Drop Charges Against Stanford 11 and Golden Gate 26!

Stanford University and the Santa Clara County D.A. are relentlessly pursuing felony charges against students who protested the U.S.-Israeli massacre in Gaza. For a 90-minute sit-in, they are facing three years in jail and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and restitution claims. As the PDC wrote in a November 25 protest letter, “This vindictive prosecution will chill the right of anyone on campus to protest administration or government policy.”

In June 2024, a dozen Stanford students barricaded themselves in the main administration building to demand that Stanford divest Israeli-linked assets from its $37.6 billion endowment. Based on court testimony, the students offered to leave, but the cops tore through a door and broke a window to enter and arrest them. Stanford banned the students from campus for two terms, depriving them of their classes, student housing, health coverage, campus jobs and meals.

A year later, eleven of the twelve students were slapped with felony charges of vandalism and conspiracy to trespass and occupy, seeking an absurdly inflated university restitution claim of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Several defendants have pleaded no contest, but five went to trial in January. The jury deadlocked on both charges, and the judge declared a mistrial. Within minutes, D.A. Rosen announced he would seek a new trial, set to begin March 23.

Defense attorneys have filed a recusal motion against the D.A.’s entire office because of Rosen’s arch-Zionism. As Amy Zhai of the Stanford 11 explained at the PDC’s January 24 Holiday Appeal for Class-War Prisoners, “Rosen’s daughter works for AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Rosen has pictures of himself personally greeting Prime Minister Netanyahu when he arrived in San Jose a few months before October 2023.” Later, Rosen traveled with his family to Israel on an IDF solidarity tour.

This is not the only vindictive prosecution against pro-Palestine protesters in the Bay Area. In San Francisco, 26 people who stopped traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge during the “Stop the World for Gaza” demonstrations on Tax Day 2024 were hit with 44 charges and $162,000 in restitution claims (for lost toll fees). The San Francisco D.A. even called on commuters stopped in traffic to make their own independent claims. While charges have been dismissed against many protesters, seven of the 26 still face charges of felony conspiracy, false imprisonment and five other felonies. The case, which has dragged on for 18 months, is scheduled to go to trial later in the spring.

Both cases threaten to establish dangerous precedents criminalizing dissent, labeling any protest as felony “conspiracy” with onerous prison sentences and fines. PDC supporters mobilized to pack the court throughout the February Stanford trial, and we have publicized the cases and donated to both their legal defense funds. We call on the left and workers movement to do the same. Drop all the charges against the Golden Gate 26 and Stanford 11!