drops $163K Restitution Claim Against Pro-Palestinian Protesters",
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"headTitle": "Golden Gate Bridge Agency Drops $163K Restitution Claim Against Pro-Palestinian Protesters | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The agency that operates the Golden Gate Bridge has withdrawn its nearly $163,000 restitution claim against \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982940/protesters-shut-down-880-freeway-in-oakland-as-part-of-economic-blockade-for-gaza\">activists who blocked the bridge\u003c/a> for hours in April last year as part of a pro-Palestinian protest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District filed the claim to cover the estimated loss of toll revenue after protesters shut down the bridge for roughly four hours on April 15, 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The claim appeared to mark the first time that bridge operators sought financial compensation for a traffic disruption, sparking accusations that the protesters were being retaliated against for their support of Palestinians and their criticism of the United States military support for Israel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the bridge district confirmed that the claim had been withdrawn but declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday morning, lawyers representing the activists announced the withdrawal in San Francisco Superior Court and said they had reached agreements with six of the nine individuals who filed restitution claims, mostly for the wages lost due to being stuck on the bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Brian J. Stretch ultimately found that protesters would have to collectively pay just under $5,300 to the nine people for the losses they incurred. Divided among the 16 defendants who had agreed to a diversion program, which includes paying restitution, Stretch said the total would come out to $331.16 per person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11975875\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11975875\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters block traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge on Feb. 14, 2024. \u003ccite>(Juan Carlos Lara/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Individually and as a group, it’s a win for people to get cases dismissed, but it’s not a win in terms of what’s going on in the world,” said Bobbie Stein, a lawyer representing one of the protesters. “This district attorney’s office has aggressively prosecuted these cases where people were exercising their First Amendment rights, their dissent and their outrage over the genocide that’s taking place in Gaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the days immediately following the protest, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/BrookeJenkinsSF/status/1780616603954204930\">posted to social media\u003c/a>, encouraging people affected by the shutdown to seek potential compensation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Activists and their supporters accused the district attorney of targeting the protesters for their support of Palestinians and using the restitution process against them. They also compared their case to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058280/stanford-pro-palestine-protestors-indicted-for-barricading-presidents-office\">Stanford pro-Palestinian protesters also facing restitution\u003c/a> claims for barricading themselves inside the university president’s office in June last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it is a calculated tactic to weaponize restitution, to chill people’s First Amendment rights, to chill people’s actions, to make them think, ‘No, I better not do that because I’m going to be liable for so much money. I can’t afford to exercise my rights,’” Stein said.[aside postID=news_12062192 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/uc-berkeley-malak-afaneh-handout_qed-1020x680.jpg']EmilyRose Johns, another defense attorney in the case, said the outreach from Jenkins encouraged people to be more “imaginative.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What happened as a result of the overzealous solicitation for individuals who have claims for restitution is that people became very creative in how they evaluated their losses and their harm,” Johns said. “What we endeavored to do in this hearing is to understand the actual economic loss that people suffered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district attorney’s office declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the restitution claims settled, the defendants who accepted the court’s diversion offers have one less barrier left to closing their cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the 10 remaining activists who were arrested, two declined the option of diversion and opted to take their cases to trial. The remaining eight face more serious charges, including felony conspiracy, and lawyers said the closure of the restitution issue could help them as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly a year ago, lawyers for the activists sought to reduce the felony charges to misdemeanors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Brendan P. Conroy said at the time that he might have considered downgrading the charges, but didn’t because of the restitution amount.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m hoping that with the settlement of restitution claims that there won’t be a barrier to reducing the felony cases to misdemeanors,” Stein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Golden Gate Bridge District’s decision to drop its restitution claim ends a dispute that had drawn criticism from activists who said San Francisco officials were punishing protesters for their pro-Palestinian stance and attempting to deter future demonstrations.",
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"title": "Golden Gate Bridge Agency Drops $163K Restitution Claim Against Pro-Palestinian Protesters | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The agency that operates the Golden Gate Bridge has withdrawn its nearly $163,000 restitution claim against \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982940/protesters-shut-down-880-freeway-in-oakland-as-part-of-economic-blockade-for-gaza\">activists who blocked the bridge\u003c/a> for hours in April last year as part of a pro-Palestinian protest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District filed the claim to cover the estimated loss of toll revenue after protesters shut down the bridge for roughly four hours on April 15, 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The claim appeared to mark the first time that bridge operators sought financial compensation for a traffic disruption, sparking accusations that the protesters were being retaliated against for their support of Palestinians and their criticism of the United States military support for Israel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the bridge district confirmed that the claim had been withdrawn but declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday morning, lawyers representing the activists announced the withdrawal in San Francisco Superior Court and said they had reached agreements with six of the nine individuals who filed restitution claims, mostly for the wages lost due to being stuck on the bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Brian J. Stretch ultimately found that protesters would have to collectively pay just under $5,300 to the nine people for the losses they incurred. Divided among the 16 defendants who had agreed to a diversion program, which includes paying restitution, Stretch said the total would come out to $331.16 per person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11975875\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11975875\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-04-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters block traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge on Feb. 14, 2024. \u003ccite>(Juan Carlos Lara/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Individually and as a group, it’s a win for people to get cases dismissed, but it’s not a win in terms of what’s going on in the world,” said Bobbie Stein, a lawyer representing one of the protesters. “This district attorney’s office has aggressively prosecuted these cases where people were exercising their First Amendment rights, their dissent and their outrage over the genocide that’s taking place in Gaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the days immediately following the protest, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/BrookeJenkinsSF/status/1780616603954204930\">posted to social media\u003c/a>, encouraging people affected by the shutdown to seek potential compensation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Activists and their supporters accused the district attorney of targeting the protesters for their support of Palestinians and using the restitution process against them. They also compared their case to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058280/stanford-pro-palestine-protestors-indicted-for-barricading-presidents-office\">Stanford pro-Palestinian protesters also facing restitution\u003c/a> claims for barricading themselves inside the university president’s office in June last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it is a calculated tactic to weaponize restitution, to chill people’s First Amendment rights, to chill people’s actions, to make them think, ‘No, I better not do that because I’m going to be liable for so much money. I can’t afford to exercise my rights,’” Stein said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>EmilyRose Johns, another defense attorney in the case, said the outreach from Jenkins encouraged people to be more “imaginative.