The Publica has obtained the internal guidance created by the “leaders” of the pro-Palestine student protests that have rocked the country over the past month. The documents, circulated via Google Drive, teach protestors about how to conduct an array of criminal activities, but also provides information on prison abolitionism and the gay nightlife in the West Bank.
The extensive drive contains multiple categories, including those dedicated to information on Palestine, prison abolitionism, student militancy, and “strategies and tactics.” The information is presented “zine” style, complete with snazzy graphics and artwork.
One file, titled “The DIY Occupation Guide,” contains instructions and methods on how to barricade doors, creating corrugated metal barriers, and forming “shields” from trash cans. Techniques also include how to break into buildings using crowbars, bolt cutters, and angle grinders.
Vandalism and general criminal activity is celebrated in the guidance, with documents encouraging protestors to smash the cameras of media and bystanders who may be filming in one document titled “In Defense of Smashing Cameras.”
The opening of the document reads: “Photographers at demonstrations will soon outnumber demonstrators, those who are willing to take action. This is something we need to take a stand against. Cameras are tools of surveillance, and whether it is us or the enemy that wields them, we are participating in our own surveillance.”
It continues: “Next time you see someone thrusting their lens in someone’s face, getting a little too close and personal, blocking your path to assist your friends so they can get a winning angle, we ask you not to stand idly by. Fight back. Protect your friends. #smashcameras.”
In other documents, protestors are taught how to break locks, open car doors, and immobilize tractors and trucks.
But the protest leaders appear confident that arrests for criminal activity will not lead to harsh penalties, referring to being arrested as “easy.” The file instructs protestors to “just stay quiet and wait for them to let you out.”
The Google Drive also contains advocacy information on prison, police, and University abolitionism.
In perhaps the most bizarre file, titled “Queer voices from the Fight for Palestinian Liberation,” protestors are taught that the West Bank has a bustling LGBTQ+ scene, including claims that gay raves take place in Ramallah.
The first page of the zine quotes Zaheer Suboh, a self-described “queer” Bay Area DJ who was born in the United States to Palestinian immigrant parents. At the age of six, his family moved back to Palestine but later returned to California during his teenage years.
“What do any of you know of my Palestine? Of the late night queer parties in Ramallah? Of raves held in biblically aged buildings? Of lesbians in hijabs, of gay men in hoop earrings, of trans Palestinians dancing with joyful abandon?”
Suboh continues: “We fear Israel first, before our families, always. We’re 100 times more likely to die at the hands of an Israeli gun or bomb than by western propagandized ideas of honor killings. I’ve seen White Christian Americans wish their child be dead rather than gay … Israel is the one that weaponizes the homophobia that Queer people all over the world of all religions experience to justify murdering Palestinians of all kinds, young and old, Christian and Muslim, Queer and Straight.”
In recent months, universities across the United States have witnessed a surge in protests related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These demonstrations often stem from heightened tensions and violence in the Middle East, particularly in the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem. Multiple universities have endured extensive damage as a result of protestor occupations and encampments.
At Portland State University, the Millar Library was left in shambles following a three-day occupation by protestors, who destroyed much of the building and have resulted in its indefinite closure. At New York’s Columbia University, cleanup efforts have been underway for days following the NYPD’s breakup of the occupation of the campus.
Amongst the other universities rocked by protest include Princeton, where students have recently taken to converting to Islam and going on hunger strikes until their ultimatums are met.
