The Ripples of Gaza

Six months into the Hamas-Israel war, local and global voices contend with its consequences. Our reporters bring stories of a contentious protest at UC Berkeley, the mental health impact on Palestinian students, Taiwan’s conflicting view on Israel and Palestine, and how the war is influencing the 2024 local and presidential elections.

This is a recording of North Gate Radio that was broadcast live on KALX radio station, 90.7FM.

 

 

The Ripple of Gaza Full Transcript

Simmerdeep Kaur: Good morning and welcome to Northgate Radio. I’m Simardeep Kaur. 

Fernando Andrade: And I’m Fernando Andrade. 

Simmerdeep Kaur: On today’s show, it’s Arab American Heritage Month. And we check in how that community is coping with the war in Gaza. 

Fernando Andrade: The protesters at Sather Gate say it’s at the forefront of everyone’s mind. 

Protester: For some of us, we have birth rights.

For some of us, we have birth burdens, and that’s to liberate our land. 

Simmerdeep Kaur: We Also hear from Palestinian students who are having a hard time navigating school and their mental health.

Palestinian Student : For Palestinians, it’s something that is always on our mind. 

Fernando Andrade: And it’s an election year. So we asked youth voters how Gaza will factor into their vote for president.

Palestinian Voter: Being Palestinian, everyone in my family is basically not voting or voting independent. 

Simmerdeep Kaur: And we’ll hear how the war in Gaza is challenging the identity of the progressives in Taiwan. 

Fernando Andrade: But first, the news.

Audy McAfee: Live from Northgate News, I’m Audy McAfee. UC Berkeley has a new chancellor. After six months of searching, Rich Lyons, the former dean of UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, was appointed yesterday by the UC Regents. Lyons graduated from Berkeley in 1982 and will be taking a seat on July 1st after Dean Carol Christ steps down.

Lyons has a vision to increase more funding for the school through intellectual property licensing, philanthropy, and creating more funding streams. That’s according to Berkeleyside. Lyons is currently the leader of entrepreneurship and innovation at Haas. Lyons is taking the home as the university faces an anticipated 79 million dollar deficit in the central budget.

San Francisco mayor London Breed wants a Chinese university to open a campus in downtown San Francisco. The expansion could help boost business in downtown San Francisco, which has been hollowed out since the pandemic. Along those lines, Breed is taking a trip to China, where she will work on getting Chinese businesses to invest in the city.

Breed plans on meeting with an electronic company and Chinese airlines. The trip will be funded by the San Francisco Special Events Committee, a non profit. On a cuter note, Breed hopes China will send pandas to the city zoo. She thinks it’ll bring more visitors to the city, and I for one, hope it works out.

For Northgate News, I’m Audy McAfee.

Fernando Andrade: Welcome back to Northgate Radio. I’m Fernando Andrade. 

Simmerdeep Kaur: And I’m Simmer deep Kaur. April is Arab American Heritage Month. And for many in the community right now, their minds are on the war in Gaza. And so I went down to Sadr Gate, where a group called the Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine have been protesting.

I met up with Leila, who is getting her PhD at Berkeley, but would not give her last name out of fear for her safety. I asked her to tell me what their group has been up to for the last six months. 

Protester: We actually started with an actual blockade of Sather. And this area is very strategic in that it’s the entrance of campus.

And we found a lot of different creative ways to kind of protest it in general. From satire, to um, banners, to actual statements that reflect back what’s going on in the genocide each and every day. 

Simmerdeep Kaur: And how did the group come up with this idea of a series of creative protests? 

Protester: So, Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine started on October 10th.

We were interested in having something that is more sustained and prominent on campus to, um, insist that the university divest, um, as well as to take actions to protect its students. And so we actually got this idea off of studying, um, you know, the Vietnam War era and the protests that came out of Berkeley then, uh, the occupation that happened, um, here on the, on the free speech area.

Simmerdeep Kaur: And what are some of the creative ways that you have protested here? 

Protester: Yeah, so right now, um, we’re actually here on picnic blankets because the university, um, has enacted all of these kind of, uh, additional rules. They cited us time, place, and manner. So we’re on blankets because they previously took away our chains.