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What happened as a result of the overzealous solicitation for individuals who have claims for restitution is that people became very creative in how they evaluated their losses and their harm,” Johns said. “What we endeavored to do in this hearing is to understand the actual economic loss that people suffered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district attorney’s office declined to comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the restitution claims settled, the defendants who accepted the court’s diversion offers have one less barrier left to closing their cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the 10 remaining activists who were arrested, two declined the option of diversion and opted to take their cases to trial. The remaining eight face more serious charges, including felony conspiracy, and lawyers said the closure of the restitution issue could help them as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly a year ago, lawyers for the activists sought to reduce the felony charges to misdemeanors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Brendan P. Conroy said at the time that he might have considered downgrading the charges, but didn’t because of the restitution amount.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m hoping that with the settlement of restitution claims that there won’t be a barrier to reducing the felony cases to misdemeanors,” Stein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "a-village-with-close-ties-to-the-bay-area-facing-demolition-in-the-west-bank",
"title": "A Village With Close Ties to the Bay Area, Facing Demolition in the West Bank",
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"headTitle": "A Village With Close Ties to the Bay Area, Facing Demolition in the West Bank | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>For nearly 10 years, progressive \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a> Jewish groups have maintained close ties with a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank — providing support, facilitating \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043918/feds-detain-2-palestinian-men-at-sfo-in-us-to-speak-at-interfaith-gathering\">faith-based cultural exchanges\u003c/a> and spreading awareness about encroaching settler violence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following reports of Israel’s plans to demolish the village, Umm al-Khair, advocates are now calling for its protection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an unjust takeover,” said Seth Morrison, a member of the Face-to-Face Jewish-Palestinian Reparations Alliance, based out of Kehilla Community Synagogue in Piedmont, and a leader in the Bay Area’s Jewish Voice for Peace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is essential that the Israeli Embassy know that many Americans, both Jewish and non-Jewish, are aware of this criminal action and are demanding that it change,” Morrison said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, Israeli government and military personnel delivered 13 demolition orders and one stop-work order to Umm al-Khair, according to Chase Carter, communications director of the Center for Jewish Nonviolence. The orders included plans to dismantle a community center — “a central hub for everyone in the community, men, women and children” — as well as the center’s playground, 11 homes and a greenhouse. The stop-work order paused construction on a new house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If these demolition orders go through, the entire community is at risk of being forcibly displaced, permanently,” said Carter, whose organization has brought people from the Bay Area, including members of Kehilla Community Synagogue, to visit Umm al-Khair and other villages in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062243\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062243\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-03-KQED.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-03-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-03-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Residents took photos of the alleged demolition orders and stop-work order, delivered by Israeli Civil Administration employees and Israeli soldiers, on Oct. 28, 2025. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of residents of Umm al-Khair)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A core community of [the region] and of the nonviolent civil resistance movement, that is connected to so many of us here in the Bay Area, will be gone,” Carter said. “And that is a huge blow to our movement and solidarity activists that are trying to stay steadfast in the struggle to bring peace and justice to the region.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither the Israeli government nor the Israeli Consul General of San Francisco responded to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8IgggCoLZ8c\">video\u003c/a> posted Tuesday on YouTube, Eid Al-Hathaleen, an activist who lives in Umm al-Khair, said residents were given four days to appeal the orders in Israeli court. Lawyers for residents, Morrison told KQED on Thursday, said the “cases will be extremely hard,” and the likelihood of “stopping the demolitions legally is less than 20%.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am extremely troubled by reports that the Israeli Government has resumed the demolition of Palestinian homes in Umm al-Khair,” Rep. Lateefah Simon, D-Oakland, said in a statement. “No one should live under the threat of demolition, displacement, or death. I call on the State Department to use all available levers to stop the killing and displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The residents of Umm al-Khair first took refuge among the rural, olive tree-dotted landscape of the South Hebron Hills in 1948, after \u003ca href=\"https://www.haaretz.com/2011-11-11/ty-article/west-bank-settlement-is-outdoing-its-neighboring-bedouin-village/0000017f-e545-df5f-a17f-ffdf19140000\">losing\u003c/a> their homes during the creation of the state of Israel. They purchased the land from Palestinians in the nearby city of Yatta and built a small agrarian community. Israel conquered the land during the Six-Day War in 1967 and has occupied it since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1980, Israel set up a settlement, Carmel, abutting the village. The U.N. Security Council has condemned these settlements as a violation of \u003ca href=\"http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1682640.stm\">international law\u003c/a>, which Israel has disputed. Carmel, which has grown to engulf Umm al-Khair, has drawn international \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/opinion/01kristof.html?_r=2\">criticism\u003c/a> for its expansion into neighboring communities and for the stark disparities in living conditions between the village and the settlement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062242\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062242\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-02-KQED.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-02-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-02-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Israeli Civil Administration employees and Israeli army personnel delivered the alleged demolition orders and stop-work order to Umm al-Khair residents on Oct. 28, 2025. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Umm al-Khair residents)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kehilla Rabbi Emeritus David Cooper, who has visited the village multiple times since 2016, said tensions between the growing settlement and the Palestinian residents of Umm al-Khair ratcheted up after Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Learning that Umm al-Khair was set to be demolished felt like discovering that a “next-door neighbor’s house” was being torn down, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No authority, no reason, nothing. … The neighborhood next to me is being erased,” Cooper said. “It feels as immediate as that to me, and there is no justification for it whatsoever.”