UCSD alumni call for amnesty for arrested protesters, suspended students

Hafez is a software engineer and UC San Diego alumnus, graduating with a bachelor's degree in ethnic studies in 2016 and now living in Rancho Cucamonga.

On May 9, UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla, Vice Chancellor Elizabeth Simmons and Chancellor's Office Chief of Staff Jeff Gatas received a letter signed by more than 400 UCSD alumni.

The letter strongly denounced the administration's decision to call in police in riot gear to violently arrest peaceful protesters who had set up camp in solidarity with the people of Gaza facing genocide at the hands of the Israeli state. .

The UC San Diego Police Department, California Highway Patrol and San Diego County Sheriff's Department arrested 65 peaceful protesters, including several faculty members and at least 40 UC San Diego students.

These actions follow the interim suspension of countless students, including members of the Associated Students – UC San Diego's undergraduate student government body – for their presence at the encampment, which the university says “violates university policy.”

In the letter, we criticized the University of San Diego's “grossly disproportionate response to the Gaza Solidarity Camp's peaceful protest against the genocide in Palestine,” saying “there is no precedent for this abuse.” of extreme power, and as alumni, we will not resist.” for that.”

While campus administration has repeatedly attempted to describe the camp and protesters as “dangerous,” “illegal,” and a “campus security risk,” law enforcement has been the sole source of violence at the Gaza solidarity camp.

This blatant display of police violence included poking students and protesters with batons, pointing guns loaded with rubber bullets at crowds, and pepper spraying protesters. In fact, as the alumni letter points out, one of the protesters who was pepper-sprayed was none other than beloved community leader and director of San Diego's largest Islamic center, Mohamed Taha Hussane, who simply begged the police to stop pointing fingers. their guns on the students.

Sheikh Taha is someone I have personally interacted with as a Muslim student and community member in San Diego, and it is absolutely outrageous that the university is responsible for calling the police to assault this man.

It is also worth noting that the University of San Diego administration's claims that the encampment was unsafe and a safety risk included no reports, articles, videos, or evidence to support its specious and unproven claims. foundation. With our letter, alumni join UC San Diego graduate students, the San Diego Faculty Association, the UC San Diego Department of Ethnic Studies, and UCSD Associated Students to assert the camp's demands and demand amnesty for all protesters, both in terms of abandonment of all. take legal action and rescind all disciplinary measures, and publicly commit to protecting students involved in the encampment from retaliation by certain professors and departments or from any disciplinary action by the university.

In the letter, we also demand that the University of San Diego “unequivocally condemn the ongoing genocide in Gaza and demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire” and “disclose and divest its finances and endowments from businesses and institutions who profit from Israeli apartheid, occupation and genocide in Israel.” Palestine” and “permanently sever all academic, institutional and research partnership ties with Israel and other entities that make the University of San Diego complicit in the Gaza genocide.”

While peaceful protesters are being repressed at UC San Diego and across the country, in Gaza, remaining civilians have been pushed back to the southernmost city of Rafah. On May 6, Israel sent evacuation orders to Gazans displaced to Rafah and launched an attack on the region, affecting more than 100,000 Palestinians. This comes days after Hamas announced it was accepting a ceasefire that was rejected by the Israeli state.

Since then, Israel seized and closed the border crossing with Egypt at Rafah, civilians in Gaza have nowhere to go and are effectively trapped in Rafah as Israeli state bombing continues. The capture of the Rafah crossing also prevented the entry of essential aid into the region, while Israel also targeted al-Najjar Hospital, “the main medical facility in the entire Rafah governorate.”

The University of San Diego should act quickly to condemn and rid itself of any complicity in this ongoing genocide, drop charges against all those arrested, and rescind its disciplinary actions against students participating in the encampment.