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MONDAY, MAY 06- MAY 12, 2024
VISIT CORONANEWSPRESS.COM
VOL. 8,
NO. 170
Protesters establish Palestine solidarity encampment at center of UC Riverside campus
City of Coachella to get $10M climate grant for multipurpose facility
By City News Service
By City News Service
S
tudents at UC Riverside established an encampment in the middle of campus to protest Israel’s actions in Gaza, joining nearly a dozen universities across California and numerous nationwide to demand the school end “all investments and endowments” benefiting the Jewish state. “We are joining the student movement, the student Intifada,” according to an unnamed spokeswoman for Students for Justice in Palestine, UCR chapter. “We are not leaving this encampment day and night until the university complies and meets with us to discuss our demands.” The encampment was set up April 29, with several dozen tents placed on the green adjacent to the campus Bell Tower, recognized as the center of UCR. Campus administrators did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The specific number of students participating in the peaceful campus demonstration could not be confirmed. On Wednesday, a group of students staged a midday walkout from classes and held a rally at the tower, chanting “Israel is a racist state!” and “Free, free, free Palestine!” There was no obvious law enforcement presence, and no campus buildings appeared to be obstructed. The “demands” issued by the SJP UCR chapter included “a full transparent disclosure of all investments and endowments in weapons manufactures and the Israeli genocidal machine,” as well as a “full divestment from weapons manufacturers and any corporations that either fund or profit off the genocidal machine.” The SJP-UCR representative noted there is no “standing university in Gaza” due to the unabated bombing
A rendering depicts the planned Community Resilience Center. | Image courtesy of the city of Coachella
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state-level committee awarded the city of Coachella a $10 million grant with the intent of making the area “a more climate-resilient community,” a municipal spokesperson announced Thursday. Approved by the California Strategic Growth Council, the Community Resilience Center (CRC) Implementation Grant Award will be used to modify the current Hidden Harvest facility on Peter Rabbit Lane into the Coachella Community Resilience Center, according to a press release. The CRC will function as an emergency shelter, garden space, food hub, resource center and workforce training location, among other purposes. See Climate grant Page 27
A Palestinian flag and protest messages adorn the UCR sculpture on the university’s campus. | Photo courtesy of arabcouncil/Instagram
campaign since early October conducted by the Israeli Defense Forces using U.S.supplied drones and fighterbombers. The chapter spokeswoman alleged American “universities are complicit in the genocide,” and the protests at UCR and other campuses are intended to “condemn war crimes and crimes against humanity.” Messages taped to the large UCR sign underneath the Bell Tower included “Stop the U.S.-funded Genocide” “End the Occupation Now” and “Ceasefire Now!” Estimates on the number of campuses where anti-war movements have surfaced
over the last month vary, but according to the nonprofit National Students for Justice in Palestine, “solidarity encampments” numbered just over 70 as of May 1. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the International Committee of Red Cross-affiliated Palestine Red Crescent Society, nearly 35,000 people have been killed in Gaza — over 14,500 of them children — since the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas incursion into Israel, culminating in the IDF’s invasion of the Gaza Strip. The number of injuries is See Palestine protest Page 27
in excess of 77,000, according to published reports. Israel’s official casualty rate for the duration of hostilities is 8,730, of which just over 1,000 have been fatalities. Along with universities, hospitals, refugee camps and residential complexes in Gaza have been targeted, displacing hundreds of thousands of people, according to reports from the region. Human Rights Watch has alleged Israel “is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the Gaza Strip,” and according to
Future Riverside County Wellness Village receives final board approval By City News Service
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he Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved a $580 million project to establish an all-in-one medical campus providing a “range of services” for Riverside County residents of all ages. In a 5-0 vote, the board formally signed off on the Riverside University Health System’s Wellness Village, a 19-acre facility slated for construction near the intersection of Harvill and Placentia avenues in Mead Valley. A ceremonial groundbreaking at the site is tentatively set for the afternoon of June 1. Construction is expected to be completed in 2026, RUHS officials said. “The RUHS Wellness Village represents a major shift in how we provide healthcare and will serve as a model for the
See Wellness Village Page 28