Students gathered on campus in front of the Performing Arts Center on Feb. 8 to protest the Israel-Palestine conflict and demand divestment in some Israeli business interests.

The group was stationed by Kendall Hall lawn from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with signs and flags in solidarity with Palestine. 

The protest was planned by South Western Asia North Africa and South Asia Advocates in Chico, an advocacy group. SWANASA previously organized other rallies and protests to raise awareness.

“The big goal of this semester is going to be to launch a divestment campaign to demand that Chico State divest from all companies funding and investing in the Israeli genocide towards Palestinians,” SWANASA advocate member and junior, Shaheera, said. Shaheera declined to give her last name.

Shaheera said that the protest was to spread awareness regarding their divestment campaign and to what is going on in Palestine.

“We want to get students to know what’s happening in Palestine and why it’s so crucial to divest,” Shaheera said.

Members of SWANASA advocates are not satisfied with Chico State’s response to what is happening in Palestine.

“We just got one statement overall which was only really in regards to Israeli folk. Not really in regards to Palestine,” Shaeera said. “We’re now at 27,000 Palestinians, half of them are children, who’ve been slaughtered and the school hasn’t said anything.” 

SWANASA advocates are optimistic they can get another statement from the school and pass a divestment resolution.

“Sacramento State did both of those successfully so we are modeling our work after that,” Shaheera said.

At Sacramento State, a student group called Students for Justice in Palestine demanded the conflict be addressed and the Associated Students of Sacramento State released a statement calling for a ceasefire and for basic services like water and food to be returned to the citizens of Gaza.

Shaheera wants students to know that things are consistently getting worse for the Palestinian people.

“It’s definitely the worst that it’s ever been,” Shaheera said. “The reason we’re not hearing as much is because journalists are being targeted and murdered.”

Shaheera said there is a lot of censorship and bias against Palestinians in the media.

“There’s a lot of things that definitely portray advocacy towards Palestinian human rights as something malicious,” she said.

She warned of the presence of Islamophobia in the media.

“The biggest thing I want students to know is that there is a lot a lot of weaponization of Islamophobia to make it seem as if we have malicious intent with what we’re doing,” she said. “But at the end of the day, our concern is towards the thousands of civilian lives who have been impacted.”

SWANASA encourages students to attend their events in order to learn more about the Palestinian people.

Sam Moore and Nadia Hill can be reached at [email protected].