They say that there’s no amplified sound here, but I’m sure as you can hear, there’s always amplified sound here. There’s a Taylor Swift club that’s there almost every day playing Taylor Swift and that’s never been a problem once. 

Simmerdeep Kaur: I’m also curious about the student reactions. How do people react walking down this road when they see that they can no longer walk through the gate?

Protester: By and large, the community that attends this campus is supportive of us. I hear them on the phone saying, you know, let’s meet at Free Palestine Gate. So we know that we are making an impact. 

Simmerdeep Kaur: I know a lot of you have roots in the Middle East and even in Gaza. How are the group members managing the emotional turmoil of it all, along with being full time students?

Protester: I think it’s been really taxing on us. I always say that, um, For some of us, we have birth rights. For some of us, we have birth burdens. And that’s to liberate our land and to, um, seek justice in, in pursuit of what has dispossessed us as part of our mission in life. Um, however, I think that we, we are struggling quite a bit.

There have been so many students who have told me that they’ve found out that somebody died, that they know through social media. What a terrible way to learn that. And then we’re expected to go through class as though nothing’s going on. I will say that one takeaway that we have is that there have been people coming to this gate from all walks of life with similar experiences to our own, indigenous struggles.

Black struggles, so many struggles that that are coming together and recognizing that we’re going to be able to unite and be a stronger force together and that we can create 

a community here on campus. 

Simmerdeep Kaur: Thank you so much for meeting me here at Sather Gate and joining us at Northgate Radio. 

Protester: Thank you.

Simmerdeep Kaur: We reached out to the university. Assistant Vice Chancellor Dan Mogulof says the university is applying long standing rules regarding protesters chaining themselves and amplifying sound, both of which are not allowed. Mogulof says it does not sanction free speech, but has informed the students they’re violating university rules and asked them to correct it.

Fernando Andrade: We just heard about students on campus who are coping with the news in Gaza. Where more than 30, 000 people have been killed so far. And while the war might feel far away for a lot of us, reporter Hussein Khan says for Palestinian American students, it’s taken a heavy toll on their mental health and education.

Hussain Khan: Kamal Bakri is a senior at UC Berkeley and remembers the first time he learned he had relatives in Gaza. He was 8 years old on a family trip to Palestine. On the trip, Albuquerque remembers someone pulling out their family tree. 

Kamal al Barkhri: They pulled out this big paper. At the time, I saw like this one branch going off into Gaza.

I was like, we’re not from Gaza. Like, who are these people? 

Hussain Khan: His dad said that those were his second cousins. Albuquerque wanted to visit them. But Zag explained there was a blockade in Gaza that began in 2007. 

Kamal al Barkhri: He’s like, unfortunately, no, we cannot. Inshallah, when Palestine is free, we’ll be able to visit them, Inshallah.

Hussain Khan: But now, al Barkhri says, God willing, he can visit them in heaven. Because on October 23rd, al Barkhri found out 22 people in his family were killed by Israeli bombing. He found out on Instagram. Since the war broke out, he’s been checking it almost 

hourly.

 

Kamal al Barkhri: And I almost scrolled past this one reel that was a doctor yelling at the camera with a, like, a stretcher.

Hussain Khan: On the stretcher were six girls who were killed in a bombing. Two of them had red hair. 

Kamal al Barkhri: The funny thing is, us al Barkhris, we have a strong red hair gene.

Hussain Khan: Red hair like his uncle. Like the red tint in al Barkhri short beard. And when, when I saw that, like, it was, it just, everything stopped. Two minutes later, he got a phone 

call from his cousin in the West Bank, confirming it was his family.

Kamal al Barkhri: My whole family, the family name, Al Bakri’s family name, was wiped off of the civil registry in that one bomb. 

Hussain Khan: Al Barkhri was in his dorm room alone when he found out. He didn’t know how to bear the news about his family. 

Kamal al Barkhri: A few days later, I said, I can’t be alone anymore. And so he flew up to Oregon to be with his parents.

So we can, we can mourn together. 

Hussain Khan: One night, during a prayer for the people of Gaza, his dad cried when he prayed for the children. 

Kamal al Barkhri: You know, when you see your father cry, the whole world stops. 

