Associated Students Senate voted to remove a revised version of a resolution calling for divestment from companies supporting the military occupation of Palestine from the agenda during last night’s three-hour meeting.
The motion was introduced by Off-campus Senator Alessandra Cianni early in the meeting and voted on by way of a secret ballot, resulting in an 8-7 decision to strike the resolution with no possibility for future reintroduction. The Senate was then unable to proceed with the planned discussion of next year’s budget due to the abrupt departure of four senators, which left the Senate without the requisite attendance to vote on agenda items.
The meeting was held in the Hub rather than in the Flying A room in order to accommodate the expected audience. While the number of students present did not match the hundreds that attended the previous two meetings dealing with divestment, audience turnout was still much higher than most meetings.
The title of the resolution was changed from “A Resolution to Divest from Companies that Profit from Apartheid” to “A Resolution to Divest from Companies that Profit from the Military Occupation of Palestine” in an effort to make the rhetoric more neutral.
Cianni said she motioned to remove the agenda item due to the fact that the Senate had already spent two meetings discussing the issue of divestment, and the primary purpose of last night’s meeting was to solicit input from A.S. Boards, Committees and Commissions groups on next year’s budget allocations.
The dismissal of the resolution left many planned student speakers unable to address the Senate in Public Forum. Pro-divestment audience member and student sponsor of the resolution Katlen Abuata said she felt the removal of the resolution discounted the work Abuata and others had done to take criticisms into account.
“I think that Senate perpetually silences us as students,” Abuata said. “I think that since we worked hard enough to put up another resolution, we took all of the critiques and concerns that the opposition had in regards to our resolution, and we changed it. We came in here with an open mind willing to work on the resolution in any way possible, and instead they silenced us and they just completely took the resolution off the table without discussion or even thought.”
Anti-divestment audience member Jake Speyer, who had meant to speak during public forum, supported the senate’s decision.
“Coming into this meeting, there was a lot of hesitation — I think from both sides, especially since in dealing with the divestment last week, we thought … that divestment was dealt with and that we would be able to work on pro-peace initiatives for the rest of the year,” Speyer said. “I personally am satisfied with the decision of the senate … If [the resolution] was simply brought up, and we decided that our senate doesn’t want to hear it, then that’s absolutely wrong … but it was already dealt with … the revisions that were brought up were also brought up in the last meeting.”
After Cianni’s motion passed, University Owned Senator Miya Sommers motioned to remove On-campus Senator Kevin Rudolph from the meeting, citing his failure to update his office hours on the Senate website as irresponsible. Sommers’ motion failed, at which point she and three other Senators left the meeting. Their absence left the Senate without quorum and unable to vote on other matters, such as the budget. Public Forum continued nonetheless.
A.S. President Sophia Armen addressed the Senate in Public Forum, expressing her frustration at what had occurred, especially noting what she considered a political use of the budget to undermine the divestment resolution.
“You all have literally two weeks to look at this budget and I am very frustrated by you using it politically,” Armen said. “This is the entire Association’s futurec … and now what I’m now actually afraid of, is if the possibility that something else could happen next week, we won’t be able to have the discussion that we could have had this week.”
Associate Director for Community Affairs Aaron Jones said senators need to treat each other with kindness and respect.
“If there is one thing that truly, truly pains me … is to have to watch young people like yourselves be really so mean and so cruel to one each other,” Jones said. “This level of cruelty knows no party lines, no political lines, no religious affiliation, no cultural, ethnic or gender orientation, or any other form of categorization. It is universal, it is coming from all sides, it is multidirectional. And it is truly heartbreaking to watch when you don’t have to do that. You don’t have to.”
Senators were unable to officially adjourn due to the lack of quorum. Discussion on the budget will continue next week.
These BS people are so unimaginably sick in the head. What a waste of time this anti-Semitic crap is on a college campus.
