‘Will not rest’: UC Merced students call for ceasefire, end funding to Israel
MERCED, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – The UC Board of Regents meeting at UC Merced has entered its second day calling for a ceasefire and an end to funding Israel could be heard inside and outside the meeting.
“You have continued to colonize indigenous land. The students will not stop and will not rest until the UC divests,” said during public comment.
More than 120 protestors joined the pro-Palestine encampment on the UC Merced campus for further protests on May 15.
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“We are going to have two different demonstrations, the first one is going to be making a shrine because it is Nakba Remembrance Day,” protestor Ari Huffman said.
May 15’s UC Board of Regents day-long meetings began with discussion— but not about boycotting investments in Israeli business interests.
Protestors said they would let their wallets help make the point.
“We’re here to basically express that we want our university to divest. We don’t want our tuition dollars to go towards any of these black stone, black rock investments, and we have the other UC’s here because it is a UC regents meeting,” Huffman said.
UC Merced’s Director of Public Relations says the university is in constant contact with organizers.
‘Constitutionally protected rights’: UC Merced navigates pro-Palestine encampment
“We’ve had a lot of positive interactions, we speak to them multiple times a day. We’ve talked to them in good faith. We haven’t deemed this an unlawful gathering, even though their current setup is in violation of campus policy,” UC Merced’s Director of Public Relations Sam Yniguez said.
The Board of Regents will be here Thursday, May 16, for a final day of meetings.
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