UC Santa Cruz’s Quarry Plaza became a site of heightened contention over the Israel-Gaza War on March 14. Santa Cruz Hillel chose the Quarry as a location to hold the Jewish Unity Walk. In response, members and supporters of the UCSC chapter of Jews Against White Supremacy (JAWS) showed up in counter-protest.
Protestors on both sides spoke over each other using microphones, megaphones, music, or chants discordantly. UCSC administrators stood in the narrow space between protestors, acting as a barrier between both groups.
The Jewish Unity Walk was organized by students on campus, including members from Alpha Epsilon Pi, Santa Cruz Hillel, Stand With Us, Chabad, and the Israel on Campus Coalition, as announced on Hillel’s Instagram on March 11.
“The Jewish Unity Walk was organized after a group of Jewish students at UCSC came together to discuss how they felt like they were not being heard by administration and the larger campus community regarding the significant increase of antisemitism on campus,” said one student organizer. “The intention [was] to bring together members of the Jewish community to celebrate our identities and to show administrators and the campus community that all Jews should be welcome on campus and be able to have their voices heard.”
More than 50 people gathered for the walk. Some held Israeli flags while others held signs such as “Jewish and Proud” and “Peace/Shalom/Salaam.” One student’s sign read, “Bring Them Home,” referring to the 130 Israeli hostages being held in Gaza, following Hamas’ Oct. 7th attack on Israel.
The march was partially in response to the Student Union Assembly (SUA) passing a Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) resolution on March 5. The resolution divested SUA funds from any corporation involved in Israel’s ongoing occupation and genocide in Palestine. In a statement on the Santa Cruz Hillel Instagram the following day, the organization expressed disappointment “that more students were not given the opportunity to share their views on the resolution.”
“Ultimately for the Jewish community here and the Jewish students, I would hope that they can see that their Judaism transcends anything political and that spiritually, we are connected as one people,” said one student organizer for the Jewish Unity Walk. “I think it’s very sad to see each other weaponizing our Judaism to represent a political ideology.”
Jews Against White Supremacy announced their counter-protest to the Unity Walk a day before the event through an Instagram post. They started their march in Cowell Quad at 3:30 p.m. and walked together to the Quarry where the Jewish Unity Walk was planned to start. Around 130 people attended the JAWS march.
An organizer for JAWS said that despite the event’s name, the Jewish Unity Walk was a pro-Israel walk. They also noted the definition of anti-semitism is not being against the state of Israel.
[Anti-semitism is] a specific term used to describe the racialized violence that is committed against Jewish people due to their racialization as Other,” they said. “This conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-semitism is really dangerous.”
At around 5:10 p.m., attendees at the Jewish Unity Walk began to clear out of the Quarry, with some community members acting as a human barrier to escort the students out. JAWS then ended their demonstration by reading out the names of Palestinians killed since Oct. 7.
“Actual Jewish unity must not only include unity with Jews of color and anti-Zionist Jews, who are too often pushed to the sidelines, but also unity among all oppressed people, including, but not limited to Palestinians, South Africans, and Kashmiris, all of whom have faced oppression at the hands of Zionists and their allies,” said a speaker from JAWS reading an anonymous testimonial. “Actual Jewish unity recognizes that Jewish liberation and freedom from antisemitism cannot exist as long as other people are oppressed under the guise of ‘Jewish safety’.”
The Israel-Gaza war enters its sixth month in April, with 33,899 Palestinians killed in Gaza, about 1,200 people killed in Israel, and 455 Palestinians killed in the West Bank. As the war shows no signs of stopping, political division remains stark. One UCSC faculty member, who attended in support of the Jewish Unity Walk, recalled the sentiments they’d heard from some Jewish students on campus.
“The place where [Jewish students] should feel at home is under attack. […] So, how can healing take place when the wounds are still being administered?” They asked. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t try, I just think that healing is hard when the trauma is continually inflicted.”