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Oakland anarchists pledge solidarity with ‘Palestinian Resistance.’
By Alec Schemmel, Washington Free Beacon
A group of self-described “anti-colonial anarchists and communists” took responsibility for a destructive break-in at the University of California’s administrative offices in Oakland, calling the move an act of “solidarity with the Palestinian Resistance.”
The anonymous authors of a statement released Monday night claimed credit for smashing 7 windows, spraying red paint all over the office, and releasing “500 cockroaches” inside the office of university president Michael V. Drake. The statement was attributed to “sacred black and red,” a reference to the colors of the anarchist flag.
“With the Aurora Borealis above us and the martyrs in our hearts, we attacked the UC Office of the President in solidarity with the Palestinian Resistance,” the statement said. “As anti-colonial anarchists and communists we offer this act of material and spiritual solidarity with the hopes of shattering the illusion that resistance is limited to a single site.” The statement was published on IndyBay, a site that routinely publishes communiqués from far-left anarchists.
The University of California Office of the President verified on Tuesday that its building was vandalized and that it is working with law enforcement to investigate the incident but otherwise declined to comment. The Oakland Police Department did not respond to the Washington Free Beacon’s requests for comment.
The violent attack took place just several days after another anonymous anarchist group in Portland, Ore., took responsibility for setting over a dozen police cars ablaze in support of “brutalized student protesters” and “Palestinian martyrs.” Much like the California-based group, the Portland-area criminals called for “more action” amid a wave of police activity last week against unsanctioned anti-Israel encampments at several U.S. universities.
Monday evening’s anonymous statement argued that pushing universities to divest from Israel isn’t enough, adding that protesters should focus on “resource expropriation and fucking [universities] up irreparably.”
“The University of California is nothing more than a settler colonial project … where knowledge is produced and captured by the State to only dig its claws deeper into the flesh of Indigenous lands here and abroad,” the anarchists said in their statement. “The University does not simply fund Israel, it creates Israel, and launches this white-colony into the post-modern Empire.”
In addition to lambasting the California university system over its alleged ties to Israel, the statement also criticized pro-Palestinian liberals and progressives for having “deradicalized” the ongoing movement through demonizing “militant forms of struggle.”
“Across Bay Area university encampments and police-liasoned [sic] street mobilizations, escalation is consistently policed by weaponized liberal anti-oppression politics or crushed entirely by the fear of risk,” the statement insisted. “We join the chorus calling for escalation in the imperial core: escalate, escalate, escalate! This is our historical and spiritual duty. To not hold this as truth is to give up and accept defeat, hoping someone else will do what it takes to disrupt the flow of capital into the settler-colonial project. We must bring the war home.”
Besides damage and cockroaches, the anonymous group left behind a water jug with the word “Bonk” inscribed on it. The jug was a reference to an incident at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, in which pro-Palestinian students occupied a campus building, clashed with police, and used giant water jugs to hit police.
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