American anti-Israel activist and serial arsonist Casey Robert Goonan was sentenced to almost 20 years in federal prison on Tuesday for a series of arson and fire bombing attacks at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Oakland federal building in 2024, the California Northern District US Attorney’s Office announced.
The 35-year-old Oakland and Pleasant Hill resident received 235 months in prison and was ordered to pay over $94,000 in restitution after he had pleaded guilty on January 14 to a count of maliciously damaging property by means of fire. Goonan will also serve 15 years of supervised release once he is prison-free.
He acknowledged that the five attacks inspired by Hamas’s October 7 massacre were designed to intimidate, coerce, and retaliate against the federal and state governments concerning the conflict in the Levant.
Described as a “domestic terrorist” by senior US District Judge Jeffrey White, Goonan had called on others to attack the property of Bay Area campuses in support of the Palestinian cause.
US attorney Craig Missakian said in a statement that there was a clear line between peaceful protest and violence and that anyone who crossed that boundary would face the full force of the law.
“Freedom of expression and peaceful protest are deeply enshrined values in America,” said Missakian. “We are all free to think what we want and express those views peacefully, but the use of violence to achieve political aims – or to silence those with whom you may disagree – has no place in our community and our country.”
The Casey Goonan Support Committee shared on Instagram a statement from Goonan’s attorney, Jeff Wozniak. He said that his client had arrived at the courthouse not just to receive a sentence, but to demand an end to the supposed genocide in Gaza and to stand in support of Palestinians.
Wozniak, who did not immediately respond to queries from The Jerusalem Post, reportedly said that Goonan’s actions should be considered in the context of a mental health crisis and a desire to raise awareness about US support for Israel’s military operation in Gaza, though Goonan now acknowledged a different activism path should have been chosen.
"Casey is remorseful"
“Casey is remorseful for the harm they cause to their community, and is ready to enter a new phase as an activist inside prison. Casey’s case concluded today, but the fight for Palestinian liberation continues,” Wozniak said, according to the committee.
The anti-Israel group Workshops 4 Gaza said on social media on Wednesday that Goonan was sentenced by the “sham Zionist kangaroo courts of this hellhole snake pit called Amerikkka [sic]” and that the “political prisoner” was persecuted illegitimately because he posed a threat to the US.
“If they are afraid of a proliferation of Casey Goonans in this country, then let there be one, two, man Casey Goonans!” Workshops 4 Gaza said. “Abolish the university of empire!”
Goonan’s arson spree began the morning of June 1, 2024, when he placed a bag of six Molotov cocktails underneath the fuel tank of a University of California Police Department (UCPD) patrol car parked near the Berkeley campus.
Goonan set the bag on fire, causing the vehicle to become engulfed in flames.
Later that day, Goonan set fire to a patch of grass near the Starr East Asian Library in what an anonymous statement shared with the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center described as “experimental.”
On June 11, Goonan had attempted to firebomb the Ronald V. Dellums Federal and US Courthouse building in Oakland. He threw rocks to break a window in the hopes of throwing three ignited Molotov cocktails inside, but his plan was disrupted by protective service officers.
So Goonan placed the firebombs into a planter instead, which started a fire, then fled.
The arsonist continued his attacks on June 13, throwing a firebomb near Koshland Hall in Berkeley, according to another anonymous manifesto. Goonan did this in retaliation for UCPD’s crackdown on student activists attempting to reestablish an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus.
Those clashes saw six security personnel wounded and 27 activists arrested.
Goonan engaged in his last arson on June 16, setting fire to materials at the Dwinelle Annex construction site. He was arrested a day later and indicted on July 26, 2024.
The serial anti-Israel arsonist has become a cause célèbre among American activists.
On August 26, Goonan started a 12-day hunger strike in support of Palestine Action vandal Teuta Hoxha, who was seeking privileges reinstated in prison while awaiting trial for her alleged involvement in the violent August 2024 Filton factory attack in South Gloucestershire.