On April 21 of this year, 10 students at Occidental College launched a hunger strike in response to the administration’s entanglement with war profiteers directly investing in the genocide in Gaza. The goal of the strike was an end to Occidental’s complicity in the manufactured starvation of Palestinians in Gaza currently being imposed by Israel.
After the protests that took place during President Tom Stritikus’s inauguration on April 25, Occidental’s administration sent out emails notifying three students that they will be filing conduct charges against them. The students were protesting the president’s refusal to divest from companies profiting from Israel’s genocide as well as the college’s increase in police presence on campus.
What the college has failed to acknowledge about what happened on April 25 is the inherent racism and outright violence that took place at the hands of security guards and officers, hired by the administration and sicced onto students with Stritikus just a few meters away. Multiple students were met with violent force by campus police, who pushed and injured them.
Now, those same students who were attacked while lawfully protesting are being punished with disciplinary action by the Occidental administration. It’s becoming clear that this is a direct retaliation against students exercising their right to protest. These conduct charges have now put to question Occidental’s commitment to social justice and free speech on campus. In context of the student hunger strike in April, the college’s refusal to comply with demands to divest from Israel also raises concern regarding a deeper pattern of anti-Palestinian racism, which has been growing rapidly across the country.
One of the students currently facing conduct charges shared that they received an email from the office of student conduct on June 30, stating that they were being charged for five violations. These violations include threatening or endangering behavior, reckless or disorderly conduct, interfering with college activities, failing to comply with college officials, and violations of other college regulations and policies. These conduct charges could lead to life-altering consequences for students such as suspension from classes and campus activities or even the possibility of expulsion from Occidental.
Describing their initial reaction to the email, this student said, “At first I was in disbelief, I was angry at everything, at myself for being there, but I was also angry that we have college officials who are complicit in genocide.”
Tobias, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace at Occidental and one of the participants in the recent hunger strike, described video evidence that was captured on April 25. “A police officer grabbed somebody’s Keffiyeh and ended up pulling that person fully to the ground. Three people got concussions, somebody dislocated their shoulder, some people’s glasses were broken, and one protester was also sexually assaulted by one of the privately hired security guards.”
One student facing charges recounted that “[Campus security] had torn my mask off, and had punched me in the face. It was definitely a level of misconduct that no one had foreseen from Oxy campus safety or private security.”
Another student protester elaborated on the violence he experienced. “They grabbed the back of my neck, and I had a mask and a Keffiyeh on and they grabbed the back of my hair and yanked it to rip my mask off … my old pair of glasses fell off into the crowd because of that and they were scratched beyond repair. I couldn’t see out of them for a couple weeks.”
According to another student, the protesters have tried everything they could to communicate peacefully with Occidental leadership. “We have reached out to the president, the dean of students, we want to have a conversation, we want to make a plan to divest, to try to get our school at a better place, and we are actively working with other clubs to do this.”
Meanwhile, other than notifications about the conduct charges, the administration has remained mostly silent since the events of April 25. “Students got letters from a private investigator saying that they wanted to interview them,” said Tobias, “but that is the closest that we’ve come to something that you could call an ‘open dialogue.’”
Students believe that these charges are politically motivated. “The school knows we’re on financial aid and that two out of the three of us are students of color,” one student who has been charged shared. “So they are kind of targeting the students that have the hardest time accessing legal representation to resources and connections within the governmental system.”
He explained further, “It is very political because you have students who have access to these resources, who have parents advocating for the other side, advocating for our expulsion, advocating for more investment toward Israel, and these parents and members of the community have connections.”
The excessive brutality we are witnessing on college campuses is increasing at troubling rates. These relentless attacks on the first amendment and student protests for Palestine are another example of how the condemnation of the state of Israel is met with false claims of antisemitism, resulting in the ongoing destruction of many American livelihoods.
In response to these baseless accusations of Jewish hatred on campus, one of the students shared, “This is about the end of Zionism, this is about showing solidarity with people whether they are in our communities or around the world.”
One student mentioned, “If these expulsions go through, Occidental will be one of the first schools in the nation to expel students for political activity, especially in relation to Palestine.”
College campuses have historically been a safe haven where students can protest and express public opinion. This perception seems to be changing, as Occidental appears to be pivoting in a direction that is alarming.
It is undeniable that Occidental is intent on silencing pro-Palestine speech on its campus. A school that once stood so loud and proud in its fight for social justice, condemning the killing of George Floyd and taking a stand against Anti-Black and Anti-Asian racism, has now turned into a Zionist and racist institution that favors genocide over its students.
When asked if he had any words for the administration, one student responded, “Drop the charges. Plain and simple.”
Hearings for the students charged with conduct violations began yesterday, July 30. Students and organizers are coming together to condemn Occidental and put pressure on the administration through emails, statements, and protests to drop the charges against the three students. Knock LA will continue covering the situation as it develops.
