Bridget Rochios is a nurse practitioner and midwife who UCSF targeted immediately with suspension upon returning from a month-long medical mission at a Emirati Maternity Hospital in Rafah, Gaza, where she assisted Palestinian healthcare workers care for birthing people and their newborns during the major Israeli military offensive invasion of Rafah. After nine months of being on administrative leave, UCSF has issued a notice of intent to fire her for refusing to remove a watermelon pin on her badge.

She and others at UCSF have been told that wearing the watermelon, a symbol of valuing Palestinian life, is “antisemitic”; a baseless and offensive accusation. The discriminatory attacks on Rochios for wearing a watermelon pin are yet another example of UCSF’s consistent and disturbing pattern of anti-Palestinian racism.

UCSF’s behavior is an assault on workers’ rights, free speech, and academic freedom. The UC system has a history of repressing Palestinian activism, including violent police crackdowns on student encampments. Furthermore, the UC Regents’ deep financial ties to war industries expose a troubling contradiction between its stated values and its investments.

Use this email letter tool to send a letter of protest to UCSF's leadership!

By sending a letter you consent to having your name added to a petition that will be delivered to Chancellor Hawgood & Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Lucey once we have reached our letters goal. The petition is below:

Petition

Dear Chancellor Hawgood and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Lucey,

We, the undersigned, are writing to express our deep concern over UCSF’s unjust treatment of Bridget Rochios, a registered nurse, nurse practitioner, and nurse midwife whose constitutionally protected free speech rights have been repeatedly violated by UCSF leadership—first, through repeated suspensions and now through serving Rochios with a notice of intent to terminate her employment. Especially as the Trump administration escalates attacks on free speech and academic freedom, I am disturbed that UCSF continues to abuse its power by attacking its own employees who dare to speak out for human rights and freedom.

Rochios is one among many staff who recognize the devastating impacts of racism and all forms of oppression on the health of people marginalized in healthcare and society. Throughout her career at UCSF, she has demonstrated to patients and colleagues that she is a source of safety, strength, and compassion for all patients – especially those from marginalized communities – including by wearing symbols of respect and care. She has proudly worn “Black Lives Matter” and “LGBTQIA+” pins for years – never once being told that these pins were a violation of a dress code nor any other UCSF policy. In fact, she was encouraged to do so when UCSF distributed LGBTQIA+ pins and asked all students, staff, and faculty to “take a PRIDE pin pledge.”

UCSF’s support and encouragement for wearing visible symbols of respect and care for marginalized communities abruptly changed when Rochios wore a pin with a fruit on it. The fruit she wore is a watermelon – a long-standing symbol of resistance, self-determination, and liberation for the Palestinian people who are currently experiencing a genocide. She and others at UCSF have been told that wearing the watermelon, a symbol of valuing Palestinian life, is “antisemitic”; a baseless and offensive accusation. The discriminatory attacks on Rochios for wearing a watermelon pin are yet another example of UCSF’s consistent and disturbing pattern of anti-Palestinian racism. UCSF perpetrates anti-Palestinian racism by weaponizing false accusations of “antisemitism” against students, staff, and faculty of all faiths and backgrounds who dare to say that Palestinians have a right to live free of Israel’s illegal occupation, apartheid, and genocide.

The disciplinary action against Rochios is all the more reprehensible because she was targeted by UCSF for repression immediately after returning from a month-long medical mission at Al-Helal Al-Emirati Maternity Hospital in Rafah, Gaza, where she assisted Palestinian healthcare workers providing medical care and support to birthing people and their newborns during Israel’s invasion of Rafah. As Israel systematically demolished the health care system in Gaza and forced half of its population into Rafah, Emirati Hospital went from supporting about 70 births per month to an estimated 1,500. Working without adequate medical supplies and under constant threat, Rochios risked her life to uphold her sacred healthcare worker oath to serve humanity. Rather than lauding Rochios for embodying UCSF’s stated mission of “advancing health worldwide” and exemplifying UCSF’s PRIDE values, UCSF has disciplined her in ways that violate her constitutionally protected free speech rights and employment rights in ways similar to that which we are now seeing from the Trump administration.

Echoing prior demands by UCSF community members and multiple Bay Area and national organizations against UCSF’s racist repression, we urge UCSF to take the following steps:

1. Immediately Reinstate Bridget Rochios With No Disciplinary Consequences – Stop all repressive measures taken against faculty, staff, and students for advocacy around Palestine, including withdrawing UCSF’s social media attacks. Sponsor Palestinian-led education about cultural items of clothing and symbols of Palestinian solidarity and direct all employees, especially those in supervisory roles, to immediately cease repression of these symbols.

2. Denounce the Genocide Against Palestinians and Ensure Policy Protections – Establish clear guidelines to prevent UCSF employees from being unfairly disciplined for standing against genocide and human rights violations with a ‘Palestinian Exception’ and live up to UCSF’s stated mission by providing material aid to Palestinian survivors of genocide

3. Divest from Industries of Harm – UCSF and the broader UC system must cut their financial ties to war industries that directly contradict the mission of promoting global health and equity. Order the UCSF Foundation Investment Company to divest holdings in Israel, in companies complicit in the ongoing genocide, including those involved in military and surveillance technologies and entities that proliferate racism.

4. Divest from Partnerships with Israeli Academic Institutions – UCSF and the broader UC system must cut all academic partnerships with Israeli universities, hospitals, and technical institutes as there is compelling evidence that these institutions serve as key drivers of Israel’s occupation, apartheid, medical apartheid, genocide, and development of technologies to surveil, torture, and murder Palestinians.

5. Divest from Donors Complicit in Genocide and Apartheid – UCSF and the broader UC system should immediately adopt an ethical donor policy that prohibits accepting donations from people or foundations invested in genocide and apartheid–including in Palestine. Cut all ties with the Diller Foundation and any other foundations that fund entities that promote racism and other ideologies of supremacism.

UCSF has an opportunity to correct this injustice and uphold its commitments to health equity and free expression. We urge you to act immediately.

Signed by the following organizations:

• Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) Action
• Bay Area Divest
• Bay Area Labor for Palestine
• California Nurse Midwives Association (CNMA)
• Cooperation Jackson
• Council on American-Islamic Relations - San Francisco Bay Area (CAIR-SFBA)
• Eyewitness Gaza
• Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) at UCSF
• Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) National
• Glia
• Healthcare Workers for Abolition (HCW4A)
• Healthcare Workers for Humanity
• Healthcare Workers for Palestine (HCW4P) Bay Area
• Healthworkers Alliance for Palestine (HAP) Canada
• International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) Bay Area
• Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) at UCSF
• Labor for Palestine
• Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA)
• National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP)
• Palestinian Feminist Collective (PFC)
• Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) Bay Area
• Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) National
• Right 2 Reject Zionism (R2RZ)
• Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UCSF
• UC People’s Tribunal for Palestine
• UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Council
• UC Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine (UC FSJP)
• Union Nurses for a Free Palestine
• University Professional & Technical Employees (UPTE) Members for Palestine
• U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)
• Yalla Berkeley