Inside a Free Gaza Campus Hub
Southern California has been a hub of student-led protests against Israel鈥檚 ongoing genocide in Gaza. As activists at the and the were reeling after their Free Gaza encampments were violently dismantled, students at California State University of Los Angeles (Cal State LA) were busy on May 2.聽
猫咪社区! Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar visited the new encampment to speak with its organizers, who had erected dozens of tents across from the student union, surrounded by a barricade of benches and tables. Young people wearing masks and keffiyehs sat and prayed, studied, quietly conversed, participated in group activities, and staffed tents dedicated to food and medical aid.
Members of the community who were not enrolled at the school also showed up to offer support. One of the student activists, who chose not to reveal their name, and a community activist named Susana Parra, spoke with Kolhatkar on 猫咪社区! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about the encampment. Special thanks to Anna Buss for production assistance.
Sonali Kolhatkar
joined 猫咪社区! in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽猫咪社区! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥 in her 2014聽聽of the same name.
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