[aside postID=news_12061703 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/SamiHamdiGetty.jpg']Kehilla’s connection with the village began with a series of trips organized by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence to conduct what Cooper called “nonviolent co-resistance work.” The congregation and the Jewish-Palestinian reparations group organized multiple delegations to visit Umm al-Khair, and they meet monthly with residents of the village on Zoom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eid Al-Hathaleen and his cousin Awdah were Umm al-Khair’s primary points of contact with the Bay Area. Earlier this year, the congregation invited them to the U.S. as part of an inter-faith humanitarian mission that made headlines when the activists, both of whom held visitor visas, were detained at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043918/feds-detain-2-palestinian-men-at-sfo-in-us-to-speak-at-interfaith-gathering\">San Francisco International Airport by U.S. immigration agents\u003c/a>. Despite outcry from their local sponsors and from officials, the men were refused entry and sent home the next day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One month later, Awdah Al-Hathaleen, a prominent activist featured in the Oscar-winning documentary \u003cem>No Other Land\u003c/em>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050131/activists-mourn-palestinian-man-killed-in-west-bank-after-being-denied-entry-at-sfo\">was killed by an Israeli settler\u003c/a>. In the Bay Area, his friends and allies mourned the loss and worried about what it signaled for the village’s future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The situation was already bad before October 2023, but it escalated dramatically after,” Philip Weintraub, another Kehilla member, told KQED in July. “We’re most fearful for the survival of the village — that was most important to Awdah — the protection and safety of the residents of Umm Al-Khair.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062245\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062245\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-05-KQED.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-05-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-05-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Israeli army personnel delivered demolition orders on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, for more than a dozen structures in Umm al-Khair, including a greenhouse that activists said was essential for sustaining the village. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Umm al-Khair residents)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This week’s demolition orders follow a temporary injunction \u003ca href=\"https://peacenow.org.il/en/peace-now-to-court-settlers-flout-injunction-move-into-illegal-outpost-near-palestinian-village-of-umm-al-kheir\">issued\u003c/a> earlier this month by the Jerusalem District Court forbidding settlers from inhabiting seven prefabricated homes just steps from Umm al-Khair, on the grounds that the houses were built without authorization and in violation of zoning designations, according to reporting from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/israel-issues-demolition-orders-for-13-buildings-in-west-bank-palestinian-hamlet/\">\u003cem>Times of Israel\u003c/em>.\u003c/a> This notice has been violated, and the homes are occupied, the report said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, President Donald Trump said in an \u003ca href=\"https://time.com/7327689/trump-israel-gaza-deal-interview-transcript/\">interview\u003c/a> with \u003cem>Time Magazine\u003c/em> that any Israeli attempt to annex parts of the occupied West Bank will not be tolerated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries,” he said, in a conversation about the administration’s role in the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal. “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062247\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062247\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-07-KQED.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-07-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-07-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Israeli army personnel brought the alleged demolition orders along with Civil Administration employees on Tuesday, Oct. 28, in Umm al-Khair, a village in the West Bank. \u003ccite>(Photos courtesy of Umm al-Khair residents)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The day before the interview was published, however, the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, voted in favor of annexing land in the West Bank.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And from June 18 to Sept. 25, Israeli authorities have approved the construction of 20,000 new housing units in the West Bank, according to a U.N. \u003ca href=\"https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/161860\">report\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the Trump administration’s assurances, Morrison said the situation in Umm al-Khair tells another story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, what is happening is de facto an annexation. Since the Gaza genocide started, settler violence against Palestinians has increased a hundredfold,” he said. “Numerous people have been killed, they’ve taken over more land, they’ve built more illegal settlements. And this is part of that initiative.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A resident of the Palestinian village of Umm al-Khair, who was turned away from SFO in June, posted a video on social media of Israel’s demolition orders.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For nearly 10 years, progressive \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a> Jewish groups have maintained close ties with a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank — providing support, facilitating \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043918/feds-detain-2-palestinian-men-at-sfo-in-us-to-speak-at-interfaith-gathering\">faith-based cultural exchanges\u003c/a> and spreading awareness about encroaching settler violence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following reports of Israel’s plans to demolish the village, Umm al-Khair, advocates are now calling for its protection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an unjust takeover,” said Seth Morrison, a member of the Face-to-Face Jewish-Palestinian Reparations Alliance, based out of Kehilla Community Synagogue in Piedmont, and a leader in the Bay Area’s Jewish Voice for Peace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is essential that the Israeli Embassy know that many Americans, both Jewish and non-Jewish, are aware of this criminal action and are demanding that it change,” Morrison said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, Israeli government and military personnel delivered 13 demolition orders and one stop-work order to Umm al-Khair, according to Chase Carter, communications director of the Center for Jewish Nonviolence. The orders included plans to dismantle a community center — “a central hub for everyone in the community, men, women and children” — as well as the center’s playground, 11 homes and a greenhouse. The stop-work order paused construction on a new house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If these demolition orders go through, the entire community is at risk of being forcibly displaced, permanently,” said Carter, whose organization has brought people from the Bay Area, including members of Kehilla Community Synagogue, to visit Umm al-Khair and other villages in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062243\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062243\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-03-KQED.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-03-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-03-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Residents took photos of the alleged demolition orders and stop-work order, delivered by Israeli Civil Administration employees and Israeli soldiers, on Oct. 28, 2025. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of residents of Umm al-Khair)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A core community of [the region] and of the nonviolent civil resistance movement, that is connected to so many of us here in the Bay Area, will be gone,” Carter said. “And that is a huge blow to our movement and solidarity activists that are trying to stay steadfast in the struggle to bring peace and justice to the region.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither the Israeli government nor the Israeli Consul General of San Francisco responded to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8IgggCoLZ8c\">video\u003c/a> posted Tuesday on YouTube, Eid Al-Hathaleen, an activist who lives in Umm al-Khair, said residents were given four days to appeal the orders in Israeli court. Lawyers for residents, Morrison told KQED on Thursday, said the “cases will be extremely hard,” and the likelihood of “stopping the demolitions legally is less than 20%.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am extremely troubled by reports that the Israeli Government has resumed the demolition of Palestinian homes in Umm al-Khair,” Rep. Lateefah Simon, D-Oakland, said in a statement. “No one should live under the threat of demolition, displacement, or death. I call on the State Department to use all available levers to stop the killing and displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The residents of Umm al-Khair first took refuge among the rural, olive tree-dotted landscape of the South Hebron Hills in 1948, after \u003ca href=\"https://www.haaretz.com/2011-11-11/ty-article/west-bank-settlement-is-outdoing-its-neighboring-bedouin-village/0000017f-e545-df5f-a17f-ffdf19140000\">losing\u003c/a> their homes during the creation of the state of Israel. They purchased the land from Palestinians in the nearby city of Yatta and built a small agrarian community. Israel conquered the land during the Six-Day War in 1967 and has occupied it since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1980, Israel set up a settlement, Carmel, abutting the village. The U.N. Security Council has condemned these settlements as a violation of \u003ca href=\"http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1682640.stm\">international law\u003c/a>, which Israel has disputed. Carmel, which has grown to engulf Umm al-Khair, has drawn international \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/opinion/01kristof.html?