The Chancellor of UC Santa Barbara has allowed the Hamas/Nazi’s to take over a campus building. A “collective” (communist) group took it and the cops did nothing. The Guv has said nothing.
“On Monday, June 10, protesters occupied and barricaded themselves in Girvetz Hall on the UC Santa Barbara campus, stating in a social media post that they would not leave until their demands are met. The self-proclaimed “autonomous group of students, workers, and community members” is a collective of unidentified and masked individuals going by the title “Say Genocide UCSB.”
According to a campus-wide email sent by Chancellor Henry T. Yang, these individuals entered Girvetz Hall early Monday morning and “intimidated custodial staff and ordered them to leave.” The group has since barricaded external entryways, prevented access to classrooms, and restricted scheduled final exams from occurring.”
The Feds should come on campus and arrest these terrorist, under Federal law.
Protesters Occupy Girvetz Hall at UC Santa Barbara
Autonomous Group Demands University ‘Say Genocide,’ Acknowledge Palestine
By Jack Magargee, Santa Barbara Independent, 6/11/24 https://www.independent.com/2024/06/11/protesters-occupy-girvetz-hall-at-uc-santa-barbara/
On Monday, June 10, protesters occupied and barricaded themselves in Girvetz Hall on the UC Santa Barbara campus, stating in a social media post that they would not leave until their demands are met. The self-proclaimed “autonomous group of students, workers, and community members” is a collective of unidentified and masked individuals going by the title “Say Genocide UCSB.”
According to a campus-wide email sent by Chancellor Henry T. Yang, these individuals entered Girvetz Hall early Monday morning and “intimidated custodial staff and ordered them to leave.” The group has since barricaded external entryways, prevented access to classrooms, and restricted scheduled final exams from occurring.
Occupiers have barricaded windows and doors using chairs and tables, blocked out classroom windows, and displayed a number of banners calling for UCSB to divest from military and defense corporations. In an anonymous letter to “the University,” also posted on social media, the collective demands include the following:
- That Chancellor Yang publish an email stating “the university agrees with the International Court of Justice ruling that labeled the Genocide in Palestine as such under international law.”
- That “all future emails” from the UCSB administration connected to Palestine “acknowledge the situation abroad as a ‘Genocide’ in ‘Palestine.’”
- That “full legal and academic amnesty” is secured for those participating in the action to take and hold Girvetz Hall.
On a ground-floor classroom is an exhibit representative of a war scene. The classroom — the only internally visible part of the building — depicts fake dead bodies covered in rubble, dust, and blood with chairs overturned and large rocks littering the floor. Red paint covers the outward facing wall with a chalkboard reading, “SAY GENOCIDE.”
As students and faculty members watched from the Arbor walkway and Davidson Library, the protesters erected two flagpoles: one flying the Palestinian flag; the other, an upside-down American flag. The Say Genocide protesters have since used the rooftop of Girvetz Hall as a platform to demonstrate their support for Palestine and keep a watchful eye for UCSB administration, law enforcement, or counter-protesters. A call to “mobilize” was made on the group’s Instagram account after rumors were spread of a potential police raid on the building. No raid was conducted by law enforcement by any kind.
However, at around 11:25 p.m., according to social media reports, counter-protesters attempting to remove the American flag got into a physical altercation with protesters, leading to minor injuries to some of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Thus far, the UCSB administration has only interacted privately with the protesters. An unconfirmed letter from Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Margaret Klawunn communicated to the group that the administration has received their demands. Klawunn stated they are open to having discussions with the collective as well as other campus protest groups like the Gaza Liberated Zone — an encampment formed on May 1 between Davidson Library and North Hall — but require the protesters to “vacate the building immediately.”
In a response on social media, Say Genocide called the letter “a cowardly move by the administration to pacify direct action and divide pro-Palestinian student organizing.”
In his letter to the campus community, Chancellor Yang stressed, “Everyone in our community has been deeply distressed by the violence in Israel and Gaza and the devastating loss of Israeli and Palestinian lives.”
“Our principles of community have been strained,” he wrote, as the administration has battled with maintaining the right to free speech and community efforts to “pursue our educational mission.”
