A federal judge sentenced activist Casey Goonan to 19 years and 7 months in federal prison on September 23 for setting fire to a UC Berkeley police vehicle and attempting to firebomb a federal courthouse during the summer of 2024. The sentence went beyond what prosecutors had recommended, with the court applying a terrorism enhancement that significantly increased the length of the term. The judge referred to Goonan as a “domestic terrorist” and also ordered 15 years of supervised release and $94,267.51 in restitution. Goonan has been in custody since his initial arrest on June 17, 2024.
Throughout the trial, Goonan did not deny carrying out the actions, but maintained they were political in nature, carried out in solidarity with Palestine and in protest of the repression faced by student activists. No one was injured in either incident. The fires Goonan set were in the context of the federal and local crackdown on Palestine solidarity activism, with then-President Biden defending police attacks on student protesters and campus police at UC Berkeley violently attacking and arresting student demonstrators, mirroring police terror and reactionary violence across the country against the powerful solidarity movement.
In late August 2025, while detained at Santa Rita Jail, Goonan began a hunger strike in solidarity with Teuta Hoxha, a political prisoner in the UK affiliated with the direct-action group Palestine Action. Despite being diabetic and reportedly suffering from infections and dangerously high blood sugar levels, Goonan continued the hunger strike for 12 days, ending it only after Hoxha’s demands were met.
Nerdeen Kiswani, the founder of the New York City-based Palestine solidarity group Within Our Lifetime, warned that Goonan’s 20 year sentence and terrorism enhancement are in contrast to much lighter sentences for similar actions carried out in protest in the past and said, “Harsher punishments for Palestine solidarity are a warning shot meant to chill protest and criminalize entire movements,” she wrote. “It is about escalation. The state is choosing to label Palestine solidarity as ‘terrorism.’”
Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) also issued a statement in support of Goonan and other political prisoners of the Palestine solidarity movement. “We must not abandon Palestine amidst increased repression, nor can we abandon our comrades imprisoned or otherwise impacted by said repression,” the group wrote. “The state is not invulnerable, and its increase in repression goes hand in hand with an increase in its vulnerability. This is not the time to retreat. This is the time to push onwards, through the storm, until Palestine is free from the river to the sea.”
Goonan’s lawyer says he will continue his activism now in prison.
Supporters of Goonan are asking for commissary donations to be sent via Venmo at @juliepetersonG. Goonan has recently been moved to a temporary federal facility, but letters of support can currently be sent to: Casey Goonan #24611-511, FCI Mendota, P.O. Box 9, Mendota, CA 93640.
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