SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — For weeks, these protesters have made their message clear. They want UCSD to divest from Israel. Although when I tried to ask them about it, they referred me to one woman, their media liaison.
“One thing that’s been hard for us, these students are here to make their voices heard," I said. "Why wont they talk to us?”
“I don’t like that question, I'm not going to answer that one,” said the media liaison.
This week marks the annual Peace in Israel week at UCSD.
“Probably the hardest part about it is we can’t have any dialogue with the other side," said Shelly Khaikam, the head of Tritons for Israel. "That’s a big issue that we face.”
There are events on campus around the Jewish diaspora and Israel’s independence.
“We try to have a space for Israeli pride, because a lot of us have a special connection to Israel as our homeland,” Khaikam said.
It’s a time of celebration for Israelis, but a time of mourning for Palestinians.
“It has been 76 years since the Nakba, a catastrophe still ongoing, where well over 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced," said the media liaison. "We are commemorating that.”
Despite these loud chants, leaders say their voices have not been heard.
“Mostly it’s one way communication," said Imam Taha Hassane at the Islamic Center of San Diego. "I ask questions, no answer.”
Imam Hassane worked with Muslim students on campus to communicate their demands to the chancellor. Hassane says they’ve received no response.
“I really would like to call upon the Chancellor of this university to take this into consideration and start dealing with these students as human beings who have the right to express themselves,” Hassane said.
