A crowd of students clamored in chants of protest against President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda for the conflict between Israel and Hamas on Wednesday at Paseo de San Antonio near San José State.
Student protesters participating started the protest by chanting “Fuck Trump” at Philz Coffee, then proceeding to march through campus to the SJSU Career Center, shouting a myriad of other chants.
After arriving at the center, the crowd gathered to hear other student protesters' speeches.
John Duroyan, president of the SJSU’s chapter of Students for Democratic Society and a history graduate student, said Vice President Kamala Harris’s loss was embarrassing.
“You lost the election like idiots and brought the genocide like assholes,” Duroyan said. “We are faced with another four years of Trump, another four years of reactionary policies. Shame. Another four years of institutionalized racism and bigotry backed by the full weight of a violent police state.”
Approximately 70% of all likely voters strongly or somewhat supported a permanent ceasefire and de-escalation of the conflict according to a May 8, Data for Progress poll.
The conflict started last year on Oct. 7 when Palestinian nationalist group Hamas attacked Israel and killed over 1,200 people, according to an Oct. 7, 2023 U.S. Department of State press briefing.
Despite a majority of voters supporting a ceasefire, Donald Trump has not yet called for a ceasefire, but has expressed wishes for the conflict to end in an April 4, interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
It was reported at least 41,802 Palestinians had been killed since Oct. 7, according to an Oct. 4, 2024 update from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
“We will act as we have with the cowardly Democrats, (who) backed the genocide shamelessly the previous year,” Duroyan said. “We will act as we acted when the first Black Lives Matter uprising swept the nation and revealed the full extent of institutionalized racism and the depraved cruelty of a police state back during Trump's first term.”
Only 21% of Democrats said they opposed a ceasefire in a Data for Progress poll.
Despite the small number of Democrats who oppose it, the conflict remains ongoing as the Biden administration has not been able to negotiate for a ceasefire with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Some campuses in California have introduced mask bans to prevent students from hiding their identity, according to a Sept. 1 Disability Rights California web page.
The same web page says that the mask ban is meant to target protesters, but may have a harmful impact on students who need to wear a mask for health or medical reasons.
Kaly Blackwell, a second-year animation and illustration student, spoke on behalf of Mask Bloc San José, a club that distributes masks and COVID-19 tests.
“California, New York and North Carolina have all called for mask bans this year in hopes of policing dissent for (freeing) Palestine,” Blackwell said. “In other words, a multi-purpose tool used to mitigate disease has been minimized into a single use scenario and is in threat of policing by law.”
The California State University’s Time, Place and Manner policy, is a policy that says campuses have a right to regulate when, where and how free speech can be expressed so it does not disrupt student learning or a campus’s safety, according to the CSU website.
Simone Atendido, a fourth-year child and adolescent student, feels the California State University’s (CSU) policy is not defending students’ rights to free speech.
“We have been exploited and taken advantage of for the sake of maximum profit for decades. We are tired!” Atendido said. “As students and as student activists, we have already (had) restrictions on our right to speak about these ongoing issues through restrictions such as the CSU Time, Place and Manner policy.”
SJSU fully implemented the Time, Place and Manner policy on Aug. 16, 2024, according to its respective SJSU web page.
Robin McMahon, a sixth-year history student, said it was important to get as many people to protest as possible.
“When we are marching, we are doing the work of gathering attention, but it is not enough simply to gather attention,” McMahon said. “If you can make this world something that doesn't need violence, then people will come and join if they see that it is something stable and safe.”
Students for a Democratic Society has said that the Israel-Palestine conflict has been made worse by both Democrats and Republicans, according to a Students for a Democratic Society Nov. 6 Instagram post.
“The system is completely fine with us dying on the fringes. With our suffering, with our precarity,” McMahon said. “It is up to us to reach out and convince other people that it does not have to be that way for the system to exist. That we can rebuild it, remake it, and reclaim it into something that lets us live.”
