Lauren RabainoSee more photos on our Facebook page.
Students gathered Thursday morning at the University Union Plaza to voice their opinions about the ongoing conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza.
The late morning rally, which was organized by the Students for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (SJPME), was in response to Israel’s air and ground offensive against Hamas dubbed “Operation Cast Lead” by the Israeli military.
The operation was launched Dec. 27 in response to Hamas rocket attacks that have hit Israeli targets as much as 24 miles away from the Israel-Gaza border.
The Israeli military has since shut down the Gazan border, and up until a brief ceasefire Wednseday, effectively blocked U.N. aid and foreign journalists from entering.
SJPME president Ara Kim said prior to the demonstration, “We want to bring attention to the giant humanitarian crisis that’s going on in Gaza right now.”
“They’re running out of food,” she said. “They have no water, the hospitals are really limited in terms of supplies and space and everything. It’s just terrible what’s going on right now.”
“The U.S. has given Israel a lot of money and weapons, and I feel that that’s partially my tax money and I don’t believe it should be used to go against (Gaza).people think that they can’t do anything about it, but we want to give them a forum.”
To counter the roughly 40 SJPME demonstrators at the rally was a group of about 30 members and supporters of the Israel Alliance, a Cal Poly organization led by President Jacob Kory.
“We’re here to denounce Hamas terrorism,” Kory said shortly before the rally began. “I don’t think enough people realize Hamas is a terrorist organization. We’re really here to show our support for Israel and the actions they’ve taken.”
Although the two-party protest was peaceful and ended without incident, dialogue often became heated from members of the SLO chapter of Code Pink, a national group for women whose stated mission is to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan- as well as the formation of all new wars who joined the Palistinean demonstrators.
“I was a little concerned to see the Code Pink ladies start to come within our ranks and yell at us,” Kory said after the protest. “This was supposed to be a peaceful rally and we didn’t want anyone to get into a verbal confrontation. I’m not sure they were representative of SJPME, though,” he said.
Despite minor unpleasant encounters, members of both organizations expressed their satisfaction at the outcome of the rally.
SJPME member Grace Kirschner briefly addressed the crowd to thank everyone for attending.
“It went well,” Kirschner said afterwards. “It was a good turnout and a great discussion of opinions.I was glad to see the passion.”
“It was really good,” Kory agreed. “For the most part, I think that both groups truly want to see a peaceful solution to this situation and I think that’s the key point of the rally today.”
“I’m really honored to have people come and ask questions and really try to understand the situation,” he said.
Regardless of which side students took on the issue, most were happy to see a healthy debate take place and thought it was reflective of the tolerant atmosphere of the Cal Poly campus.
“I think it’s good to have things like this because it gets people interested,” said Cal Poly statistics junior Michelle Shaffer, who came to the rally in support of Israel.
“I feel like a lot of people just don’t know (about the situation) or are looking at just one side of it,” she said. “So now I think people will go and research more what’s going on and why the United States cares.”