_r=2\">criticism\u003c/a> for its expansion into neighboring communities and for the stark disparities in living conditions between the village and the settlement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062242\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062242\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-02-KQED.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-02-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-02-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Israeli Civil Administration employees and Israeli army personnel delivered the alleged demolition orders and stop-work order to Umm al-Khair residents on Oct. 28, 2025. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Umm al-Khair residents)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kehilla Rabbi Emeritus David Cooper, who has visited the village multiple times since 2016, said tensions between the growing settlement and the Palestinian residents of Umm al-Khair ratcheted up after Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Learning that Umm al-Khair was set to be demolished felt like discovering that a “next-door neighbor’s house” was being torn down, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No authority, no reason, nothing. … The neighborhood next to me is being erased,” Cooper said. “It feels as immediate as that to me, and there is no justification for it whatsoever.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kehilla’s connection with the village began with a series of trips organized by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence to conduct what Cooper called “nonviolent co-resistance work.” The congregation and the Jewish-Palestinian reparations group organized multiple delegations to visit Umm al-Khair, and they meet monthly with residents of the village on Zoom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eid Al-Hathaleen and his cousin Awdah were Umm al-Khair’s primary points of contact with the Bay Area. Earlier this year, the congregation invited them to the U.S. as part of an inter-faith humanitarian mission that made headlines when the activists, both of whom held visitor visas, were detained at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043918/feds-detain-2-palestinian-men-at-sfo-in-us-to-speak-at-interfaith-gathering\">San Francisco International Airport by U.S. immigration agents\u003c/a>. Despite outcry from their local sponsors and from officials, the men were refused entry and sent home the next day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One month later, Awdah Al-Hathaleen, a prominent activist featured in the Oscar-winning documentary \u003cem>No Other Land\u003c/em>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050131/activists-mourn-palestinian-man-killed-in-west-bank-after-being-denied-entry-at-sfo\">was killed by an Israeli settler\u003c/a>. In the Bay Area, his friends and allies mourned the loss and worried about what it signaled for the village’s future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The situation was already bad before October 2023, but it escalated dramatically after,” Philip Weintraub, another Kehilla member, told KQED in July. “We’re most fearful for the survival of the village — that was most important to Awdah — the protection and safety of the residents of Umm Al-Khair.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062245\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062245\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-05-KQED.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-05-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-05-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Israeli army personnel delivered demolition orders on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, for more than a dozen structures in Umm al-Khair, including a greenhouse that activists said was essential for sustaining the village. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Umm al-Khair residents)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This week’s demolition orders follow a temporary injunction \u003ca href=\"https://peacenow.org.il/en/peace-now-to-court-settlers-flout-injunction-move-into-illegal-outpost-near-palestinian-village-of-umm-al-kheir\">issued\u003c/a> earlier this month by the Jerusalem District Court forbidding settlers from inhabiting seven prefabricated homes just steps from Umm al-Khair, on the grounds that the houses were built without authorization and in violation of zoning designations, according to reporting from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/israel-issues-demolition-orders-for-13-buildings-in-west-bank-palestinian-hamlet/\">\u003cem>Times of Israel\u003c/em>.\u003c/a> This notice has been violated, and the homes are occupied, the report said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, President Donald Trump said in an \u003ca href=\"https://time.com/7327689/trump-israel-gaza-deal-interview-transcript/\">interview\u003c/a> with \u003cem>Time Magazine\u003c/em> that any Israeli attempt to annex parts of the occupied West Bank will not be tolerated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries,” he said, in a conversation about the administration’s role in the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal. “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062247\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062247\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-07-KQED.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-07-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251030-Umm-al-Khair-07-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Israeli army personnel brought the alleged demolition orders along with Civil Administration employees on Tuesday, Oct. 28, in Umm al-Khair, a village in the West Bank. \u003ccite>(Photos courtesy of Umm al-Khair residents)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The day before the interview was published, however, the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, voted in favor of annexing land in the West Bank.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And from June 18 to Sept. 25, Israeli authorities have approved the construction of 20,000 new housing units in the West Bank, according to a U.N. \u003ca href=\"https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/161860\">report\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the Trump administration’s assurances, Morrison said the situation in Umm al-Khair tells another story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, what is happening is de facto an annexation. Since the Gaza genocide started, settler violence against Palestinians has increased a hundredfold,” he said. “Numerous people have been killed, they’ve taken over more land, they’ve built more illegal settlements. And this is part of that initiative.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/uc-berkeley\">UC Berkeley\u003c/a> likely violated federal civil rights law in its response to pro-Palestinian protests over the past two years, according to a new \u003ca href=\"https://static1.squarespace.com/static/548748b1e4b083fc03ebf70e/t/69038e405b5a3e7d70225824/1761840704073/PALA+Report_final.pdf\">report\u003c/a> by Berkeley law school students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the report, published Thursday, the Palestine Advocacy Legal Assistance Project found that the university repressed pro-Palestinian speech and failed to support or protect Palestinian students who were harassed or assaulted as a result of their activism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“UC Berkeley’s administration has responded to this mobilization for Gaza by repressing pro-Palestinian speech and punishing Palestinian students and their allies for their activism,” the report’s authors wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report said that the university’s actions — or in some cases, inaction — likely violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination against race, color or national origin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“An institution need not directly discriminate to violate Title VI. It may also violate Title VI if it demonstrates deliberate indifference to a “hostile environment” created by peer-to-peer harassment,” the report authors wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Israel’s bombing of Gaza as part of the country’s war with Hamas and killing of nearly \u003ca href=\"https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-194-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem\">70,000 \u003c/a>Palestinians has sparked widespread protests on Berkeley’s campus and led to several confrontations between pro-Palestinian activists and Jewish groups, supporters of Israel and faculty members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12008661\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12008661\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students cheer at a rally for Gaza and Lebanon at the University of California, Berkeley, on Oct. 