Around 5 a.m. Thursday, the Associated Students Senate voted on the nicknamed “divestment” resolution, electing to vote with a secret ballot in order to prioritize student safety.
For the sixth time in seven years, it failed to pass. UC Santa Barbara is the only undergraduate UC campus that has not voted to pass the resolution.
This year’s resolution – “A Resolution to Divest From Companies that Profit From Human Rights Violations in Israel/Palestine” – called on the Associated Students (A.S.) UCSB Advisory Committee, UCSB, the UC Treasury and the UC Regents to withdraw investments from companies that profit off of alleged human rights violations by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people.
It was authored by Letters and Science Senators Ricardo Uribe and Xochitl Briseno and was student sponsored by Dylan Kupsh and Fatima Abdel-Gwad.
The early morning vote came down to 10 yeses, 14 noes and 0 abstentions; the decision to hold a secret ballot came at the end of a 10 and a half hour Senate meeting once the senators moved into a formal discussion.
Typically, senators vote with verbal or hand signals. A secret ballot allows each senator to anonymously write their vote down on a slip of paper. The slips of paper are then counted by the Internal Vice President (IVP) and A.S. staffers.
“I respect the vote,” Uribe said to the Nexus after the meeting ended.
The bulk of the Wednesday night, Thursday morning meeting was composed of public forum, during which approximately 90 audience members spoke to their opinions about divestment. Throughout the meeting, the audience was relatively split between pro- and anti- divestment stances.
This is the first time the Senate has utilized a secret ballot to vote on divestment since 2015. Both senators and their constituents expressed concern about students being doxxed before they chose to vote with the secret ballot.
The resolution to divest was originally proposed back in 2013, when it failed 12-11-1. The resolution would also go on to fail three more times in 2014, 2015 and 2017.
Last year’s divestment resolution failed to even come to a vote after senators, IVP Jasmine Sandhu and A.S. Attorney General Ali Suebert disagreed on whether the resolution was directional or positional, throwing the Senate into a debate that ended with 12 senators walking out and never returning.
The resolution later termed out at the 68th Senate’s last meeting.
This year, current A.S. Attorney General Zeina Safadi spoke midway through public forum about how, after combing through this year’s resolution specifically, her office concluded that it was directional, meaning that it only needed 50% + 1 votes. If it was considered a positional resolution, it would have required a two-thirds majority to pass.
She also clarified the rules regarding abstention votes, and said that senators who abstained would have their votes counted in the majority.
The resolution’s student sponsors emphasized that this year’s resolution was not affiliated with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. However, this was a point of contention with several senators at the table, who noted that the resolution referenced BDS resolutions that had passed at other universities.
Several senators – including On-Campus Senator Lea Toubian and proxy Noah Fleishman – left the vote crying. Both had spoken at length during the discussion about their personal experiences with anti-Semitism and how they feel unsafe on campus, noting several anti-Semitic incidents that have occurred in recent weeks.
Toubian and Fleishman both spoke several times through the meeting against the resolution.
“I firmly believe this resolution provides a platform for hate,” Toubian said around 4 a.m.
Fleishman echoed similar sentiments: “If we go to a secret ballot, understand the safety of the Jewish community is in your hands.”
Several senators and public forum speakers called the resolution inherently anti-Semitic and asked what tangible change it would provide for Palestinian students on campus.
Off-Campus Senator Christian Ornelas emphasized throughout the meeting that A.S. UCSB had money invested in the companies listed, and public forum speakers and the student sponsors said that they did not want their tuition money to “fund the oppression of Palestinian people.”
The call to divest from A.S. UCSB investments was also the reason why Safadi argued that this year’s resolution was directional, in comparison to previous years, which did not have this specific call to action.
Further coverage can be viewed below:
The vote to pass the divestment resolution failed 10-14-0. pic.twitter.com/SPIkjvOkVi
— Daily Nexus (@dailynexus) April 11, 2019
Arturo Martinez and Katherine Swartz contributed reporting.
Updated [12:33 p.m.]
i’m so relieved that this divisive & hateful bill continues to be shot down! thanks AS❤️
yes! anti-semitism must be defeated.
It has been defeated… for now, BUT… you can rest assured these assholes will keep trying to promote their hatred again & again. They’re 0-6 & that’s a telling statistic, but what’s a real disturbing statistic is that it failed on a 58:42 margin, 8% from being a tie, 9% from being a win.
Keep the pressure on these modern day bigots, DO NOT LET THEM WIN!
Good decision goyim, the US must financially support its greatest ally. Also, when will we be increasing the amount of foreign aid Israel receives? Only 7.2 billion a year doesnt make up for the 6 billion that died in the holocaust.
