Day Three of UCB Gaza Support Encampment

Photos: Leon Kunstenaar / Pro Bono Photo

Is this the calm before the storm? The UC Berkeley Gaza support encampment on the steps of Sproul Hall has settled down to prepare for a long siege.

From the original eight, the tents now number about sixty. The divestment demands are posted. Food distribution, much of it donated, is organized. Medical support tents have been set up and a generator has arrived. Some tents have posted their affiliation such as "Jews for Peace" or "Code Pink."

Activists have organized speakers to address the back and forth of students, young and elder supporters and the occasional panhandler walking by on the busy campus. The "residents" mill about, eat and rest.

A presentation by Google workers spoke about their fight against Google's massive data project for the Israeli government, project Nimbus.

They also talked about Google's lesser known project "Lavender". This is an AI project that collects thousands of facial images from drones and associates them with social media posts, emails, etc., to identify "militants" to target. The technology is being made available to assorted governments and militaries and is being used to automatically identify Palestinians for assassination.

Several mainstream, deadline driven, news crews came, grabbed a quick sound byte and TV shot and left.

The unspoken question hangs, will the UCB administration respond with violence as others have or will it take a more measured approach?

See all high resolution photos here.