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the number of clashes has grown, groups across the ideological spectrum have increased calls for university administrators to intervene, and many have accused the university of failing to take sufficient action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March, the Department of Justice began investigating the UC system \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029887/trump-doj-investigate-university-california-over-antisemitism-allegations\">for violations of civil rights law r\u003c/a>elated to employees facing antisemitism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campus Jewish groups are \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11969165/lawsuit-intensifies-spotlight-on-free-speech-controversies-at-uc-berkeley\">also suing the university\u003c/a> for failing to intervene after several student groups implemented bylaws stating that they would not allow supporters of Zionism to speak at their events. Those groups said that the policy does not discriminate against Jewish students, but critics said that those policies disproportionately affect Jewish people.[aside postID=news_12061703 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/SamiHamdiGetty.jpg']The university also faced backlash for its decision in September to hand over the names of 160 students and faculty \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055827/uc-berkeley-gives-trump-administration-160-names-in-antisemitism-investigation\">accused of antisemitism to the federal government\u003c/a>, as part of the Trump administration’s broader investigations into reports of bullying and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11978998/uc-berkeley-jewish-community-members-march-on-campus-amid-rising-tensions\">harassment of Jewish students on campus\u003c/a>. The report’s main finding notably mirrors these accusations by arguing that the university deliberately allowed a hostile environment towards pro-Palestinian demonstrators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“UC Berkeley has and will maintain an unwavering commitment to Free Speech for all, and to doing all that we can so that every student feels safe and a true sense of belonging regardless of their identity, origins or beliefs,” Assistant Vice Chancellor Dan Mogulof said. “The campus also continues to urge anyone who has witnessed or has been subject to alleged identity-based discrimination and/or harassment to report to our Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thursday’s report cited several incidents where authors said the university failed to intervene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When protesters blocked part of Sather Gate in early 2024, they faced “daily harassment and sometimes physical violence,” the report said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11978960\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11978960\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A sign blocks passage through an ornate gateway.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A large pro-Palestine sign held by students blocks the central entrance to Sather Gate on the Berkeley campus. Both walkways on either side remained open. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One person reportedly became aggressive, threatened protesters’ lives and brandished a knife. That person was placed on a week-long restraining order, the report said, but protesters didn’t press charges, and once the order expired, the man returned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April of 2024, during a dinner for law students hosted by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982697/confrontation-at-uc-berkeley-law-school-deans-home-highlights-campus-tensions\">Dean of Berkeley Law Erwin Chemerinsky and his wife,\u003c/a> law professor Catherine Fisk, a Muslim student addressed the group with a microphone to talk about the plight of Palestinian students and the last night of Ramadan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chemerinsky and Fisk repeatedly asked the student to leave, with Fisk also seemingly attempting to take the microphone from the student’s hands. The University later opened a\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985245/uc-berkeley-opens-civil-rights-investigation-into-confrontation-at-deans-home\"> civil rights investigation into Fisk\u003c/a>, on behalf of the student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report accused Chemerinsky of aiming to chill student protest through a statement he made following that incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12042500\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12042500\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1373\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-800x549.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-1020x700.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-1536x1054.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-1920x1318.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">UC Berkeley law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky at his home in Oakland, California, on Jan. 19, 2021. \u003ccite>(Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He wrote that any similar disruptions would be reported to student conduct and noted that student conduct violations are reported to the bar association — a clear threat to protestors’ ability to practice law after they graduate,” the report stated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Fisk incident happened right before I entered in the fall of ‘24,” said Oton De Souza, a second-year law student and one of the authors. “I remember during orientation, it was a very somber moment where Dean Chemerinsky was talking about free speech, but then it turned very cold when he talked about disruption and how that would lead into student conduct [reports].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the university has encouraged all community members to report harassment or discrimination, the report also found that Berkeley did not fully investigate some of those reports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“PALA interviewed a lot of these students who went through this process from the pro-Palestine advocacy side,” De Souza said. “A lot of their requests directly to the university weren’t listened to, and ultimately, some of them just fizzled out and the university never followed up on it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Correction, Nov. 4:\u003c/strong> An earlier version of this story misstated the number of Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza. The story said that nearly 70,000 Palestinian civilians had been killed. That figure represents the total number of Palestinians killed, according to United Nations estimates, and not all were civilians. The story has been updated to remove the word “civilians.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/uc-berkeley\">UC Berkeley\u003c/a> likely violated federal civil rights law in its response to pro-Palestinian protests over the past two years, according to a new \u003ca href=\"https://static1.squarespace.com/static/548748b1e4b083fc03ebf70e/t/69038e405b5a3e7d70225824/1761840704073/PALA+Report_final.pdf\">report\u003c/a> by Berkeley law school students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the report, published Thursday, the Palestine Advocacy Legal Assistance Project found that the university repressed pro-Palestinian speech and failed to support or protect Palestinian students who were harassed or assaulted as a result of their activism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“UC Berkeley’s administration has responded to this mobilization for Gaza by repressing pro-Palestinian speech and punishing Palestinian students and their allies for their activism,” the report’s authors wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report said that the university’s actions — or in some cases, inaction — likely violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination against race, color or national origin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“An institution need not directly discriminate to violate Title VI. It may also violate Title VI if it demonstrates deliberate indifference to a “hostile environment” created by peer-to-peer harassment,” the report authors wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Israel’s bombing of Gaza as part of the country’s war with Hamas and killing of nearly \u003ca href=\"https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-194-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem\">70,000 \u003c/a>Palestinians has sparked widespread protests on Berkeley’s campus and led to several confrontations between pro-Palestinian activists and Jewish groups, supporters of Israel and faculty members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12008661\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12008661\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/241008-UCB-CAMPUS-WALKOUT-MD-07-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students cheer at a rally for Gaza and Lebanon at the University of California, Berkeley, on Oct. 8, 2024. