A revised resolution aimed at divesting from companies that “profit from the military occupation of Palestine” failed to pass — despite a 12-11-1 vote — after it was reintroduced during Wednesday’s 11-hour Associated Students Senate meeting.
The burden of deciding the resolution’s fate ultimately fell to Internal Vice President Mayra Segovia, who was forced to determine whether or not the 12 senators in favor constituted enough of a majority to pass the resolution based on the A.S. Legal Code. Under Legal code, a simple majority is 50 percent of Senators plus one, not counting abstentions — meaning that passage of the resolution would have required a “yes” vote from 13 of the 23 senators present (rounded up from 12.5).
Authors of the resolution said they sought to incorporate critiques of the original document — “A Resolution to Divest from Companies that Profit from Apartheid” — in their revisions and hoped that Senators would note the changes. University Owned Senator Miya Sommers said she believed the revisions made the resolution more neutral and less divisively worded.
“This resolution — there’s a lot of changes into it. We definitely took all of the criticisms,” Sommers said. “This resolution is not taking sides; it’s not saying that we have an idea of what we want to happen around the issue. We, instead, are just asking for our school to not be involved.”
Student sponsor and third-year political science major Katlen Abuata said the resolution did not intend to attack Israel itself but instead aimed to pressure the state to end certain policies.
“What we’re doing here is not questioning the existence of Israel because we don’t want to do that at all. We don’t delegitimize the state of Israel,” Abuata said. “We are asking you to recognize that there are human rights violations and that there are students on this campus who feel uncomfortable with that.”
Anti-divestment speaker Liran Braude said he did not believe the underlying intent of the resolution changed with the revisions.
“This has become more than a little bit ridiculous,” Braude said. “The entire student body’s resources, time and money are being spent so that one group can attempt to force their own personal political complaint on the Senate, at the expense of another group on campus. The bottom line of this resolution has not changed at all.”
Off-campus Senator Ben Green said he rejected the idea of the resolution’s “neutrality.”
“It keeps being said that this isn’t taking a stance, and that this won’t be alienating people,” Green said. “It creates a controversial issue and a climate where people don’t feel safe.”
Senators also touched on a number of arguments discussed in previous meetings such as impact of the decision on the campus climate, which communities would feel marginalized and what financial impact the resolution would have on UCSB. Following a heated debate over what constitutes a majority vote, Segovia announced her decision in tears, apologizing to anyone who would feel hurt by the defeat.
In response, A.S. President Sophia Armen encouraged students to maintain civility when deliberating on sensitive issues.
“We’re all still people, we’re all still students and it’s disheartening to see how much anger, how much pain, can be inflicted on each other,” Armen said.
During the meeting, Senators also began a discussion on the budget for the 2013-2014 school year, which was tabled last week due to a controversial vote on the divestment issue and was supposed to be finalized by the end of Wednesday’s meeting. Members of the Queer Commission, Human Rights Board, A.S. Food Bank and other groups presented defenses for funding requests, but the Senate ultimately decided to extend the budget deadline for one more week in order to more thoroughly examine each Board, Committee and Commission request.
I think it’s great AS has 11 hours to debate legislation that does not address our needs as students. We are ultimately paying for this charade to continue. I could NOT care less what AS reps do in their own time but when my tuition is funding their political activities it MUST be in MY interests. Please, please move to Palestine or some shitty Muslim/Arab country and be with the people you represent. You guys obviously don’t give a shit about UCSB students. Every AS senator who voted for this resolution should lose their job. This is a waste of… Read more »
The secret ballot is for their own safety.
Please.