Hussain Khan: It’s not right. Al Bakri couldn’t focus on school. He ended up missing three weeks of class. The thought of going back was overwhelming, but he remembers what his father said during the Oregon visit.

Kamal al Barkhri: I’ve lived through six of these. This is like your first major one, right? This is part of being a Palestinian. You have to keep on fighting when all seems lost because that resistance, that spirit, just doesn’t die with us. 

Hussain Khan: Since coming back to school, Al Bakri has reduced his course load to keep up the fight by attending protests and organizing events.

He’s had to push back his graduation year because of this. But some Palestinian American students aren’t sure if they can muster the energy to keep studying. 

Reem Asad: Hi, my name is Reem Asad. I am 21 years old. I am a fourth year student here at UC Berkeley. 

Hussain Khan: Asad’s entire family on her mom’s side is from Gaza.

Her dad’s family is in the West Bank. She’s never been to Palestine, but was planning to visit this January. 

Reem Asad: And I was so excited. I’ve been planning since junior year to go and it would have been my first time in my native land. And then when October 7th happened, it like all fell apart. 

Hussain Khan: The trip was delayed, then got canceled.

Then around November, Asad’s mom found out that the family had to abandon their home and flee to Rafah. Silence. We lost all contact, 

Reem Asad: And it was probably the hardest two months for my mom and me, and like our whole family. 

Hussain Khan: All Asad could think about was whether her uncle and cousins are going to live to the next day.

Instead of school, she spent her day contacting friends with relatives there for news, or scrolled Instagram for updates. And kept calling her family in Gaza. 

Reem Asad: And then have hope, the phone is ringing, the phone is ringing, and then just shut off. We 

would just fear for the worst. For two months, she lived like this.

Hussain Khan: But then, in January, she found out her family was alive. But in all that time, 

Reem Asad: I have not been to a class except I have one online one and that kind of makes it easier to just like open zoom, keep your camera off and just listen 

Hussain Khan: a lot of times I said just stays in bed 

Reem Asad: and just like live with that pain because before this before October, I’m someone who’s very passionate about education and learning and doing my work and it’s just replaced it with it.

Sadness and just like difficulty, 

Hussain Khan: Judy feels that pain too. She’s 20 years old as a senior, but didn’t want to give her last name for safety reasons. 

Judy: I am from . Both of my parents are from . My dad was born and raised there. 

Hussain Khan: Judy’s parents took her to visit Gaza twice. Once in 2013, and then 2019. She has memories of life there before October 7th.

Judy: Drinking tea, playing cards, eating, like, Palestinian food, um, and making fun of each other. Like, my cousins are all like my siblings. I still talk to some of my cousins right now. 

Hussain Khan: But now, the laughter and fun has been replaced by bombs, and her cousin’s home is in rubble. They had to move to Rafah. Judy texts them regularly to see if they’re okay.

Judy: So first I used to ask them, how are you? Because, are you alive? So that felt a little bit weird, but then they told me to stop asking that because They’re obviously not okay. 

Hussain Khan: So now Judy makes sure to steer clear of that question and ask something silly to try and line up their day. 

Judy: They’re all told, I’m like, hey, do you want to hear about my day, or, or something?

Hussain Khan: Judy thinks about them all the time. Right after October 7th, she used to have nightmares. 

Judy: In the beginning, first few weeks, I actually did not sleep. Now I can sleep a little bit more. 

Hussain Khan: And when the nightmares come back, Judy makes sure to stay busy. 

Judy: I need to work until I’m completely exhausted so that I can sleep without having dreams.

Hussain Khan: Judy’s attendance suffered, and she had to ask for extensions. She remembers telling her mom she’s not motivated to go to class. 

Judy: And she was saying that the only thing we have as a way to resist and a way to like excel is our education. 

Hussain Khan: Education is important for Palestinians, and Gaza has one of the highest global literacy rates.

It’s been six months since the war started, and the school year is almost over. You can feel people’s energy taper off with less protests on campus. For Al Bakri, Asad, and Judy, they can’t forget. She remembers a recent conversation where she told a friend she’s going to visit family because she’s feeling tired and depressed.

Judy: And she was asking me, Oh, so what are you like upset about? And I told her, And she goes, Oh, I forgot about that. 

