Nation

March 25, 2010

U.C. Berkeley student president vetoes divest-from-Israel resolution

by Amanda Pazornik, JWeekly

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U.C. Berkeley student Will Smelko, president of the Associated Students of University of California, vetoed a resolution March 24 that urged U.C. divestment from two companies that supply war materials to Israel.

The latest decision has pro-Israel groups around the Bay Area urging its constituents to help sustain the veto, which could be over-ridden at the next student senate meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, March 31.

The ASUC student senate approved the resolution — deemed “anti-Israel” by many on campus, in the local Jewish community and beyond — on March 17.

In essence, the resolution targets the university’s reported investments of $135 million in two U.S. companies, General Electric and United Technologies, that supply Israel with electronics and weapons.

The resolution pinpoints Israel as a perpetrator of war crimes throughout its 12 paragraphs, but before the final vote, a one-sentence amendment was tacked onto the end of the document. It noted that “this committee will recommend additional divestment policies” in places where companies are “aiding war crimes,” citing Morocco and the Congo as two examples.

In a statement explaining his veto, Smelko said that in an effort to maintain campus unity and peace, “the perception of the bill as a symbolic attack on a specific community of our fellow students and/or fears of the bill being used as a tool to delegitimize Israel cannot be understated.”

He also stated that the resolution failed to list effective divestment strategies for the university and the U.C. Board of Regents or examine the possible financial effects on U.C. and ASUC. Coming up with recommended divestment strategies would call for “substantial scrutiny and deliberation,” Smelko said.

“While the ASUC as a body has stated convincingly that it does not want ASUC and U.C. dollars going to fund weapons, war crimes or human rights violations, this veto has to do with the mechanism by which the ASUC achieves its mission of building peace and goodwill in a way that avoids the shortcomings of the bill (a selective, one-sided focus on a specific country that lacks important historical context and understanding),” Smelko said in the statement.
BAdivestment
Some 200 people packed a room in U.C. Berkeley’s Eshleman Library for a controversial student senate meeting last week. photo/courtesy of sandra cohen

More than 200 people attended a boisterous and contentious student senate meeting that began at 7 p.m. on March 17, with the resolution introduced on the floor around 9:30 p.m.

Speakers for and against the resolution voiced their opinions until approximately 2 a.m., and about half of the original attendees remained when the final vote, 16-4, was announced around 4 a.m.

“There were loud cheers on one side and tears on the other,” said Rabbi Adam Naftalin-Kelman, executive director of Berkeley Hillel. “Most who spoke in opposition felt incredibly defeated.”

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