‘Zionists not welcome’: Jewish Santa Barbara students face harassment

Jewish students were harassed in University of California Santa Barbara’s Multicultural Center on Tuesday, after signs and messages targeting a Jewish student government president and other Jewish students were placed at the MCC, its social media accounts, and a student dorm room earlier that day and on Monday.

According to Santa Barbara Hillel, its staff members and a group of Jewish students entered the center where there were signs on the door warning “Zionists not allowed.” The students were confronted by a mob of their peers, who shouted at them, SB Hillel said.

“Zionists not welcome,” was found on Tuesday scrawled on a dorm room door with an arrow pointing to a mezuzah, a religious talisman traditionally placed on every door frame in a Jewish home.

“Can these anti-Zionists make their antisemitism any more obvious?” SB Hillel wrote on Instagram. “When hate persists unchallenged, it spreads.”

Most of the signs were placed outside and inside the MCC on Monday, many of them targeting Associated Student President Tessa Veksler. She shared examples of the signs on her Instagram account on Tuesday.

“Attention: Tessa Veksler supports genocide! You cannot hide!” read one sign which had the fourth-year student’s name flanked by what may have been red devil horns or red triangles used in terrorist propaganda to indicate militant targeting. “You can run but you can’t hide Tessa Veksler.”

Other signs proclaimed that the “AS president is Racist Zionist,” and “Get these Zionists out of office.”

Veksler said the messages were dehumanizing and rooted in antisemitism, and that she did “not feel safe on campus. How can Jewish students feel safe at UCSB when they see a Jewish leader being explicitly targeted?”

The student leader said that her parents had fled the Former Soviet Union because they were discriminated against because they were Jewish, and that though they had come to the US to live without that hate, the same discrimination had emerged in her generation.

Some of the signs, which according to Hillel were left up for over 24 hours, were addressed in general to other Zionist students. Veksler said that the majority of the Jewish community identifies as Zionist, and the signs targeted and vilified them.

“When people are occupied, resistance is justified,” read one of the signs. Another read “It was never about Hamas, never will be.”

SB HILLEL said that similar messages were also placed on MCC’s now-deleted social media accounts, with one alleged remark asking “why does our school support a regime to feast on the blood of our fellow humans?” The Hillel said this invoked classic antisemitic blood libels.

Veksler said that the incidents were not an isolated event, but the result of the failure to address such rhetoric and actions in the university. She called on the university not to be silent and remain complicit in the intimidation of Jewish students.

“There is no room for delay in addressing these issues,” said Veksler. “We must act decisively and demand accountability to ensure the safety and well-being of all students.”

Chancellor Henry Yang and other school officers issued a statement on Monday reminding students of anti-discrimination policy, and that it was investigating the issue.

“We were distressed to learn of incidents over the weekend that included offensive social media messages and signage at the Multicultural Center entrance,” said Yang. “Campus offices are reviewing these unauthorized and unofficial messages. The signage has been removed and campus is conducting a bias incident review based on potential discrimination related to protected categories that include religion, citizenship, and national or ethnic origin. The posting of such messages is a violation of our principles of community and inclusion.”

SB Hillel welcomed the statement and called on the university to ensure students were protected in all campus spaces, but Pro-Israel nonprofit StandWithUs issued a letter asking the administration to take action against the local chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. SWU claimed that the SJP president shouted “We don’t talk to Zionists,” when the Jewish students entered the MCC. SJP also shared images of the posters in and around the center on its social media accounts, with a caption that read “we will reclaim our space! Zionists and admin are not welcome in the MCC!”

Following Yang’s statement, UCSB SJP and the local chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace issued joint statements acknowledging that “many students, especially Jewish students, Palestinian students, and students of color are feeling hurt and confused due to actions surrounding the multicultural center this week.”

“While neither SJP nor JVP were involved with the planning or execution of these events, and the many instances of inappropriate language were made by individuals and were not endorsed by either of our organizations, we know that as student organizers, we must participate in the healing from the harm caused,” said the NGOs. “We have begun the process of accountability within our organizing spaces and will continue to work in community to unlearn oppressive and discriminatory systems.”