Hussain Khan: Judy knows she didn’t mean anything by it. Like a lot of people, her friend forgot about the war. But Judy says that while Gaza might not always be on other people’s minds, it’s for Palestinians. For Northgate Radio, I’m Hussain Khan.

Fernando Andrade: As the country prepares for a rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, a lot of attention is being given to youth voters. That’s because it’s expected to be a super tight race and every vote will count.

We’ve been hearing that a lot of young voters aren’t happy with the U. S. ‘s stance on the war. And so, we sent Northgate reporter, Amaray Alvarez, out to speak to some of them at the protest on campus.

Amaray Alvarez: It’s Thursday, and about 50 UC Berkeley students are protesting in front of Doe Library. They are demanding a ceasefire to the war, and they’ve been out here every week since Israel retaliated against Hamas invasion on October 6th. Some of these protesters will be voting for the first time this November.

And the war in Gaza weighs heavily on their decision of who to choose as president. 

Palestinian Voter: Being Palestinian, everyone in my family is basically not voting. Like we’re, or voting independent. 

Amaray Alvarez: That’s the voice of a Berkeley undergrad student studying molecular and cell biology. His face was covered in a keffiyeh, and he did not give me his name in fear of being doxed.

Something that’s happened to college protesters. He says it’s not just Biden. 

Palestinian Voter: It’s the entire, almost the entire United States government. Just the complete lack of any response towards a full ceasefire is abhorrent. 

Amaray Alvarez: During the primaries, Anti war protesters encouraged voters upset with Biden’s policy towards the war to leave the presidential candidate blank.

Palestinian Voter: I still think California is going to vote Democrat. It’s, it’s not going to make a difference. 

Amaray Alvarez: And because of this, he plans to protest the U. S. policy by sitting out the November election. 

Palestinian Voter: Why would we support someone that supports the killing of my family? 

Amaray Alvarez: According to the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, he’s not the only youth voter who’s disappointed.

With President Biden’s handling of the Israel Hamas conflict, a recent poll showed that 15 percent of people between the ages of 18 to 29 approved of his actions. 69 percent disapproved. 

Aiden Esberg: I really detest what he has done in refusing to call for a ceasefire. 

Amaray Alvarez: That’s Aiden Esberg. He was watching protesters, but seemed unsure as to whether he wanted to participate.

He’s 21 years old and a fourth year undergrad studying society and environmental studies. While he’s disgusted with Biden’s stance on the war, he’s pleased with Biden’s overall performance. 

Aiden Esberg: I think that Biden has done good work in some areas of environmental justice and the Inflation Reduction Act. 

Amaray Alvarez: And Esberg says those factors outweigh his disapproval of Biden’s role in the war.

Esberg is afraid if Trump wins, all the work Biden’s done on the environment will fall apart. 

Aiden Esberg: And I think would be rather irreparable. 

Amaray Alvarez: In fact, during Trump’s presidency, he withdrew from the Paris Agreement and Trump rolled back over 100 policies regarding the environment. Esberg says Climate policies are important to him.

And so. 

Aiden Esberg: When it comes to where I place my vote, I won’t vote for Trump. I’m not going to do it. 

Faith: I’m faith. I’m an undergraduate student studying 

Amaray Alvarez: sociology. Faith is 20 years old and a third year student. She only gave her first name to protect her privacy while protesting. She is also concerned about climate change and thinks Biden is clearly better than Trump on this topic.

Faith: Voting for Biden would have the most real life impact for policy. He has better like climate policy than Trump. 

Amaray Alvarez: But Faith says she doesn’t plan on voting for him. Instead, she is going to cast her ballot for Claudia de la Cruz. She is running with the party for socialism and liberation. 

Faith: Claudia Dela Cruz is the only candidate right now that’s, um, adamantly expressed, like, pro Palestinian sentiments and stood in solidarity with Palestinian people.

So I’m honestly looking outside of, um, Trump and Biden. 

Amaray Alvarez: Faith says her generation needs to start thinking beyond the two party system. 

Faith: But I think our generation has a choice of if we’re I’m going to start reimagining a world outside of two parties. As far as I’m concerned, I feel like we have to start voting with our values and in solidarity with liberation movements across.

