On May 7, the ASUCD Business and Finance Commission voted against passing Senate Resolution 30, which supported the University divesting funds from corporations that profit from the occupation of Palestine.
Many people on both sides of the issue have expressed the belief that this will not be the end of the issue on the UC Davis campus.
“I don’t see any suspension of dialogue happening. I see this as just a start of things to come,” said Matt Hamou, a Business and Finance commissioner.
Members of the Business and Finance Commission rejected the resolution with a vote of two in favor, five against and two abstentions.
“Going in, my personal goal was to make sure that both sides left feeling that they had been treated respectfully and equally, independent of the vote count,” said Rylan Schaeffer, Business and Finance Commission chair. “Abstentions are rare. While the reasons two commissioners had for abstaining were complex, a key aspect definitely had to do with the controversial nature of the resolution, as well as the magnitude of the issues it sought to discuss. Israel-Palestine is one of the most complex issues in the international arena today and is not something one votes lightly on without feeling absolutely certain about their decision.”
The meeting started at 7 p.m. and lasted for hours, with a significant amount of public discussion from both sides of the issue.
Some felt the resolution would create a divisive campus and were opposed to the resolution.
“This resolution completely turns a blind eye to the other violators of human rights in the world and singles out Israel,” said a speaker from the public.
However, proponents of the resolution said they needed to stand in solidarity with Palestinians.
“How can you value money over human rights?” asked a supporter of the resolution.
ASUCD President Carly Sandstrom and Vice President Bradley Bottoms publically announced their opposition to the resolution in a press release.
“The ASUCD Executive feels that passing this resolution will not be fully representative of the student body at large. The issues this resolution addresses are grave and personal for many students. If passed, it runs the risk of furthering the divisiveness of these issues and further separating members of our community,” the press release states.
On May 6, the resolution passed through the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission. The Business and Finance Commission was the fourth commission to vote on the resolution and the third to reject it, along with the External Affairs Commission and the Internal Affairs Commission. The resolution will therefore not move forward to Senate, but supporters of the resolution suggested that they were looking to bring the issue back next fall in a Facebook post by the UC Davis Divest group.
“The commitment to divestment is now even stronger. As a community we can now give each other the energy and motivation to bring this back in the Fall,” the status read.
LAUREN MASCARENHAS can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
“Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!”
~Isaiah 5:20
Are people who support Hamas akin to people who supported the Nazis?
Seems to me they are.
Nazis destroyed all the Jews of Europe. Hamas never stops talking about destroying Jews.
Nazis depicted Jews as beneath contempt just as Hamas does. Nazis blamed Jews for all their problems and so does Hamas.
Seems to me the only difference is Hamas does not have the military required to really kill off all the Jews of Israel. If they did have these weapons everyone knows they would use them as indiscriminately as the Nazis did.
I wonder what sort of person supports an organization that is today’s Nazis. What moral and intellectual blindness do these Nazi worshippers suffer from?
While Muslims in Syria kill women, children, elderly indiscriminately – up to 100,000 people and counting – we devote our anger on Israel for we are anti-Semites in sheep’s clothing.
While Muslims have killed up to one million in Sudan, and counting, we devote our anger on Israel for we are really just anti-Semites pretending we are humanitarians.
While Muslims in Mali have forced 500,000 (and counting) people into refugee status – as they have done in the past year – we devote our anger on Israel for we are anti-Semites pretending to be for social justice.
While Muslims kill off what remains of the ancient Hindu population in-and-around Pakistan we devote our anger on Israel for we are like the Germans during the 1930s – people who needed a convenient scapegoat to escape our own feelings of frustration.
While Muslims have wiped out all the Buddhists from their ancient homeland in Afghanistan we devote our anger on Israel, for it’s easy to pick on Jews and we are shameless hypocrites engaging in man’s oldest prejudice, anti-Semitism, while pretending to be holier-than-thou.