Hundreds of Justice for Palestine supporters, many of them faculty, staff and students of UC Berkeley, walked out of classrooms Tuesday afternoon in solidarity with Palestine.
They gathered at Sproul Plaza wearing masks and unwilling to disclose their identities, like a tenured UC Berkeley faculty member.
“We have a lot of grievances against the university right now, and that’s why I walked out,” the faculty member said.
Leslie Brinkley: “Did you walk out of an actual classroom you should be in?”
Faculty member:
“Yes, I did. I walked out of a class.”
Brinkley:
“And do you fear repercussions because of that?”
Faculty member:
“Yes I do, because we’ve been told there would be repercussions.”
Over the past year, several in the crowd claim they’ve been placed under surveillance and have faced discrimination.
“I have been told by multiple administrators that I cannot deviate from any of the subject matter on my syllabus and teach to the moment, and historically that’s what we do we make our subject matter relevant,” the faculty member said.