Amaray Alvarez: And faith knows, De La Cruz doesn’t have a chance of winning, but says change has to start somewhere. I’m Amare Alvarez, Northgate Radio.

Simmerdeep Kaur: You know how Cal has a reputation of being super progressive? Well, the country of Taiwan also thinks of themselves as being one of the more progressive nations in East Asia. But like everywhere else, The war in Gaza is challenging this identity. Northgate reporter, I Yun Chan, explains more.

I Yun Chan: Aurora Chang was born and raised in Taiwan. Since 2019, she has been advocating for human rights in Tibet, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Ukraine, Myanmar, Palestine, the list goes on. Now she’s working at the International Tibet Network, a global coalition of Tibet related NGOs, as well as several self organized advocacy groups in Taiwan.

Aurora Chang: I think I’m in this really privileged position that I am able to do all of this relatively safely. 

I Yun Chan: She’s also very active on X, formerly Twitter, where she mostly tweets in English. Taiwanese aren’t her usual audience. And so Aurora was surprised when she retweeted a post about a fundraiser for Gaza.

Taiwanese went on X to attack her. 

Aurora Chang: It was shocking to me that, like, how Comically evil, really. Some of the replies were it’s like the most stereotypical, like, why are you supporting terrorists? Like that kind of thing. 

I Yun Chan: That was also the first time Aurora was called pro CCP or Chinese Communist Party by fellow Taiwanese.

In the human rights world, that’s a big insult. Darren Zouk, professor in political science at UC Berkeley, explained the possible mentality of Taiwanese people viewing the Israel Gaza war. 

Darren Zouk: I think there’s a certain amount of sympathy for a country like Israel. They see it as the underdog, you know, fighting against this larger history of discrimination and things like this.

And I think to a certain extent, that story would resonate with people in Taiwan as well. 

I Yun Chan: And Zouk says you have to remember Taiwan’s history with China. After losing the civil war to the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, the Nationalist government fled to Taiwan, and Taiwan was recognized as the real China by the international community.

But in 1971, that changed when the United Nations voted to recognize the People’s Republic of China, or PRC, as the real China. Since then, the PRC has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan, a claim most Taiwanese reject. 

Darren Zouk: It’s obviously an issue of using this conflict as a way to further define the difference between Taiwan and China.

I Yun Chan: China is backing Palestine, and Zuck says, because of this, 

Darren Zouk: Because of China’s stance on the issue, I think Taiwan is going to take a very different approach on this. 

I Yun Chan: Right now, having the right friends is almost an existential need for Taiwan. With China threatening to seize the island through all necessary means, Taiwan has to be more careful to keep the U.

S. and other nations support. 

Darren Zouk: The biggest risk is, you know, there is this persistent effort, of course, by Taiwan of wanting to be recognized again. You know, join the United Nations, gain international recognition. Should you choose poorly in a conflict like this, many countries might decide they’re not going to support that.

I Yun Chan: Aurora agrees with Zouk. She says many Taiwanese activists are afraid to speak out against U. S. causes. 

Aurora Chang: In an existential struggle, you have to kind of prostrate yourself and self domain in order to survive. And that’s like the sad thing. 

I Yun Chan: Despite facing backlash from many Taiwanese people, Aurora continues her work at For Peace Taiwan.

It’s a self organized group that has been advocating and providing learning resources about Palestine in Mandarin Chinese. 

Aurora Chang: You cannot just witness all of these atrocities and things that are happening without trying to do something about it. I’m just trying to do my part, and it’s hard, but it’s necessary.

I Yun Chan: Aurora says she’s starting to see a shift in Taiwanese society. 

Aurora Chang: I have actually detected, like, this slowly shifting attitude on Palestine, from one of ignorance to one of sympathy and curiosity. 

I Yun Chan: Aurora says it’s slow going, but she believes doing something is better than doing nothing. I’m Ian Chen Northgate Radio.

Fernando Andrade: This election year, local politicians are on the hot seat about whether or not they want a ceasefire. 

Javanka Beckles: I believe that the majority, particularly of Democrats, want a ceasefire. 

Fernando Andrade: That’s Javanka Beckles. She’s facing off against Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin for the state Senate seat representing District 7, which includes most of Contra Costa County.

