LA JOLLA, California (SDJW) – A crowd estimated by one observer at 1,000 and by another at 2,500 demonstrated mostly peacefully Wednesday against Israel and the war in Gaza. They also called upon the Associated Students at UC San Diego to divest from companies doing business with Israel.
Isolated incidents were reported by Prof. Shlomo Dubnov, who is on both the music and engineering faculties. “There were several harassments, threats of violence — someone raised her skateboard to face level of one of us — and one actual violent incident that was filed as a complaint to UCSD police,” Dubnov said.
He said a woman was counter-protesting with an Israeli flag and a megaphone at approximately 4 p.m. when a pro-Palestinian marcher ran up to her and dumped a bottle of water on her head. While she was filing a complaint with the UCSD police, Dubnov said, the same man tackled him, bruising his ankle. “I didn’t feel it at the time, but now I do,” Dubnov said later that evening.
The demonstration was monitored by beefed-up security personnel of UC San Diego along with students wearing green neon vests and some kaffiyehs, and the San Diego Police Department. The demonstration was organized by Students for Justice in Palestine, which claimed it had assembled the largest protest crowd on campus ever.
The protesters chanted and carried signs to advertise their political stance, but an afternoon rain thinned out their ranks as they marched around the campus. Some of the chants were “UCSD you can’t hide; you are funding genocide;” “Hey-Ho, Hey-Ho, the Occupation Has to Go;” “Up, up with liberation, down, down with occupation;” “When the people are occupied, resistance is justified.”
Jewish students were urged by Hillel of San Diego to stay away from the demonstration and to instead enjoy the hospitality of the Hillel center off campus. Many did so, with one observer commenting “the students at Hillel seemed quite normal and not upset by any means.”
Some anti-Israel signs read “One Holocaust does not justify another;” “Death to American imperialism;” “Israel is a terror state;” “Fuck Israel;” “Gaza will be free,” and “Anti-Zionism is not equal to antisemitism.”
Two Jewish members of the UCSD faculty, Dubnov and Rachel Millstone, a supervisor for secondary education in the Education Studies Department, had previously urged the administration to cancel the event, pointing to violence that had occurred a few days before at UC Berkeley.
In response, the campus administration released the following statement: “UC San Diego unequivocally condemns all forms of hate. As a public university, UC San Diego is required to allow access to campus and support everyone’s right to constitutionally protected free speech. We expect and encourage everyone to exercise their constitutional rights respectfully and peacefully during this student-organized demonstration. Violations of the law and university policy will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent. We call upon all Tritons, visitors and other community members to reaffirm our commitment to embody UC San Diego’s Principles of Community in our words, actions and how we treat one another.”
After the march, Millstone, who had joined Jewish students at the Hillel center, said “I am grateful to the UC Administration for moving the AS meeting to an online format, allowing Jewish students to voice their concerns without the presence of intimidation and harassment. I am also grateful for the abundance of security provided. I thank our Chancellor [Pradeep Khosla] and the administration for listening to our safety concerns.”
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Preceding was a San Diego Jewish World staff report to which Marsha Sutton and Donald H. Harrison were contributors along with news services.
I am very upset by this article. What world are we living in when we are thanking the administration for allowing Jewish students to hide in a building, to have a need for beefed up security to protect our Jewish students and feeling thankful to the administration for moving a student meeting to an online format to protect our Jewish students. This is not okay! Our Jewish students should feel safe at all times on campus without fear of intimidation and harassment. They should not need to hide because of a supposed peaceful protest on campus. If it is so truly peaceful then additional security should not be needed and they should be able to attend Student council meetings in person. I am very distraught by the message being sent by Hillel and the UC administration to our Jewish Students to stay off campus and hide. I am equally distraught by the result of the student council to apply BDS and single out Israel yet again. Shame on you UCSD!
Here’s a better chant:” Release the Hostages/ Surrender en mass/Then IDF won’t smoke your ass!”
Or….”Give your kleptocratic billionaire leaders hiding in their Doha penthouse a holler/ “can you spare a single dollar?”
Or….”Gee, why are you not allowed into Egypt or Jordan?/ is it because the $14 Billion in Western aid your brave leaders are hoardin’ ?”
Or…. “Stop gangraping and murdering hostages / it’s a simple concept! Duh!”
Or… “Useful idiot anti-Semitic students can’t identify the “river” or the “sea” on a map/because between their ears is a wide gap!”
I attended the event yesterday and there were not over 1000 people in attendance. Maybe 400. I am not sure what two people were interviewed who supplied that attendance number but is not close to being accurate. It is also frustrating that our San Diego Jewish community and organizations fill our Jewish students and families with fear in attending any of these rallies.
The SJP group that attended the UCSD rally was mostly students who looked like zombies or cult like reciting whatever the SJP spokesperson delivered. There was also a performance of some of the SJP young men going on mats for prayers while the other 300 or so young protestors watched. Our youth is brainwashed, can we get them back is the question ?