Renton Walkout for Palestine

(Posted by @wawalkoutforpalestine)

At 10:30 am, Tuesday, April 23, many Renton High School students participated in a state wide walkout organized by students across Washington that included more than 15 high school and college campuses in solidarity with the recent events happening in Palestine. This walkout was inspired by multiple colleges that have set up liberated zones on campus in support of Palestine. Their goal, stated by the Instagram account “@super_uw,” which has been a main source of information as this walkout was planned, is to “Disrupt university operations and making Palestine unavoidable to force their institutions to end their involvement in zionist genocide.” 

Organizers made their intentions clear through various Instagram accounts stating their demands, what students are walking out to support, “1. Washington state schools end suppression of pro Palestinian students. 2. Schools take action to prevent anti-Palestinian, anti-arab and islamophobic sentiment. 3. All Washington state colleges and universities divest from Israel’s genocide.” 

Renton students, following directions from an Instagram account called “@rentonhs4palestine” that was created just the night before, walked out of class last Tuesday, April 23rd at 10:30 am. As students left, teachers were instructed to write down the names of students leaving, although so far, no consequences have been served. After leaving class, students started gathering in the commons and made their way out of the school to the pre planned meeting place in front of the school. As students exited the school building, security, admin and Renton police were waiting outside. At first the group of students were gathered spread out directly in front of the building, but admins and security made it clear that this would not be allowed to take place on campus. The group complied and moved to the sidewalk in front of the school, off of school property. Posters made by the students organizing the event were handed out and the crowd was quieted as the main student organizer moved to the front of the crowd. With a megaphone and a stack of papers in hand preparing to give an opening speech regarding what the walkout is showing support for.  They stated, “We protest in order to show our solidarity with Gaza and that we do not agree with America’s decision of funding or defending Israel.” They then go on to explain the why, “The occupation of Gaza is inherently bad and the only solution is one state (a secular state of Palestine where there is no apartheid, where Jewish people can reside peacefully). This situation cannot be solved by diplomacy and that Israel cannot sustain the occupation without America, an imperialist war machine that we must mobilize against as Americans.” After the speech was concluded there were loud cheers in support and the crowd was led in chants as the decision was made to, as a group, walk to the local Starbucks and continue peaceful protest there. As the group of students walked, they were again led in chants consisting of calls and responses like, “Free! Free!,” “Palestine,” and “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free.” Even some spoke in Spanish, “Viva viva Palestina” which means “long live Palestine.” Organizers continued to lead the group avoiding school property as admin and police followed. As the group arrived and filed into the Starbucks parking lot, police closed off the street in front of the parking lot and the students were again quiet as organizers came to the front and led the crowd in chants. This whole event went on for a little over 30 minutes. It was concluded by a student organizer giving a last closing speech, again giving background on the issue and stating why we were walking out, also urging students to, if interested, “join the nationwide revolutionary student union.” Students then walked back to class continuing the chants, again complying with admin and stopping when entering school property and returning back to class. 

Talking to Renton student participants after the event, everyone agreed that it was a successful turn out. More students walked out than anyone expected and even some passers-by joined in. Students said they were “Proud of their school” and “There was a real feeling of togetherness, a community coming together for an important matter.” A lot of students hope that we, as a school, continue to come together like this in the future as student participants stated, “This was a really good start for our participation in the movement, but we cannot stop here.” I also spoke to the organizers of the event asking for their comments. They replied with the following, “Free Palestine and there’s no need to conform to what America wants us to do. We’re not the only school who walked out and we won’t be the last to make an effort to change.”