A troubling development has occurred in the University of California Student Association (UCSA), a
system-wide student organization with representatives from each campus. On this
past Saturday, a resolution was passed condemning HR 35, a California State Assembly resolution.
Accusing Israel of “racism,” the UCSA urged the UC Board of Regents to divest
from companies aiding Israel in alleged human rights violations. The planning
of this initiative was purposely kept secret until the day of the meeting. With
no agenda published in advance, and no engagement from anyone in the
organization, there was no way for opponents of the measure to have their
voices heard. Meanwhile, leaders of Students for Justice in Palestine were
given an opportunity to convey their message at the meeting. This represents a
coordinated effort to shut out pro-Israel voices from your student government.
Our
exclusion was intentional. If present, we would have revealed the libelous
nature of this measure. Because the resolution has no basis in reality, it was
passed in premeditated secrecy in order to avoid a factual discussion on the
issue. The Daily Californian reported: “According to UC San Diego External Affairs Vice
President Olamide Noah, the board had been working on the resolution since its
congress in August.” What this means is that the discussion on this issue was
not spontaneous; we were purposely left out of the conversation. Moreover, the reprehensible
timing of passing this resolution the day before the first night of Rosh Hashanah
impeded the ability of the Jewish community to mount any sort of immediate
response. This timing, and secrecy was no doubt on purpose, and this injustice
must be exposed.
The
UCSA truly is not an accurate representation of our Berkeley community, or even
the rest of the UC System. We need to expose this measure for what it is: an
unabashedly deceitful attack on the Jewish State.
The
sole representative from UC Berkeley is Shahryar Abbasi, the External Vice-President
of the ASUC (email- eavp@asuc.org).