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the number of clashes has grown, groups across the ideological spectrum have increased calls for university administrators to intervene, and many have accused the university of failing to take sufficient action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March, the Department of Justice began investigating the UC system \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12029887/trump-doj-investigate-university-california-over-antisemitism-allegations\">for violations of civil rights law r\u003c/a>elated to employees facing antisemitism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campus Jewish groups are \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11969165/lawsuit-intensifies-spotlight-on-free-speech-controversies-at-uc-berkeley\">also suing the university\u003c/a> for failing to intervene after several student groups implemented bylaws stating that they would not allow supporters of Zionism to speak at their events. Those groups said that the policy does not discriminate against Jewish students, but critics said that those policies disproportionately affect Jewish people.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The university also faced backlash for its decision in September to hand over the names of 160 students and faculty \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055827/uc-berkeley-gives-trump-administration-160-names-in-antisemitism-investigation\">accused of antisemitism to the federal government\u003c/a>, as part of the Trump administration’s broader investigations into reports of bullying and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11978998/uc-berkeley-jewish-community-members-march-on-campus-amid-rising-tensions\">harassment of Jewish students on campus\u003c/a>. The report’s main finding notably mirrors these accusations by arguing that the university deliberately allowed a hostile environment towards pro-Palestinian demonstrators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“UC Berkeley has and will maintain an unwavering commitment to Free Speech for all, and to doing all that we can so that every student feels safe and a true sense of belonging regardless of their identity, origins or beliefs,” Assistant Vice Chancellor Dan Mogulof said. “The campus also continues to urge anyone who has witnessed or has been subject to alleged identity-based discrimination and/or harassment to report to our Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thursday’s report cited several incidents where authors said the university failed to intervene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When protesters blocked part of Sather Gate in early 2024, they faced “daily harassment and sometimes physical violence,” the report said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11978960\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11978960\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A sign blocks passage through an ornate gateway.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/240311-JEWISHPROTEST-JY-05-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A large pro-Palestine sign held by students blocks the central entrance to Sather Gate on the Berkeley campus. Both walkways on either side remained open. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One person reportedly became aggressive, threatened protesters’ lives and brandished a knife. That person was placed on a week-long restraining order, the report said, but protesters didn’t press charges, and once the order expired, the man returned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April of 2024, during a dinner for law students hosted by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11982697/confrontation-at-uc-berkeley-law-school-deans-home-highlights-campus-tensions\">Dean of Berkeley Law Erwin Chemerinsky and his wife,\u003c/a> law professor Catherine Fisk, a Muslim student addressed the group with a microphone to talk about the plight of Palestinian students and the last night of Ramadan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chemerinsky and Fisk repeatedly asked the student to leave, with Fisk also seemingly attempting to take the microphone from the student’s hands. The University later opened a\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985245/uc-berkeley-opens-civil-rights-investigation-into-confrontation-at-deans-home\"> civil rights investigation into Fisk\u003c/a>, on behalf of the student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report accused Chemerinsky of aiming to chill student protest through a statement he made following that incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12042500\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12042500\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1373\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-800x549.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-1020x700.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-1536x1054.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/ErwinChemerinskyGetty-1920x1318.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">UC Berkeley law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky at his home in Oakland, California, on Jan. 19, 2021. \u003ccite>(Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He wrote that any similar disruptions would be reported to student conduct and noted that student conduct violations are reported to the bar association — a clear threat to protestors’ ability to practice law after they graduate,” the report stated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Fisk incident happened right before I entered in the fall of ‘24,” said Oton De Souza, a second-year law student and one of the authors. “I remember during orientation, it was a very somber moment where Dean Chemerinsky was talking about free speech, but then it turned very cold when he talked about disruption and how that would lead into student conduct [reports].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the university has encouraged all community members to report harassment or discrimination, the report also found that Berkeley did not fully investigate some of those reports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“PALA interviewed a lot of these students who went through this process from the pro-Palestine advocacy side,” De Souza said. “A lot of their requests directly to the university weren’t listened to, and ultimately, some of them just fizzled out and the university never followed up on it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Correction, Nov. 4:\u003c/strong> An earlier version of this story misstated the number of Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza. The story said that nearly 70,000 Palestinian civilians had been killed. That figure represents the total number of Palestinians killed, according to United Nations estimates, and not all were civilians. The story has been updated to remove the word “civilians.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Journalist, Others on Second Gaza Aid Flotilla Released From Israeli Prison",
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"content": "\u003cp>Less than a week after Israeli forces \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058820/ca-families-officials-call-for-release-of-us-citizens-detained-with-gaza-aid-flotilla\">intercepted a global flotilla\u003c/a> attempting to deliver aid to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gaza\">Gaza\u003c/a> and detained hundreds of participants, a second contingent of international activists, medical workers and journalists was captured on Wednesday — including a California-based journalist reporting on the barriers to covering the ongoing war.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emily Wilder, a Stanford University graduate and former reporter for Santa Rosa’s \u003cem>Press Democrat\u003c/em>, had joined the second flotilla as a reporter for \u003cem>Jewish Currents\u003c/em>, a left-leaning magazine based in New York. Israel deported her to Istanbul on Friday alongside many others from the flotilla, \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/JewishCurrents/status/1976650360530804938\">according to \u003cem>Jewish Currents\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, and U.S. Rep. Jimmy Gomez \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/RepJimmyGomez/status/1976653231326638395\">said\u003c/a> she “is on her way home\u003cem>.