On Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, Berkeley High School students and other Berkeley community members walked out of class to rally and urge the Berkeley City Council to pass a resolution on the ongoing war in Gaza.
The students, teachers, admin, and general Berkeley community members met at Civic Center park at approximately 10:15 a.m., where several members of the Jackets for Palestine club, the organizers of the event, spoke about the current conditions in Palestine, what actions Israel is taking, how the U.S. is aiding the war, and Palestine’s “75 years under occupation,” according to Sonali Mascarenhas-Swan, a BHS junior who spoke at the event.
After the initial speeches, approximately 60 students and community members walked up Allston Way at 11:00 a.m. — passing a small group of Berkeley community members and Berkeley Unified School District students who gathered to show support for Israel — eventually ending up on Allston and Shattuck, where the mass of people concentrated itself to block traffic on the single block.
Julio Gonzalez-Cotorruelo and Emma Knisbacher, the co-presidents of the Jackets for Palestine club, led the crowd in chants in between the speeches. A wide array of people spoke: students of all grades, teachers, a Berkeley middle school student, and even state senate candidate Jovanka Beckles.
At around 12:40 p.m., the walkout dispersed from Shattuck and Allston, and students headed back to class.
Excerpts from student and community member speeches and interviews:
*Note: The opinions expressed are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Jacket. It should be kept in mind that something said by an individual is not necessarily representative of the thoughts or views of a larger group.
“We have the collective power to take a stand against genocide and imperialism. We must resist the systems that have been put into place to destroy the land and the people for profit. After only one year of our protests and calls to action, being ignored by those who are supposed to represent us, we may be tired. But when I’m ready to give up, I think of the Palestinian people, who have been showing their commitment to the land and people for seventy-five years under occupation. Our well-being is intertwined, we are all connected…Let’s stand up for each other," Sonali Mascarenhas-Swan, a BHS student, said in a speech during the walkout.
"We are witnessing one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in our recent history, and our lifetimes—even longer. For the past hundred years, we’ve witnessed a group of people get expelled and removed from their land simply for being Palestinian, simply for their religion, (and) simply for their ethnicity. That’s ridiculous. That should be happening nowhere. And what we’re doing is simply saying that should not happen. We’re gonna stand up for whoever that’s happening to, and in this case, it's the Palestinians…I think we sometimes don’t realize, the youth, how big of a voice we have. When you tell our elected officials, our politicians, the people in power, (and) big corporations, when you tell them that the youth stands with things like human rights, peace, Palestine, they’re gonna listen. They’re gonna very much care about what we’re saying," Julio G., a BHS Junior and co-president of the Jackets for Palestine club, said.
“I’m a Jew…and I also want to acknowledge that right now we are between two important Jewish holidays right now—between Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. And this is the time (when) you repent and you look back on the past year to see where you missed the mark and where you made a mistake and could’ve done something better. And you repent for that, and you give forgiveness," Judah, a BHS sophomore, said in a speech during the walkout.
“What brought me to the walkout is to support kids that are in Palestine right now, and they don’t have a voice to speak…I want the [people in] power to, like—I think the land should be splitted, even though it was Palestine before Israel came, it should be splitted. And that the USA stops funding military weapons to them because they’re not using it for nothing great, they’re just using it to destroy land," Abdul Azis, a BHS freshman attending the walkout, said.