By Crescenzo Vellucci
The Vanguard Sacramento Bureau Chief
SANTA CRUZ, CA – Riot-clad police at UC Santa Cruz Friday ripped apart an encampment of anti-war activists protesting the deaths of women and children and other innocent civilians by the Israeli military in Gaza—at least 80 people were arrested, said UC Santa Cruz.
And, the Mercury News also reported San Jose State Justice Studies Professor Dr. Sang Kil—a liaison between student demonstrators and administrators—was suspended and not allowed to have contact with students or access to their offices after an encampment was built on campus in May in protest of the war in Gaza.
At UC Santa Cruz, according to the Mercury News report, it was “unclear when the campus would fully re-open, or what charges the arrested protesters are facing.”
The Mercury News noted, “Hundreds of Gaza war protesters have been arrested in recent weeks, including 217 at Columbia University, more than 200 at UCLA, 93 at the University of Southern California and 25 at Cal Poly Humboldt. The greater Bay Area has seen fewer widespread arrests on campuses over the conflict — among the most notable were 12 arrested at an abandoned building near the UC Berkeley campus.”
At UC Santa Cruz, dump trucks hauled away tents, signs and wooden barricades that the UCSC protesters had used as more than 100 officers from San Francisco, Daly City and the California Highway Patrol faced off with roughly 150 demonstrators, wrote the Mercury News, adding one woman used a bullhorn to chant, “UC, UC, you can’t hide, you’re committing genocide.”
The Mercury News reported, “Student protesters and their supporters called the police presence overkill,” quoting, in one case, former student Charlie Delgado, stating, “This is a peaceful protest. Our side did not initiate the aggression. We are peacefully protesting against a genocide. This display of power shows they are scared of us and the truth.”
“We understand there is much grief, anger, and frustration about the events that continue to unfold in Gaza and Israel, and the immense suffering of innocent people,” UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive said in a statement. I believe that many who have engaged in these protests over these many weeks are well-intentioned and attempting to make change through their spheres of influence.”
“The protesters have demanded that UC Santa Cruz, which ends spring quarter classes on June 13 for the summer, divest from Israeli companies, cut ties with Israeli universities, condemn Israel’s actions during the war against Hamas in Gaza, and provide amnesty to student protesters. UC administrators have declined to accept those demands during multiple negotiations,” the Mercury News wrote.
The Mercury News reported students not protesting didn’t seem that upset, noting one student who said, “A lot of parents are mad about it, but most students aren’t. I support my fellow students, and I respect the cause. Moving a class is a small inconvenience.”
“Students have always represented the front lines in American conscience — from the civil rights movement to the Vietnam War, to divestment from South Africa in the 1980s,” said Ami Chen Mills, a Santa Cruz resident.
“Their positions aren’t popular at first,” said Mills in a Mercury News story, and who ran for county supervisor in 2022. “But then their point of view is accepted and becomes what everybody says they agree with. It’s easy to judge them. But the situation in Gaza right now is not good for Jews, Israelis or Americans.”
The Mercury News also wrote, “Graduate student teaching assistants and other workers at UC Santa Cruz began a strike on May 20 and have been joined by the United Auto Workers 4811. The strike was joined by graduate students at UCLA and UC Davis. Graduate student union members at UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego have said they plan to also walk out on June 3 and at UC Irvine on June 5.”
In San Jose, the suspended professor shared a letter they received that said, reported the Mercury News, “they were suspended for ‘repeated violations of university policies.’”
However, Dr. Kil said in a press release the suspension stems from their “pro-Palestinian” activism and their support for anti-war demonstrators was within their duties as faculty adviser for the SJSU chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.
“All of the accusations made against me by SJSU are completely false,” Kil said in the press release. “In fact, I believe that my temporary suspension is part of an academic freedom suppression campaign against me.”
The Mercury News reported Kil…had served as a liaison between the student encampment and university administrators (and) criticized administrators after sprinklers turned on around a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus, telling SJSU’s student newspaper they were “dirty water tactics.”
