Hundreds of Stanford students attended demonstrations, teach-ins and rallies on campus from Jan. 21 to 28 as part of “Global Strike Week,” an international effort to call attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

At Stanford, many demonstrations called for University action on the conflict. Participants of the Sit-In to Stop Genocide wrote online that they intended to hold peaceful demonstrations at different parts of campus to “protest Stanford’s complicity in Israel’s Apartheid.” The sit-in is slated to suspend overnight camping this Friday as negotiations with Stanford continue.

“A lot of our actions were centered around raising awareness about the ways in which Stanford is complicit in war crimes going on in Palestine right now,” said Tobi Bankole ’24, one of the student organizers.

Demonstrators’ demands included for the University to endorse a ceasefire in Gaza and to commit to the boycott, divest and sanction movement.

The University did not respond to a request for comment.

For some students, the demonstrations were also a way to raise awareness on the conflict.

“One thing that I think is really important for people to know is that being a bystander is genuinely an active thing that you are doing,” Salma Kamni ’24 said. 

Bankole said protesters came from a wide variety of backgrounds that each contributed unique signs and banners. One large banner, for example, read “Healthcare Workers against genocide.”

Students kicked off Global Strike Week with a rally near the Oval. Later that day, demonstrators also attended a Palo Alto City Council meeting, where they held banners and advocated for the adoption of a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. 

From Tuesday through Friday, students held demonstrations outside the Huang Engineering Center, Hewlett and Packard Center and the Li Ka Shing Center, ending with a Saturday rally in San Jose. 

Around 250 people — including Stanford Medicine workers — held flags and a banner at the Friday demonstration outside Huang Engineering Center. Demonstrators marched from the Hewlett Teaching Center to Old Union to demand that Stanford divest from Hewlett-Packard because of its “complicity and enablement of Israel’s apartheid,” according to an Instagram post from the Sit-In to Stop Genocide and Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

As they passed the pro-Israel Blue and White Tent, which has since disassembled, several people holding Israeli flags began to walk alongside the demonstrators. A member of the sit-in who requested anonymity because of concerns for personal safety said they supported dissenting protestors’ right to free speech, as long as they did not incite violence.

“It is Jewish to fight injustice,” said a speaker at the demonstration who identified themselves as an anti-Zionist Jew.

Demonstrators held dozens of flags, signs and several large banners with slogans such as, “Israel bombed every university in Gaza, what if it was us?”

“My main demand [from students and the University] is to recognize the baseline humanitarian issue that is happening in Gaza and Palestine,” Kamni said at the demonstration outside Huang on Tuesday.

Bertha Gonzalez and Faiza Ashar contributed reporting.