Anti-Semitic punk!
3 billion in US subsidy for the American defense industry. I say money better spent then the billions we spend maintaining our alliances with the Muslim nations, or the billions sunk into the Palestinian “cause.”
At least Israel is a democracy, if not borderline, and contributes things of merit to the world. Supporting that is good. We already have 50 Muslim states and 23 Arab nations, but keeping alive the one Jewish state is just too much to stomach for liberals and Islamists.
I agree. It is a shame though that some Americans think they should be spending money on a single mexico border wall when it could be spent on Israels third border wall. I mean why should the US use any of its budget on its own protection when that money could be better spent on the defense of Israel.
But the big difference is Mexico isn’t sending suicide bombers over or launching rockets our way & besides, that cellphone you typed this post w/, the technology behind it… from Israel.
It is well known that U.C. Santa Barbara provides a hostile environment for Jewish students. The fact that the Board rejected this bigoted resolution is a sign that some students would like to see the University begin the process of fighting bigotry and Jew-hatred instead of encouraging it. The vote shows that the sentiment is now in favor of understanding that you cannot encourage moderation when you reward extremism.
That’s going to be a difficult task to achieve when some of the tenured professors themselves promote the very same hatred that fuels the bds “cause” (read bigotry). Just because you’re an ivory tower academic, the right to promote hatred is not on the right side of education. The picture provided by the hateful academics is singular minded & based on flawed historical analysis, but hey, if you want grant $$$, you “create” a “cause” & the funding is provided. The bds ilk are bigots & the academics that promote their cause are bigots too. There’s the fundamental root of… Read more »
It’s actually not a well known fact that UCSB provides a hostile environment for Jewish students. I graduated from UCSB with no incidents. That said, the entire UC system is doing Jewish students a disservice by allowing SJP to run roughshod over their campuses.
Remove the hate. Ban SJP and IAW from campus.
Will the students who brought this bill move on to bring other bills recommending divestment from Russia, China, Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Libya, and all the big-time human rights abusers?
We all know the answer to that. So that begs the question: Why won’t they? What’s different about Israel?
Of course they won’t & as far as what’s different about Israel, it’s because they’re a progressive nation, unlike the other nations mentioned above & we all know bigots such as bds hate progressive ideals.
As a fellow Jew, it pains me to watch students in crocodile tears over UCSB’s non-existent antisemitism. Palestinians are being murdered. Quit your whining.
If you have specifics, provide them. But you’re as Jewish as Trump is the legitimate leader of our once great nation.
BDS = epic fail… once again. Keep trying little turds, but you should be used to losing by now. You’re not the little engine that could, you’re the biggest haters that CAN’T! How does that feel, to be so… puny.
You tried, but you CAN’T do it. Now go focus on more productive & less hateful issues & matters, it will be better for you in the long run. The world is onto you & your hatred.
Lol man. Israel the country has no right to exist. Any Jew with dual loyalties better decide which one matters.
No sleep lost over this, but I’m sure bds lost lots of sleep over that 5th setback. Anti-Semitism 5, bds hatred… ZERO! Lost, loss, losing, loser, all synonymous w/ bds.
The level of discourse (LOL) on display is a sad testament to the mental challenges faced by bigoted morons (oxyMoron?).
The Nexus would be well advised to eliminate the totally optional app of soliciting commentary. It serves primarily to discredit the already questionable reputation of UCSB as a main player in the universe of higher education.
Totally agree on this, but there’s this problem w/ the actual institution called UCSB tenuring professors that preach hatred & support failed causes such as bds. Sorry man, but just because you’re an ivory tower academic, hatred is no excuse & the whole bds thing is sheer hatred. On a devil’s advocate side, they DO have the 1st Amendment right to exist & preach their hatred, all Constitutionally guaranteed. On the same coin, opposition to such hatred is also a guaranteed Constitutional right & a better side of history to be on. The bds “cause” (read anti-Semitism) tried… again… &… Read more »
Anti Semitism is what my great uncle practiced: the massacre of around 500,000 Russians and Hews. BDS hardly qualifies.
All bds qualifies for is idiocy. I mean hell, here they are in a campus rife w/ anti-Jewish sentiment & they can’t even get their way. Losers.
Proud to be a Gaucho (class of ’92). BDS is hateful, uneducated nonsense. Omar Barghouti, the leader of BDS, has a college degree from Tel Aviv University. Wrap your heads around that, BDSers. If Israel is so mean to Palestinians like Omar Barghouti, then why are they generally accepted by Israeli society in spite of their anger?