Wow. I’m truly appalled that we have these childish individuals representing us on senate. How much time, effort, and money must they spend on this controversial issue? And when they don’t get what they want, they try kick another senator out? And when that doesn’t work they storm off preventing the student senators from doing the tasks that they were appointed to actually deal with!? I’m dumbfounded.
The new resolution was just as dishonest and telling of teh BDS tyes’ treu motives: demonization to justify terorism. There is no state of “Palestine” (nor has there ever been) which is occupied. The West Bank is legally disputed and subject to negotiations under int’l law and binding agreements between Israel and the PLO. To call it “Palestine” is to decide the outcome and impose opinions rooted in religious or ethnic supremacism (that baselessly declares the WB to be Muslim or Arab land — it isn’t. Land has no religion and the WB has never been sovereign Arab territory —… Read more »
sorry for the typos.
little babies cant indure a little bit of heat? You must be so mature and educated to storm off just because you didnt get what you wanted, welcome to life. Anti-semitism will not happen on this campus nor any where else.
It’s one thing for a resolution to lose; if it’s lost, it’s lost, let it go. But to try and bring it up a second time? Not to mention, did you know to book Corwin Pavilion during week 1 and 2 costed $800 EACH night just so we could fit everyone for public forum? That’s $1600 coming out of our STUDENTS’ pockets to address a lost and hopeless issue. So to try and bring it back up AGAIN, and further having to book a SECOND venue (granted, the Hub is cheaper than Corwin, but still), and then not even being… Read more »
Supporting divestment is NOT anti-semitic–that’s the same kind of sensationalist rhetoric that denounced anyone who didn’t support the invasion of Iraq as ‘anti-American.’ Supporters of divestment support it not because they are anti-semitic, but because they strongly disagree with Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and the US’s complicity in that mistreatment.
What makes divestment antisemitic is the selectiveness in blaming Israel, a country that faces perpetual threats from all directions and the only Jewish state in the world. the fact that These resolutions repeatedly ignore the struggle of Palestinians throughout the Arab world is What will continue to bring forth oppponents to these resolutions regardless of how watered down they become. Divestment places the blame for a complex regional issue solely on Israel while ignoring atrocities throughout the Middle East. Divestment in the form that sjp keeps pushing for will not have any effect on the situation thousands of miles away,… Read more »
I second that
hey cool story bro!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/28/gaza-schoolboys-trained-use-kalashnikovs?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=feed
man those innocent palestinians sure know how to take care of their children.
I just want an AS that focuses on getting a budget down before pushing any personal political agendas upon the students…
The most tragic part of this is that many of the BDS supporters truly believe that their actions are not inherently anti-Semitic. It’s like old southerners that use the n-word to refer to anyone that has dark skin. They don’t think it’s racist, that’s just how it’s always been in their community. In all honesty I pity those people, and I cannot hate those which I pity.
What is the deal with this secret ballot nonsense? IF AS students are whoring the UN to promote personal politics their names should be made public. these students represent the electorate they do not get to hide behind a secret ballot. they are not private voters they are REPRESENTATIVES. at least the anti-israel trolls who sponsored the resolution have balls to make their names known. what about the others? what are they afraid of? what these resolutions tell me is almost half of the senate dont know how to do their jobs. they do not care about the welfare of… Read more »
Typo! Kevin Rudolph is an On-Campus Senator, not an Off-Campus Senator. :)
Let’s divest from Kuwait! …….. The Palestinian expulsion from Kuwait or 1991 Palestinian exodus from Kuwait took place at the end of the Gulf War, when Kuwait expelled almost 450,000 Palestinians.[1] The policy which led to this exodus was a response to the alignment of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the PLO with Saddam Hussein, who had earlier invaded Kuwait. The exodus took place during one week in March 1991, following Kuwait’s liberation from Iraqi occupation. The story received little media attention in the aftermath of the liberation of Kuwait. The policy which led to this expulsion was a response… Read more »
It is worth noting that the Tsarneav older brother was a member of the Muslim Student Association which is a close affiliate of SJP.
Is it true one can know someone by the company they keep?