Northgate radio reporter Mitzi Pérez-Caro spoke to them and brought us this report. 

Mitzi Pérez-Caro: Javanka Beckles claim to fame in the political world was as a member of the Richmond Progressive Alliance. It was the early 2000s and a group of people decided to run for city council with the purpose of getting Chevron money out of politics.

Javanka Beckles: We prevailed because of the message of being corporate free at 

Mitzi Pérez-Caro: Chevron operates an oil refinery in Richmond and the feeling at the time that the company had too much influence. 

Javanka Beckles: First office that I ran for, which was Richmond City Council, and that’s Creating policies that improves the quality of life for the majority of us.

Mitzi Pérez-Caro: Before running for office, Beckles worked as a mental health clinician in West Contra Costa County. And while Beckles felt like she was helping people, she saw the challenges her clients faced were bigger than what her job addressed. 

Javanka Beckles: I saw it every day. Some of it really broke my heart and what I realized was, although I was creating a healing space right for the kids and families, what was missing was policies 

Mitzi Pérez-Caro: and she says that’s still her guiding light in fighting for kids and families.

Javanka Beckles: We need to be able to increase. income equality. My number two priority is environmental protections. And then my third issue that I’ve been running on and will continue to run on that really resonates with folks is making sure that we have health equity. 

Mitzi Pérez-Caro: While the Progressive Alliance was initially celebrated for challenging Chevron’s interest, in recent years there’s been more criticism of the group.

Some feel they’ve become too dogmatic. Beckles says she’s no longer on the Richmond City Council. She sits on the AC Transit Board now. She was elected in 2020. But she says her message remains the same, being corporate free. 

Javanka Beckles: Having a corporate free message really resonates with the majority of voters. I raised about 159, 000.

It was pretty much the least amount of money. 

Mitzi Pérez-Caro: That puts Beckles in contrast with her opponent, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arugin, who’s received support from Uber. The Ride Hailing app donated about 300, 000 to his campaign, but Arugin argues more important than his donors is his track record during his eight years as mayor.

He condemns them spending this much and says that his track record is free. 

Jesse Arugin: I’m running for state senate because I think the east bay needs a proven progressive problem solver who’s gonna fight for more affordable housing, safer neighborhoods, universal health care, and better schools. 

Mitzi Pérez-Caro: Arogin was talking over the phone, and he says he was inspired to run for public office by his family.

He is the son and grandson of farm workers that worked in the Central Valley. 

Jesse Arugin: Growing up, speaking to my family about their struggles working in the fields, living in labor camps, facing exploitation by growers, it made me angry that the people that feed us are some of the most exploited people in our society.

Mitzi Pérez-Caro: Judging from his endorsements, which include more than 100 elected officials, Arugin is arguably the establishment candidate. 

Jesse Arugin: It includes State Assembly Member Buffy Wicks, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurman. I have a supportive laborer, including the construction trains, the firefighters.

Mitzi Pérez-Caro: Arugin says as state senator, he will continue to work on housing. While mayor of Berkeley, the city greenlit over 800 units. Arugin says he’ll push to build more housing in the state. 

Jesse Arugin: I want to, you know, continue to push to build more housing, affordable housing in California. Because it’s unacceptable that, you know, there are kids and families in Berkeley and in this district.

who don’t have permanent housing. And I know, having been evicted, and faced housing insecurity, how traumatic and difficult it is to not know where you’re going to live, and how that impacts your health, and your wellness, and your success. 

Mitzi Pérez-Caro: Election Day is on November 5th. For the State Senate in District 7, you have the choice between Arugin and Beckels.

For Northgate Radio, I’m Mitzi Perez-Caro in Berkeley.

Simmerdeep Kaur: Well, that’s it for Northgate Radio. Today’s show was produced by Audy McAfee and Negar Ajayebi. 

Fernando Andrade: I Yun Chan was our executive producer. 

Simmerdeep Kaur: Rick Johnson was our engineer. 

Fernando Andrade: Queena Kim was our faculty advisor.

Simmerdeep Kaur: Northgate Radio is a production of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. I’m Simmardeep Kaur. 

Fernando Andrade: And I’m Fernando Andrade.

Simmerdeep Kaur: Thank you so much for listening.