\u003c/em>”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Wilder’s goals was to shed light on the struggle journalists are facing to report on the war and conditions in Gaza from the ground, two years after Israel blocked foreign journalists from accessing the region, \u003cem>Jewish Currents\u003c/em> associate editor Mari Cohen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a specific call for media and medical workers to join [the flotilla] with the idea … for there to be an opportunity for journalists to cover Gaza on the ground,” Cohen said. “She went on this mission partly for the sake of this broader coverage — to cover the Israeli blockade of Gaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her release came as Israeli forces began pulling back from Gaza after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/10/10/nx-s1-5567998/israeli-forces-begin-pullback-in-gaza-after-government-agrees-to-ceasefire-plan\">approved phase one of a ceasefire deal\u003c/a> that would end the two-year war. Many details remain unknown, but NPR reported that as of midday Friday in Gaza, Israeli forces had retreated to an agreed-upon line and airstrikes had ceased. The deal, brokered by the Trump administration, would mean the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059497\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059497\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GazaFlotillaGetty-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GazaFlotillaGetty-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GazaFlotillaGetty-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GazaFlotillaGetty-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A vessel of the Gaza-bound flotilla is tugged toward the port of Ashdod in southern Israel on Oct. 8, 2025. The Israeli Navy intercepted an international aid flotilla on its way to Gaza in the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement. \u003ccite>(Jamal Awad/Xinhua via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wilder, a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles, was aboard the Conscience, a 100-person boat that set sail on Sept. 30 with a\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DPjOfGTAB4M/?img_index=2\"> fleet of international ships\u003c/a> carrying humanitarian aid days after the high-profile Global Sumud Flotilla. Both were part of an ongoing movement to break Israel’s yearslong blockade of Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout Wilder’s career, much of her work has focused on social justice, including reporting on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, according to Alana Minkler, a former coworker and close friend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know her as someone who is very brave and fearless, and also just very committed to reporting about the conditions in Gaza,” said Minkler, who worked with Wilder at the \u003cem>Press Democrat \u003c/em>from 2021 to 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minkler met Wilder when they were both interns at the Phoenix-based \u003cem>Arizona Republic, \u003c/em>covering the Black Lives Matter protests following George Floyd’s murder in 2020.[aside postID=news_12058820 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GazaFlotillaGetty.jpg']“She’s always been incredibly dedicated to covering social justice and human rights issues across the world and in her own communities,” Minkler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minkler said she wasn’t surprised to hear that Wilder would be joining the flotilla last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Emily was already aware of a lot of the backlash that a lot of journalists, including herself, have faced when reporting on these issues,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, Wilder was hired as a news associate for the \u003cem>Associated Press\u003c/em> but was fired after a little more than two weeks over “violations of its social media policy that took place after she became an employee.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, the organization \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-journalists-797ea15c03fadff692ced0f6dfc4281c\">reported on its decision\u003c/a>, citing in its coverage a number of posts Wilder had retweeted on the social media platform X, then known as Twitter, that were “sympathetic to Palestinians in the current Gaza conflict,” including a video in which demonstrators chanted “Free Palestine!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wilder’s termination came days after a student group at Stanford blasted the AP on social media, calling it biased against Israel for hiring her, since she had formerly been a “leader” in pro-Palestinian student organizations at the university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Cohen, Wilder had brought the idea to join the Conscience to \u003cem>Jewish Currents\u003c/em>, in part to bring attention to the difficulty and danger of reporting on the war and conflict in Gaza generally. Throughout her time on the boat, which set off Sept. 30, Wilder shared updates from the journey via social media that the outlet was re-sharing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956028\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956028\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"An ornate sandstone-colored building with a series of arches sitting on a brick plaza.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-800x528.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1020x673.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1536x1014.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1920x1267.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The arches of the Main Quadrangle buildings on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto on Oct. 2, 2021. \u003ccite>(David Madison/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Up until the day before the Conscience was intercepted, Cohen said they were in touch daily, discussing what reporting would come out of the endeavor. She said she last heard from Wilder the afternoon before Israeli military forces intercepted the Conscience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She went to bed and we knew that it was possible the following morning,” Cohen said. “The next time I got updates and was in communication with her family was that evening when we saw on the live feed [streamed from the ship] that they were being intercepted and that they were on the deck and wearing life jackets and putting their hands up and preparing for arrest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cohen said the detainees were taken to Israel’s Ashdod Port and were held in Ketziot Prison, like members of the Global Sumud Flotilla were last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While most of the more than 400 people detained as part of that fleet have now been deported, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DPlhCZvAs1T/\">according to organizers\u003c/a>, many Americans remained in custody for nearly a week, where they \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058820/ca-families-officials-call-for-release-of-us-citizens-detained-with-gaza-aid-flotilla\">reportedly went without food, water and medication\u003c/a> and had to sleep in overcrowded cells and on floors with little support from the U.S. government.[aside postID=news_12059351 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/68e5df0e9817d.jpg']San Francisco resident Sidney Hollar, whose son Logan Hollarsmith was among the American detainees from the Global Sumud Flotilla, told KQED that she struggled to get support from state and federal lawmakers despite repeated attempts, and that “the U.S. Embassy offered no help [to detainees] when they were deported.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cohen said it appears the Embassy was responding more quickly to support detainees from the Conscience and had visited Wilder, who they said was safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was deported to Turkey on Friday morning and would be flying back to Los Angeles from there, according to Minkler.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cohen said that while the magazine’s decision to send Wilder on the flotilla might have been different after hearing reports of the treatment of Global Sumud Flotilla participants, “it was her decision and something she wanted to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the reasons that Emily went on this trip was to shed light on the conditions of the free press and trying to report on these issues in Gaza,” Minkler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Israeli attacks have killed at least 245 media workers since the war began two years ago, according to lists published by Palestinian journalists. The United Nations has reported a similar number killed. More have been taken into captivity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t speak for Emily, but she really wanted to raise awareness about the need to have journalism in the ongoing conflict,” Minkler said. “Emily would not want this story to be about Emily. This is about what she was trying to cover as a journalist, which is the conditions in Palestine and about these efforts to deliver humanitarian aid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jlara\">\u003cem>Juan Carlos Lara\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Less than a week after Israeli forces \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058820/ca-families-officials-call-for-release-of-us-citizens-detained-with-gaza-aid-flotilla\">intercepted a global flotilla\u003c/a> attempting to deliver aid to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gaza\">Gaza\u003c/a> and detained hundreds of participants, a second contingent of international activists, medical workers and journalists was captured on Wednesday — including a California-based journalist reporting on the barriers to covering the ongoing war.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emily Wilder, a Stanford University graduate and former reporter for Santa Rosa’s \u003cem>Press Democrat\u003c/em>, had joined the second flotilla as a reporter for \u003cem>Jewish Currents\u003c/em>, a left-leaning magazine based in New York. Israel deported her to Istanbul on Friday alongside many others from the flotilla, \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/JewishCurrents/status/1976650360530804938\">according to \u003cem>Jewish Currents\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, and U.S. Rep. Jimmy Gomez \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/RepJimmyGomez/status/1976653231326638395\">said\u003c/a> she “is on her way home\u003cem>.