Pro-Palestinian student groups scold UCSD chancellor for condemning Hamas terrorists
The University of California, San Diego released a statement condemning the Hamas terrorist attack and expressed support for Israel.
Pro-Palestinian student groups at the university and around the country then released a joint statement attacking the UCSD chancellor on Instagram.
Several days following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli citizens, University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla released an official statement supporting the state of Israel.
“I write to express my unequivocal condemnation of Hamas’ horrific terrorist attack on Israel and targeting of civilians,” he states. “I keep in my heart all innocent victims of this warfare and offer my condolences to their loved ones.”
He also notes that, “As the ongoing devastation continues, I remain hopeful that those held in captivity will soon be safely returned home and that a peaceful resolution to this violence can be reached.”
[RELATED: Cornell president acknowledges Hamas as a terrorist group after receiving backlash]
However, over 30 student groups—led by the UCSD Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP at UCSD)—posted a retaliatory statement on Instagram attacking Chancellor Khosla as well as the entire university.
“Students for Justice in Palestine at UC San Diego unequivocally rejects and condemns the dangerous and discriminatory statement released this morning by Chancellor Khosla,” they write.
They also claim that, “[Khosla’s] statement sends the message to all minoritized students loud and clear: UC San Diego supports Israeli war crimes and is indifferent to turning a blind eye to more than 75 years of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.”
The statement also says that UCSD is intentionally creating a safe environment for all students on campus with the exception of Palestinian and Muslim students, saying that Chancellor Khosla’s statement “normalizes Islamaphobic [sic] and xenophobic rhetoric.”
After calling on the university to recognize Palestinians “as humans,” the leftists students demand that the school make a public apology for expressing support for Israel.
“We demand the university send out a message acknowledging and condemning Israel as an apartheid state in line with two of the university’s self-proclaimed core values of ‘integrity’ and ‘ethics,’” they write.
Co-signing student groups include SJP chapters at UC Santa Cruz and the University of Illinois Chicago, as well as the UCSD Houselessness Service and the Antifragile Zine.
Campus Reform contacted UCSD for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