The problem is that A.S. has in the past set a precedent where it divests or refuses to do business with companies that offend or go against political sentiment x,y or z. This is the problem that occurs when you mix business and politics, especially at a university where you are tasked with representing a somewhat diverse student population. Here’s a better solution: Resolution to leave the business side of A.S. free of politics. This would also dissolve past resolutions where such factors were included such as divesting companies that were deemed bad for the environment, etc. No one could… Read more »
“Student sponsor and third-year political science major Katlen Abuata said the resolution did not intend to attack Israel itself but instead aimed to pressure the state to end certain policies.” …… That’s great Katlen. Just great. Egypt is next to Israel. The Muslim Brotherhood governs Egypt and is an Islamist regime where individual rights are repressed, where freedom of speech is punished, where freedom of press is punished, where women’s rights are stifled…but let’s not speak out against this sadistic, fascist regime. Syria also borders Israel. Thanks to Muslim aggression the Christian population has plummeted from 60% of the countries… Read more »
Correction: I intended to write “Lebanon” is a country where the Christian demograpahic is being ethnically cleansed BY Muslims through their proxy Hezbollah killers.
Google “gays” and “Palestinians” to see how gay people are treated by the people who are calling for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against Israel. The first search result is titled, “Palestinian gays flee to Israel” (2) Google “Palestinian” and “honor killings” to see how women are treated by the people who are calling for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against Israel. If you are a femalel student (or alumna) who is thinking about going to “Palestine” to help protest against the Evil Zionists, I suggest that you first read “Female Palestinian Peace Activists Suffer Sexual Harassment, Rape From Palestinians” (just Google… Read more »
If you want to see a BDS supporter squirm, ask them why Israel existing as a Jewish state is unacceptable and racist but Palestine existing as an Arab and Muslim state is a noble cause worth supporting. My proof of this is examples of the Palestinian National Charter: “Article 1. Palestine is the homeland of the Arab Palestinian people; it is an indivisible part of the greater Arab homeland, and the Palestinian people are an integral part of the Arab nation.” And from the basic law of Palestine: “Islam is the official religion in Palestine.” So why isn’t there a… Read more »
they would argue it’s because the state of Palestine was there first, but after WWII they needed a Jewish state, so they created Israel there.
there was no “state” of palestine. the ottomans controlled most of the middle east, the british came and carved up the land according to their interests. for example, what is now jordan was originally part of palestine. jordan is the east bank (of the jordan river). before the 1940s virtually all arabs considered themselves syrian, and today syria considers israel/palestine as rightfully syria. jordan for awhile too said paestine/israel was jordan, and jordan controlled the west bank before israel. if you guys actually learn the origins of this conflict you will learn the palestinian claims are shallow and empty, and… Read more »
also, the zionists were advocating for a state well before wwII. WII/holocaust was more of an impediment rather than an aid for the zionists, but because palestine was the only territory that allowed jewish immigration during WWII officially it almost guaranteed the creation of israel.
but israel wasnt some gift given by the allies as penitence for the holocaust as many pro-palestinian activists dubiously argue.
In order to clarify my concerns, let’s take a look back in history to 1933 when Hitler rose to power and became Chancellor of Germany and the Nazis won a large number of seats in the German parliament. What followed was the notorious nationwide Nazi boycott targeting Jewish businesses and professionals directed by Nazi stormtroopers posting signs everywhere saying “Do not buy from Jews!” Widespread anti-Semitism mounted with the Nuremberg Laws in 1935 depriving Jews of their basic rights as citizens and banning them from all professional jobs in education, politics, academia and industry which escalated in severity ultimately concluding… Read more »
I’m sad that senate meetings get done so late that there can never be a print copy of these articles in the Nexus; they’re always only ever online. Thus, the student body can only find out what happens if they really try looking for it, not if they simply open up the paper.
Thanks for writing them Tiana, you dun good work!
The resolution should have passed, according to the official Robert’s Rules of order website, http://www.robertsrules.com/faq.html#4 : Question 4: In determining the result of a vote, what constitutes a majority? Answer: The word “majority” in this context means, simply, more than half. The use of any other definition, such as 50 percent plus one, is apt to cause problems. Suppose in voting on a motion 17 votes are cast, 9 in favor and 8 opposed. Fifty percent of the votes cast is 8 1/2, so that 50 percent plus one would be 9 1/2. Under such an erroneous definition of a… Read more »
That is, it should have passed according to Robert’s Rules of Order. And according to common sense, as well.