On Oct. 7, student organizations Students Supporting Israel at UC San Diego and Tritons for Israel held memorial events to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the cross-border attacks on southern Israel, perpetrated by political entity and militant group Hamas.
On this day last year, Hamas launched multiple rockets into Israeli territory, an attack that was followed by the infiltration of numerous neighborhoods, music festivals, and military bases. According to Israeli authorities, the Hamas-led attacks killed at least 1,200 people and claimed an estimated 250 hostages.
SSI at UC San Diego hosted a day-long event on Warren Mall. The programming began at 11 a.m. and continued until 4 p.m.. The event space featured a table with 101 place settings, each with missing posters that represented the hostages still unaccounted for.
“We must stay strong and fight for our remaining hostages who will have been in captivity for 365 days,” SSI at UCSD wrote on an Instagram post prior to the event.
At 4 p.m., attendees walked over to Library Walk, where they joined Tritons for Israel for a vigil. Approximately 50 individuals were in attendance, including students, community members, and religious officials. The crowd gathered around a tree in front of Geisel Library with yellow ribbons tied to it, symbolizing a call for the return of hostages.
A representative from TFI reflected on the attack.
“Those lost on Oct. 7 were people like you and I. They were family members and friends. Now, we must live in their honor. Today we light candles and say prayers to remember those who were lost,” they said.
A second representative from TFI read a speech on behalf of the group’s shaliah, or legal agent.
“Exactly one year ago, on Oct. 7, 2023, at 6:29 a.m. in [Israel] We, the Jewish people, witnessed the biggest massacre that happened since the Holocaust in the state of Israel … ,” stated the representative. “During the past year, I heard on the news that Israel is fighting on seven different battlefronts. Iran, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the West Bank, Iraq with pro-Iranian militias, Syria, and the Houthis in Yemen. However, there is one more place that Israelis and Jews are fighting against and that is the anti-Zionism and antisemitism around the world.”
An anonymous former member of TFI spoke to The UCSD Guardian about the motivations behind the event.
“I think it’s very simple to understand. We’re here just to, you know, remember the day that a bunch of our people died. This is all that it is. It doesn’t say anything about any other person; it doesn’t say anything about the other side. We don’t hate them. We don’t think that all of them are bad,” they stated.
In regards to the new protest policy changes, the anonymous former member of TFI expressed approval.
“There are things that all student organizations need to [follow], we all sign it, we all say that we’ll do it. We put so much time and effort, and it needs to be respected. So, I’m completely fine with them saying that there shouldn’t be encampments,” they said. “I wasn’t able to walk through here as long as it was happening. We were distraught and it was affecting our academics. It wasn’t about the government, it wasn’t about the policies, it was their hatred against Jews.”
The University of California Office of the President announced changes to protest policies following the Gaza Solidarity Encampment that was erected and violently dismantled this past spring. The recent policy changes included a complete prohibition on encampments.
An estimated 10 members of the administration, seven Allied Universal security officials, and three University of California Police Department officers were present on Library Walk, surrounding the ongoing vigil. Two individuals wearing attire that read, “Private Defend Security 48,” were also observed by an on-site reporter for The Guardian.
The vigil concluded at around 5 p.m., following a period of prayer.
