By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – Controversial signage containing the slogan “Free Palestine from the River to the Sea” was removed from Chicano Park on Friday after the city’s Chief Operating Officer, Eric K. Dargan, warned the Chicano Park Steering Committee that the sign violated the lease agreement among the committee, the city, and the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans).
The sign, which also included the Spanish phrase Que Vivan Los Estudiantes (Long Live the Students) in reference to nationwide anti-Israel protests on college campuses, violates “multiple provisions in the San Diego Municipal Code as well as the lease provisions governing the site,” Dargan said in a May 24 letter with the heading “Request to Remove Political Messaging from Public Property.”
There is dispute over the meaning of the slogan “Free Palestine from the River to the Sea.” Israel and most Jewish groups, but not all, understand it to mean that everything between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, including all of Israel, shall be under Palestinian control, thereby eliminating the State of Israel. Others, however, contend it means that Palestinians should be able to live freely in the West Bank area of the Jordan River, Israel, and the Gaza Strip.
“Over 600 constituents have contacted the City of San Diego requesting the removal of this messaging on public property,” Dargan wrote to the Chicano Park Steering Committee.
The lease agreement between the City of San Diego and CalTrans states “All signs shall be subject to the approval of the Lessor [i.e., CalTrans]” and further states, “The Lessee shall secure all necessary permits required in connection with the operations of the leased premises and shall comply with all Federal, State and local statues, ordinances, or regulations which may affect in any respect Lessee’s use of the leased premises.”
“Any violation of these provisions constitute a breach of the lease,” Dargan warned.
Multiple provisions of the San Diego Municipal Code require permits for signage on city property, Dargan said. “The City has no record of the Steering Committee having sought or obtained a permit for the sign.”
Dargan’s letter concluded with this warning: “If the City has not received confirmation of the sign removal immediately, the City reserves the right to pursue all available remedies.”
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.
There’s NOTHING wrong with the message on the sign. The message is not antisemitic (it says NOTHING about Jews) nor even anti-Israel (it says NOTHING about Israel, either). The Chicano Park Steering Committee should be free to express its views, free of the hysterical frenzy of a pressure group to influence City officials.
The message is a forthright statement of support for the legitimate national aspirations of the Palestinian people, a view supported by people of good will all over the world (as the recent votes in the UN General Assembly attest).
There is bipartisan agreement in the U.S. Congress that it is anti-Semitic, Howard. Multiple European countries have criminalized the slogan for that reason. You don’t have the power to dictate the meaning of this hate speech to any of us. The “Chicano Park Steering Committee” doesn’t have the power to post anti-Semitic genocidal slogans on public property either. Their stunt was illegal at every level (local, state, and federal since the park has received government funding). People of actual good will know that the Palestinians rejected a state in 1948 and every time it was offered to them since then— they want nothing less than the elimination of the world’s only Jewish state, which happens to be the only state that ever existed on that land in history. That’s the meaning of this anti-Semitic slogan, and you know it. By the way, citing the UN in the same sentence as “people of good will” is laughable— this the same UN responsible for abusing/indoctrinating Palestinian kids to kill Jews, and it’s the same UN that allowed Hamas to stockpile its weapons and hide hostages’ bodies in tunnels. Re-evaluate your thought process.
Well that only took a couple of weeks for a Federal H. Res 883 was passed into law on April 16, 2024. Shame on the city! Too bad they don’t get rid of all the crosses around the county too! Could you imagine Star of David’s around the county they wouldn’t last long. SDSU had a Menorah vandalized several times. I read this online today and it’s sad but true!
A Zionist Jew and an anti Zionist Jew walk into a bar.
The bartender says
“We don’t serve Jews.”