Vitter is an artist, writer and community activist who lives in North Park.
Have Israeli war crimes expanded the definition of war, and are the concerns expressed in the first weeks of Israel's attack on Gaza valid? Are the massacres, the ongoing ethnic cleansing of displaced people in Rafah, and the starvation in North Gaza impacting the world through redefined rules, laws, and treatment of protesters at home? Are the changing rhetoric and rules targeting American college campuses as their epicenter? Urgent questions await answers.
American college campuses are testing new security standards implemented by an alarming number of American college presidents. Some, too many, are waging military operations against students. In my mind's eye, I see cartoonish icons of robber barons and Pinkerton cops from a century ago, but our police are better trained and equipped than they were a century ago.
Why was the UC San Diego medical tent first vandalized by police on May 6th? Are medical facilities no longer sacred places that mimic the hospitals in Gaza? By midday, UC San Diego administrators were attempting to charge students with felony crimes. The San Diego community rose up and blocked any kind of charges. Are our students and faculty being legally treated like terrorists? What is the chain of command for how our students are and will be treated?
As the US-Israeli war enters its seventh month, Israel's genocidal atrocities against Palestinians have normalized the brutalization of medical staff and the destruction of medical facilities in Gaza. Specifically, are UC San Diego administrators and other educational leaders following the Israeli playbook of normalizing violence against protesters and students by first destroying medical aid?
Educational institutions' boards of governors have traditionally been aligned with educational goals. However, beginning in the early 1980s, college boards have increasingly been composed of finance and legal interests with interests in terrorism, and often guided by the Anti-Defamation League. Budget cuts began during the Reagan administration and continued under subsequent Republican and Democratic administrations. Public funding has never been fully restored.
Are the interests of the board at odds with protecting the institution? By the 1990s, the school board was filled with people like John Moores, the former San Diego Padres owner and later University of California Trustee appointee, who sponsored the controversial Proposition 209 and spent a great deal of time campaigning against public education. Treasurers seem to have more influence than other titular board members. If that wasn't enough, there is an open disdain for education that pervades K-12 institutions.
Police have become increasingly militarized since the 1960s, and politicians seem obsessed with militarized solutions to our neighborhoods and universities. The police use military-style weapons and receive military training from Israel to focus on domestic terrorism. Our friendly neighborhood police are now rarely seen except as a reference in public relations campaigns. Is the police essentially opposed to peaceful protests, but ignore the violent disruptors? Is there collusion between the far right, university administration, and the police? Gaslighting is being used to stigmatize peaceful protests. Anneliese Oreck, a 65-year-old Jewish professor at Dartmouth College, was thrown to the ground and arrested.
Israel's normalization of massacres and attacks on medical facilities, hospitals and doctors has begun to extend beyond the occupied territories. Politicians and commentators have taken to copying it, labeling US students and protesters as terror sympathizers and Hamas sympathizers. Really? With the documented Israeli lies and massacres of the past seven months, who still believes this? It seems to be seeping into local police practices in the US in the form of targeting medical resources at UCSD camps and perhaps other university camps like Columbia where faculty are held in solitary confinement and deprived of food, sanitation and medicines.
The UC San Diego Trustees and Chancellor Pradeep Khosla sent police to target student protesters and health care workers. They are forever tainted for repeatedly crossing unimaginable ethical boundaries and should resign. California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Governor Gavin Newsom are complicit because the State Highway Police were involved. Let's trace the trajectory of the conspiratorial war against students who have paid for their education in many ways. Let's find out what the new rules are and whether they violate our rights.
