San Diego, CA
Opinion: Bullying against Palestinian Americans in San Diego must stop
As the one year anniversary of Oct. 7 looms, Palestinian San Diegans have been counting their dead. The assault on Lebanon has the early patterns that resembles Gaza and the West Bank. I talked to my aunt who lives outside of Beirut. In her 83 years she has seen too much. For her children, now aging themselves, their entire lives have been consumed by war. The numbers of direct family members lost are in the hundreds, perhaps thousands in San Diego County alone.
If that is not enough, individuals and organizations in San Diego have launched rampant bullying campaigns to disrupt and sabotage planned cultural and civil rights events and educational support in San Diego hotels, museums, parks, universities, and schools. Below is a partial list of several incidents and crimes where litigation is pending so few details are able to be disclosed. One is the Council on American Islamic Relations, CAIR San Diego, when their Sept. 14 annual gala’s location was abruptly moved. It resembles a similar incident in Arlington, Va.
The Mingei Museum in Balboa Park in July reportedly postponed a Palestinian Tatreez (embroidery) workshop, indicating threats of protest and violence the week before the scheduled Monday night event.
The San Diego based National Conflict Resolution Center forcibly removed Imam Taha, a board member and recipient of a Peacemaker Award without his consent.
The County Board of Supervisors and mayor Todd Gloria have refused to meet with our community, not only to acknowledge individual and collective traumas, but to remediate recent hostile resolutions and misrepresentations against Middle Easterners and North Africans.
Where is the alarm? Rather, San Diego’s elected officials, civic institutions and colleges accept bullying that limits and sabotages Palestinian Americans’ right to grieve or publicly memorialize the past year of carnage and slaughter, strongly claimed by international law to be a genocide and a scholasticide.
An alternate reality has been concocted to justify extreme actions against Palestinian Americans throughout the country. In San Diego County, the American Jewish Committee and its affiliates such as the Anti-Defamation League have been deemed non-reliable sources by Wikipedia. Palestinian American resources for Oct. 7 are readily available.
Palestinian American students have been the most vulnerable. In Chicago on Oct.14, 2023, 6-year old first grader, Wadea al-Fayoume, was stabbed to death by his landlord. He was unanimously commemorated last month by the U.S. Senate. In Vermont last Thanksgiving, three Palestinian American college students, Tahseen Ali Ahmad, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Hisham Awartani were shot and one, Awartani is permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Nationwide, the increase in hate crimes and incidents have risen to astronomical levels since Oct. 7, 2023.
Threats made to anyone who criticizes Israel creates fear. This perpetuates the dissemination of false information via propaganda. Silencing is already normalized when it comes to Arab, Palestinian and Muslim Americans.
The silence from entities who tally incidents such as the ACLU, FBI and General Attorney’s office have responsibilities to monitor, gather information and begin investigations. Our District Attorney’s office in San Diego and California’s Attorney General in Sacramento are refusing to notice what is threatening our constitutional rights to engage in public debate. After this long period of silence. Our community concludes that they do not care. Prove us wrong.
Our community feels unsafe while it grieves these losses in our home countries. If bullying is not addressed proactively by our civic leaders, it will metastasize and lead to more violence against Arabs, Muslims and all Americans critical of Israel. We expect to practice our constitutional rights without danger and sabotage. We demand that empathy and discussion, ingredients for healing and responsibly constructed resolutions be sought by elected and civic leaders.
Bittar is an artist, writer and community organizer who lives in North Park.
Gloria relents on December Nights, some community cuts in budget revise, but arts funds still on chopping block
by City News Service | Times of San Diego
Some library and recreation center hours and December Nights support were restored in Mayor Todd Gloria’s revised Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Wednesday, but city funding for the arts could still be gutted.
Gloria was joined by civic leaders Wednesday morning to announce changes to his initial proposed budget, released last month. He added “targeted protections” of certain neighborhood priorities and maintained police and fire service levels while arriving at a balanced budget.
Proposed additions include protecting rec center and library hours in Council Districts 4, 8 and 9, represented by Henry L. Foster III, Vivian Moreno and Sean Elo-Rivera, respectively.
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The Learning Curve: He’s San Diego Unified’s Next Trustee – No Race Needed
By Jakob McWhinney | Voice of San Diego
The primary is still nearly a month away. The general election is even further out. Still, it’s already clear that Hayden Gore will be San Diego Unified’s next trustee. That’s because he’s running unopposed to fill the seat left open by current Trustee Cody Petterson, who opted not to run for re-election.
Though he’s a political newcomer, Gore was the early choice of San Diego Unified’s union. In fact, he was recruited by the former president of the San Diego Education Association to run for the seat.
It’s not hard to see why. He’s an avowed progressive and a longtime educator who led the then-newly formed union at High Tech High to its first contract. Exactly the kind of resume that would have SDEA champing at the bit.
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Join Us Friday, July 17, 2026 for the 11th Annual USD School of Law – RJS LAW Tax Institute
By RJS Law
The Institute is the premier annual tax event in San Diego. The region’s top tax attorneys, enrolled agents (EAs), certified public accountants (CPAs), law and business school professors will discuss topics including government loan relief and abuses, challenges in cross-border transactions, and practical and realistic solutions in trust, estate planning, and tax matters.
DATE AND TIME
Friday, July 17, 2026 from 8:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
LOCATION
Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, Theatre
5555 Marian Way, San Diego, CA 92110
EVENT STATUS
Open to the Public
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SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – For many families, libraries are a safe space for kids after school and a place to study.
After community outcry, the city is scaling down some of its proposed budget cuts, bringing the original $6.3 million in cuts to libraries down to $4.8 million.
Patrick Stewart, CEO of Library Foundation SD, said the change is a step in the right direction.
“We are very pleased. I think this moves the needle in the right direction.”
Mayor Gloria’s revised budget proposal restores funding focused on youth-centered programs, which includes bringing back library hours in Council Districts 4, 8, and 9 — those in underserved communities.
“This is City Heights and San Isidro, Barrio Logan, and Oak Park, and traditionally, those are smaller branches. And the kids and the families in those communities frankly, they use their library very differently than in a lot of other communities, and it’s a lifeline to them,” said Stewart.
The City Heights library is among those included in the mayor’s revised budget to restore funding. While library officials say this is a good first step, there is still concern about long-term financial challenges.
In order to voice concerns about how deep the cuts go, the Library Foundation has created a way for supporters to express that through postcards. Thousands of cards have been mailed directly to Mayor Gloria and councilmembers.
Stewart said the effort is making an impact.
“They’re seeing that this is hundreds and hundreds of people that are taking this very seriously, so it helps them to know immediately what their community feels like when it comes to these proposed cuts,” he added.
The restored funding would also keep Monday hours at Carmel Valley Library and protect the North Clairemont Library branch from closure.
Library officials remain optimistic as the revised budget heads back to the City Council.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
A man suspected of a fatal shooting in Barrio Logan was arrested Tuesday.
Benito Garcia Jr., 31, was arrested in the 3600 block of Grand Avenue in San Marcos at about 1 p.m. Tuesday for allegedly gunning down 64-year-old Raul Torres near the east end of the Coronado Bridge, according to the San Diego Police Department.
Patrol officers responding to an anonymous report of a shooting found the mortally wounded victim on a sidewalk in the 2000 block of National Avenue, near Chicano Park, shortly after 10 p.m. last Tuesday. Torres died at the scene, SDPD Lt. Lou Maggi said.
Police have not disclosed a suspected motive for the slaying.
Garcia was booked into San Diego Central Jail on suspicion of first- degree murder. He was being held without bail pending arraignment, scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
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