San Francisco State hosts an inspiring Palestine Rally

The Kids are All Right. Actually, they are F**KING AWESOME.

I’ve been to 30+ Free Palestine events in the last 10 bloody months. Zionist Israeli racist murderers with weapons from their craven USA accomplices have inspired rallies, marches, speeches, memorials, skits, blocked freeways, arrests, cop atrocities, and flowered altars to dead children. I thought I’d seen it all… but… wow..!

The August 29th rally at San Francisco State was the most inspired action I’ve witnessed. When I arrived there I felt old, cynical, despairing, useless, powerless, but then…

“Let’s be fucking LOUD!” yelled the terrific emcee. “The students, united, WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED!”

The event, sponsored by Bay Area Students for Palestine, announced the enraged collaboration of multiple campuses: SF State plus University of San Francisco, UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, San Jose State, Foothill, De Anza, Stanford, and others…

“Our Power is in Unity!” proclaimed one of the eloquent, passionate, hopeful speakers. “Our Power is in Mass Action! We Are Building Change, and We Are Making that Change an Inevitability!”

175+ enthusiastic students were there, plus NBC News and ABC. Huge banners surrounded the stage, saying, “186,000 MARTYRS” and “A FREE PALESTINE IN OUR LIFETIME,” and “THERE IS NO FUTURE WITHOUT PALESTINE,” and “LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE’S UNIVERSITY.”

“Palestine will free the world!” predicted another speaker. “When we speak for a Free Palestine, we are talking about Liberty, Justice, and Freedom from Congo to Sudan from Haiti to Cuba.”

Another speaker praised SF State student success at forcing the administration to divest from Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar and other war industries that’ve aided Israel in their butchery. “Be Proud of Yourself,” she encouraged the audience.

“We did that shit!” exulted the emcee. “We were the first university in the nation! So now - are you guys going to give up?”

“NOOOOOOO!!!” roared the crowd

“NO THE FUCK NO!” he agreed. “We don’t give a shit what they say about repressing our speech. FREE PALESTINE!”

When the rally ended I trudged home, buoyed, younger, hopeful, repeating in my brain the wise advice one of the student speakers 50 years younger than I had provided:

“We must all use our voices to keep Palestine alive. There’s a voice inside you, it is Palestine. Don’t ignore that voice - AMPLIFY IT.”