Occupation: Graduate Student
University: Stanford University
Organization(s): Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine, Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine
Siddharth is a graduate student in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. He first became involved in Palestine solidarity activism as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley. The Second Intifada, an upsurge in the national liberation movement in Palestine, inspired solidarity actions around the world, including at UC Berkeley, where Siddharth organized with Students for Justice in Palestine. The struggle for national liberation in Palestine struck a personal chord with him because his grandfather had participated in the Indian Independence movement.
In 2015, as part of Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine and Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine, Siddharth helped coordinate a campaign to get Stanford to divest its endowment from companies that assist with violations of human rights and international law against Palestinians. The effort succeeded in getting the Undergraduate Senate of the Associated Students of Stanford University to pass a resolution in support of the goals of the campaign. Siddharth has written and spoken about the movement in solidarity with Palestine and a variety of other topics.
His writing has appeared in Socialist Worker, Huffington Post, and Jacobin, and some of his speeches are available at WeAreMany.org.