Five Stanford University students are set to stand trial from Monday on felony charges stemming from a pro-Palestinian protest on campus in June 2024. The case is the most severe criminal prosecution brought against US students involved in nationwide demonstrations against Israel's war in Gaza.
The students are among 12 charged with felony conspiracy to trespass and felony vandalism after they barricaded themselves inside the university president's office for an hour. They demanded Stanford consider a student resolution to divest from Israel and unofficially renamed the building after Adnan al-Bursh, a Palestinian surgeon who reportedly died in Israeli detention.
Stanford suspended the students immediately after their arrest and banned them from campus for two terms, but allowed them back that autumn. In April 2025, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced criminal charges, stating: 'Dissent is American, vandalism is criminal.' A Stanford spokesperson referred questions to Rosen's office, which declined to comment on the timing or severity of the charges.
One of the initial 12 students cooperated with prosecutors and was not indicted, while others accepted plea deals. The five proceeding to trial have pleaded not guilty. Defendants German Gonzalez and Amy Zhai told the Guardian the charges are a distraction from 'Stanford's complicity with Israel's genocide' and that property damage in Gaza far outweighs any damage to the office.
Thousands of students were arrested during campus protests in spring 2024, but most criminal charges have been dropped elsewhere. In New York, prosecutors declined to pursue charges against students who occupied a building, and in Michigan, the attorney general dropped charges against seven protesters.
