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Thirty-two of more than 100 demonstrators calling for the University of California to divest from Israel were arrested Tuesday afternoon when they occupied Wheeler Hall on the UC Berkeley campus.  

Comparing Israeli occupation of Palestine to South African Apartheid, the students said that UC had a moral charge not to invest in companies with strong economic ties to Israel. The demonstration began at noon and ended at about 6:30 p.m. after police cleared the building.  

The students decided to occupy the building after the UC Regents did not respond to an April 12 letter demanding that UC divest over $6 billion from 16 corporations with strong relationships with Israel.  

Protester Abdul Zahzah pointed to Hewlett Packard as one egregious example. Hewlett Packard has a research lab at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, which does extensive military research, he said. 

Zahzah quoted South African freedom fighters Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, who compared the Palestinian situation to that of South African apartheid.  

Student Yalda Afshar wrote that the Israeli Law of Return “epitomizes” Israeli apartheid. The law grants any Jew full citizenship rights, while Palestinians displaced during Israeli expansion are not allowed to return and remain refugees in diaspora. 

When the students heard nothing from the Regents, said protester Ehssan VanDaei, they decided to demonstrate to apply pressure. 

“By them not responding we needed to escalate,” VanDaei said.  

After marching from Sather Gate, the students padlocked seven of the nine doors providing entrance to the front of Wheeler Hall. They impeded entrance to the other two doors by linking arms. 

The police monitored the situation, and allowed the demonstration to continue until about 3:30 p.m., always ensuring that the demonstrators had left some entrances accessible. When the police received several complaints from professors and students that classes were canceled and students could not enter the building, they began to arrest demonstrators and remove the padlocks, said Captain Bill Cooper. 

Of the 32 people arrested, 19 were Berkeley students. All were released on promises to attend a court hearing.  

Trey Davis, UC spokesperson said that the student demands for a 10-day turn around in decision making could not be met. 

“The time frame is completely impractical,” he said. “They were basically giving the regents one week to divest $6 billion. The regents meet about once every two months. A decision like this, even if the regents are inclined to divest would not be something you would do over a weekend.” 

Davis said that the fight for divestment from South Africa took years, and that there are no precedents for the Regents to hold a special meeting for a student demonstration. “There are provisions for emergency actions based on acts of nature, natural disasters, national emergencies, nothing for something like this,” he said.  

But, for Boalt Law Student Will Youmans, that is not sufficient. “If it were some major crisis like the investment portfolio goes bankrupt,” he said, “they could deal with it.” The lack of any response was the most frustrating. “If they would have said we need more time, that would have been a response,” he said. “The regents have all the time in the world, but for the Palestinians time is running out.” 

While 100 pro-Palestinian students circled the steps of Wheeler Hall, about 50 members of the Israeli Action Coalition and Berkeley Hillel stood outside, some draped in Israeli flags, holding a counter demonstration. They called for an end to violence in Israel.  

The students in support of Israel said that their “Rally for Peace” was planned well in advance as part of Israel Week, and that they made an ad hoc decision to follow the protesters when they marched from Sproul Plaza to Wheeler.  

“We want people to see both sides of the story,” said Oren Lazar. “We hope that the regents will look at the facts and know this is sensationalism.” 

Moshe Wertham, visiting from Jerusalem, held a sign in support of Israel and thoughtfully watched the demonstrators. “I’m sure 90 percent of these people have never been to Israel,” he said. “What bothers me the most is how many of them are Jewish.” Wertham said that the marching students didn’t understand the violence perpetrated by Palestinians on Israeli citizens. 

Since September 410 Palestinian supporters and 70 supporters of Israel have been killed in clashes in the region. 

Randy Barnes, of the Israeli Action Coalition called the students’ calls for divestment “misguided.”  

“There are inaccurate parallels being drawn between Israel and South Africa,” he said. “It’s counterproductive to peace.” 

Demonstrator Reema Dodin discounted the IAC calls for peace. “They say they want peace, but it’s a peace based on their rules,” she said, rules that don’t include a full Palestinian state that meets Palestinian demands. 

At 6:30 p.m., over 100 participants sat on the steps outside of Wheeler Hall, in a generally jubilant mood. “I think it went really well, the message we sent to the Regents was clear,” said Youmans. “We will not tolerate an investment portfolio that entrenches a system of apartheid that undermines basic Palestinian rights.”  

Two students from Hillel remained on the steps among the demonstrators until the group had begun to disperse. They held up a banner calling for Peace in Israel.