\u003c/em>”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Wilder’s goals was to shed light on the struggle journalists are facing to report on the war and conditions in Gaza from the ground, two years after Israel blocked foreign journalists from accessing the region, \u003cem>Jewish Currents\u003c/em> associate editor Mari Cohen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a specific call for media and medical workers to join [the flotilla] with the idea … for there to be an opportunity for journalists to cover Gaza on the ground,” Cohen said. “She went on this mission partly for the sake of this broader coverage — to cover the Israeli blockade of Gaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her release came as Israeli forces began pulling back from Gaza after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/10/10/nx-s1-5567998/israeli-forces-begin-pullback-in-gaza-after-government-agrees-to-ceasefire-plan\">approved phase one of a ceasefire deal\u003c/a> that would end the two-year war. Many details remain unknown, but NPR reported that as of midday Friday in Gaza, Israeli forces had retreated to an agreed-upon line and airstrikes had ceased. The deal, brokered by the Trump administration, would mean the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059497\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059497\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GazaFlotillaGetty-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GazaFlotillaGetty-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GazaFlotillaGetty-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GazaFlotillaGetty-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A vessel of the Gaza-bound flotilla is tugged toward the port of Ashdod in southern Israel on Oct. 8, 2025. The Israeli Navy intercepted an international aid flotilla on its way to Gaza in the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement. \u003ccite>(Jamal Awad/Xinhua via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wilder, a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles, was aboard the Conscience, a 100-person boat that set sail on Sept. 30 with a\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DPjOfGTAB4M/?img_index=2\"> fleet of international ships\u003c/a> carrying humanitarian aid days after the high-profile Global Sumud Flotilla. Both were part of an ongoing movement to break Israel’s yearslong blockade of Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout Wilder’s career, much of her work has focused on social justice, including reporting on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, according to Alana Minkler, a former coworker and close friend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know her as someone who is very brave and fearless, and also just very committed to reporting about the conditions in Gaza,” said Minkler, who worked with Wilder at the \u003cem>Press Democrat \u003c/em>from 2021 to 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minkler met Wilder when they were both interns at the Phoenix-based \u003cem>Arizona Republic, \u003c/em>covering the Black Lives Matter protests following George Floyd’s murder in 2020.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“She’s always been incredibly dedicated to covering social justice and human rights issues across the world and in her own communities,” Minkler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minkler said she wasn’t surprised to hear that Wilder would be joining the flotilla last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Emily was already aware of a lot of the backlash that a lot of journalists, including herself, have faced when reporting on these issues,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, Wilder was hired as a news associate for the \u003cem>Associated Press\u003c/em> but was fired after a little more than two weeks over “violations of its social media policy that took place after she became an employee.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, the organization \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-journalists-797ea15c03fadff692ced0f6dfc4281c\">reported on its decision\u003c/a>, citing in its coverage a number of posts Wilder had retweeted on the social media platform X, then known as Twitter, that were “sympathetic to Palestinians in the current Gaza conflict,” including a video in which demonstrators chanted “Free Palestine!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wilder’s termination came days after a student group at Stanford blasted the AP on social media, calling it biased against Israel for hiring her, since she had formerly been a “leader” in pro-Palestinian student organizations at the university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Cohen, Wilder had brought the idea to join the Conscience to \u003cem>Jewish Currents\u003c/em>, in part to bring attention to the difficulty and danger of reporting on the war and conflict in Gaza generally. Throughout her time on the boat, which set off Sept. 30, Wilder shared updates from the journey via social media that the outlet was re-sharing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956028\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956028\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"An ornate sandstone-colored building with a series of arches sitting on a brick plaza.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-800x528.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1020x673.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1536x1014.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1920x1267.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The arches of the Main Quadrangle buildings on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto on Oct. 2, 2021. \u003ccite>(David Madison/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Up until the day before the Conscience was intercepted, Cohen said they were in touch daily, discussing what reporting would come out of the endeavor. She said she last heard from Wilder the afternoon before Israeli military forces intercepted the Conscience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She went to bed and we knew that it was possible the following morning,” Cohen said. “The next time I got updates and was in communication with her family was that evening when we saw on the live feed [streamed from the ship] that they were being intercepted and that they were on the deck and wearing life jackets and putting their hands up and preparing for arrest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cohen said the detainees were taken to Israel’s Ashdod Port and were held in Ketziot Prison, like members of the Global Sumud Flotilla were last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While most of the more than 400 people detained as part of that fleet have now been deported, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DPlhCZvAs1T/\">according to organizers\u003c/a>, many Americans remained in custody for nearly a week, where they \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058820/ca-families-officials-call-for-release-of-us-citizens-detained-with-gaza-aid-flotilla\">reportedly went without food, water and medication\u003c/a> and had to sleep in overcrowded cells and on floors with little support from the U.S. government.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>San Francisco resident Sidney Hollar, whose son Logan Hollarsmith was among the American detainees from the Global Sumud Flotilla, told KQED that she struggled to get support from state and federal lawmakers despite repeated attempts, and that “the U.S. Embassy offered no help [to detainees] when they were deported.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cohen said it appears the Embassy was responding more quickly to support detainees from the Conscience and had visited Wilder, who they said was safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was deported to Turkey on Friday morning and would be flying back to Los Angeles from there, according to Minkler.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cohen said that while the magazine’s decision to send Wilder on the flotilla might have been different after hearing reports of the treatment of Global Sumud Flotilla participants, “it was her decision and something she wanted to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the reasons that Emily went on this trip was to shed light on the conditions of the free press and trying to report on these issues in Gaza,” Minkler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Israeli attacks have killed at least 245 media workers since the war began two years ago, according to lists published by Palestinian journalists. The United Nations has reported a similar number killed. More have been taken into captivity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t speak for Emily, but she really wanted to raise awareness about the need to have journalism in the ongoing conflict,” Minkler said. “Emily would not want this story to be about Emily. This is about what she was trying to cover as a journalist, which is the conditions in Palestine and about these efforts to deliver humanitarian aid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jlara\">\u003cem>Juan Carlos Lara\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"mindshift": {
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
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