Just as we must vehemently protest the Netanyahu government’s actions in the Gaza Strip, we must oppose the horrific actions against Israeli people. No power imbalance or historical context excuses the deliberate murdering and raping of civilians. Our encampment organizers, UCSC SJP, openly support the October 7 attacks while advocating for the destruction of the State of Israel. As organizers and leaders, UCSC SJP’s beliefs represent the movement and must be taken seriously. There is no reasonable excuse for their beliefs, and we should reject their agenda as much as we should reject those who advocate for genocide in Gaza.
Specifically, in response to October 7, UCSC SJP stood “in resolute solidarity [and] support” of Hamas by celebrating, downplaying, and excusing the attacks. These statements alone are unbelievably horrific. In UCSC SJP’s openly flouted encampment documents, they claim: “We support the right of Palestinians and the Palestinian resistance to oppose zionist domination by any means necessary.” With UCSC SJP’s open support for October 7, we must assume that “by any means necessary” includes the ethnic cleansing of Jewish people in Israel.
October 7 did not exist in a vacuum. Israel has a systemic process of settler encroachment and countless innocent civilians have died at the hands of the IDF. None of this allows us to excuse Hamas. October 7 was a planned, deliberate, and atrocious event No amount of Palestinian suffering justifies Hamas’s intentional killing and raping of civilians as an act to oppose oppression. This must be our stance, or we are committing the same blatant disregard for human life that is causing the current tragedy in Gaza.
When an organization supports Oct 7, claims that Israel “has no right to exist,” and that Palestinians should have “full autonomy over it,” they are endorsing extreme violence. When they reject “any and all collaboration, dialogue, and coalition work with zionist organizations,” we must assume that UCSC SJP’s positions are anti-semitic. With simultaneous support for mass killing of Jewish people, the destruction of Israel, and an end to all dialogue, the distinction between anti-zionism and anti-semitism is impossible. It is unbelievable that advocating for the destruction of an overwhelming Jewish state “by any means necessary” is not antisemitic.
I like to believe that most pro-Palestinian protestors are not anti-Semitic. However, when protestors attend movements organized by UCSC SJP, they are implicitly supporting mass violence against Jewish people. It is immensely important to distinguish between condemning the acts of the Israeli government and advocating for violence against its citizens.
I hope that protestors do not agree with UCSC SJP’s statements described above. We should recognize current injustices in the world and understand that our actions at UCSC matter. There is no excuse for the mass killing of innocent civilians and we cannot support organizations that excuse or call for this. It is important to advocate for a better world. It is equally important that we do so intelligently and with a clear moral purpose.
