A U.S. court has sentenced the self-styled ‘non-binary’ pro-Palestine activist Casey Robert Goonan to 19 years and seven months in federal prison for a series of violent anti-Israel attacks on the UC Berkeley campus in June 2024.
The 35-year-old committed multiple firebombings—including placing explosives under a University of California Police Department patrol car—causing a significant blaze.
Goonan—who had called himself a pacifist activist—admitted in court that the attacks were inspired by Hamas’s October 7 pogrom against Israelis and encouraged other students to destroy campus property in support of Palestine.
The Department of Justice labeled the individual a “domestic terrorist” who
committed a felony offence that was intended to promote a federal crime of terrorism
Two weeks after his initial action, he threw rocks at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in an attempt to break a window to make possible a Molotov cocktail attack. Throughout 2024, fires were also started on June 1, 13, and 16 on the Berkeley campus.
U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian emphasized that while freedom of expression and peaceful protest are fundamental American values,
anyone who crosses the line between peaceful protest and violence will be met with the full force of the law.
Judge Jeffrey White ordered 15 years of supervised release following incarceration, along with $94,267 (€80 575) in damages. Attorney General Pam Bondi condemned the attacks, stating
This domestic terrorist could have taken untold lives had his violent attacks been more successful, and using the evils of Hamas as motivation speaks to his depravity.
The attacks prefigured an apparent upsurge in violence connected to the U.S. ‘genderqueer’ left last year, with more ensuing in 2025.
