Tensions Rise at UC Santa Barbara as Faculty and Students Protest for Gaza

Tensions continue to rise on the UC Santa Barbara campus over the Israel–Palestine conflict after the university suspended its MultiCultural Center, canceling all activities, when anti-Zionist signage was found throughout the building on Monday, February 26. The suspension resulted in social media doxing, faculty protests, a hunger strike, and the university turning to students for advice.

The initial news about anti-Zionist signs first came in images and writings on the official MultiCultural Center (MCC) Instagram account. Since then, further background and unofficial MCC social media posts — these from a person, whose identity the Independent has been unable to verify — have come to light. On February 29, an unofficial post described the previous engagement as “regrettable” and added that the social media comments and signs that “perpetuated anti-Semitism and contained harmful tropes about Jewish people” were not in line with their values.

The signs in question read “Zionists NOT WELCOME” and “Stay away from our kitchen too!” referencing plans to use the MCC’s kitchen to cook a Shabbat meal for UCSB’s Jewish students. These signs, among others, appeared on the MCC’s official Instagram account that Monday, with the caption, “In case we aren’t clear, let us spell it out.”

A target of some of the signs was Tessa Veksler, the daughter of Soviet Jewish refugees and UCSB’s Associated Students president, whose office is in the MCC. One sign read, “You can run but you can’t hide Tessa Veksler!”

“I feel a strong sense of unease on and off campus, and a deep sadness for what’s happened,” Veksler said in an interview this Tuesday. “I don’t want the MCC to remain closed, but accountability needs to happen.

“However, one community’s safety can’t come at the expense of another,” she added, alluding to the disproportionate harm that minority students are feeling due to the MCC’s closure.

“Individuals on this campus need to learn how to engage in civil discourse,” Veksler said of her ideal outcome to the conflict. “We need to humanize one another in divisive situations like this. I’m a human, too.”

Several people the Independent spoke with confirmed events leading up to the shuttering of the MCC. On the Sunday before, the Center’s annual Social Justice Conference conducted an activism art project that included making signs. By the following morning, multiple anti-Zionist posters were stuck to the walls. Self-proclaimed Zionist students “occupied” the MCC that Monday, and students on both sides of the issue engaged, some say heatedly, others say with calm. By 4 p.m., the MCC was suspended by UCSB administrators.

In the days following the closure, multiple MCC staff members and student interns were doxed, publicly identified for aggressive harassment on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) by national groups advocating for Israel. All the information and posts were subsequently removed.

The doxed individuals denied involvement in the posted signage, as have UCSB Jewish Voices for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine. “There is no space in our movement for anti-Semitism or any form of racism,” wrote the two student-led organizations in a February 28 statement.

UCSB faculty added their voices. On March 2, the Department of Black Studies released a statement condemning the university’s actions, citing the “UC’s insidious refusal to call for a ceasefire.” Regarding the MCC, “These event cancellations … signal a threat to BIPOC, queer, and trans students’, staff’s, and faculty’s ability to engage in free and public intellectual activity,” the statement read. They called for a “day-long voluntary interruption of activities … followed by work slowdowns,” starting March 7.

The “interruption” included a teach-in, which approximately 400 UCSB students, faculty, and staff joined to discuss the MCC and the broader Israel–Palestine conflict. Black Studies issued a statement that students, professors, and Academics for Justice in Palestine spoke “in solidarity with the cause of Palestinian rights” and emphasized their “right to assembly, freedom of expression, and academic freedom.”

The protests now include a hunger strike. On March 9, Charlene Macharia, a doctoral student at UCSB’s Gevirtz School of Education, announced a seven-day hunger strike over the administration’s handling of the Israel–Palestine conflict and the MCC suspension.

Academics for Justice in Palestine, a faculty group that holds weekly meetings with Students for Justice in Palestine and 16 other student organizations, noted that “the posters that students put up at the MCC are not the beginning of the story” and cited “months, if not years, of silencing of discussion on Palestine.” The group is compiling a report on the events leading to the MCC’s closure.

“The campus finally woke up” following these events, said professors Bishnupriya Ghosh and Sherene Seikaly, speaking for Academics for Justice in Palestine. “The allyship that we’ve seen is so valued,” they said of the Chicana and Chicano Studies and the Feminist Studies departments, which have joined in denouncing the suspension.

“We want people to see us for the intersectional movement that we’re building, and not just the fear that has come out of this situation,” Seikaly stressed.

In light of the consistent backlash, UCSB is taking a new approach to tackling the hostile campus climate –– asking the students.The Division of Student Affairs is calling for student input on how best to spend their one-time funding from the UC system to help combat discrimination on campus. “This is an important opportunity to address bias faced by advocates for Palestine and Israel,” wrote Margaret Klawunn, vice chancellor for Student Affairs, in the call for suggestions. The survey was emailed to all registered students, who are asked to submit proposals for priority consideration before March 18.