Students attacked for ‘demanding justice’ – Santa Cruz Sentinel

The Sunday Sentinel published two letters to the editor criticizing the student protests in Gaza. One drew attention to the remaining “128 hostages kidnapped by Hamas.”

The second question is: “Where is the outrage over … other atrocities?”

On the issue of hostage-taking: “Thousands of Palestinians are being held without charge in Israeli custody.” (NPR, January 23, 2012) Are these thousands not hostages?

Why is Gaza being made the focus of student camps? Our government is supplying weapons for what is increasingly being called genocide!
In addition to the annual military budget of $3-4 billion, The Times of Israel (26.05.24) reports: “The United States has approved and carried out more than 100 arms sales to Israel,” bypassing congressional approval. And: “The House of Representatives approves $17 billion in military aid to Israel.”
US weapons have killed over 35,000 people – on average one child killed and two injured every 10 minutes. Among the dead: 224 aid workers, 484 health workers, 84 journalists. 75,815 were injured; 1.7 million (70% of the population) had to flee their homes.

55.9% of buildings, 90% of schools, 230 mosques/churches and 24 hospitals were damaged/destroyed.

Two million people in the Gaza Strip are currently threatened by full-blown famine.

As in the fight against apartheid in Vietnam and South Africa, students demand justice and are attacked.

— Sheila Carrillo, Santa Cruz

The Sentinel welcomes your letters to the editor. Letters should be brief, no more than 175 words. We do not accept anonymous letters. Letter writers should include their full name, address and phone number. We do not publish this information in the newspaper, but we need it for verification purposes. Occasionally we reject letters simply because we have received too many on the same subject. Submit your letters online at www.santacruzsentinel.com/submit-letters.