In a 6-4 vote Wednesday night, the undergraduate student
government passed a controversial resolution that called for peace
between Israel and Lebanon.
The resolution also criticized both Israel and Hezbollah, a
political organization within Lebanon that has committed terrorist
acts, for the amount of violence that has taken place in recent
weeks.
The resolution was primarily written by members of the Lebanese
Social Club and the United Arab Society, who said the
resolution’s purpose was for UCLA to take a proactive stance
on the conflict.
Controversy arose over the authorship of the resolution, as all
those who drafted it share similar political ideas and other
student groups were not asked for their opinion on the matter.
“I’m representing the side that isn’t
represented in the resolution,” said Jason Sorger, a
third-year cybernetics student and a member of Hillel and the
Jewish Student Union. “It’s grossly one-sided, anyone
can see that.”
Tensions ran high and tempers flared throughout the course of
the night, as the meeting lasted for more than four hours.
A crowd of more than 50 students attended representing a range
of political views ““ some were present on behalf of campus
organizations, others were there simply because they felt the issue
was important.
“Students are heavily affected by this issue,” said
Faysal Saab, a fourth-year psychobiology student and an author of
the resolution, who is not a member of USAC. “We’re all
familiar with the phrase “˜silence is
consent.'”
In reaction to concern over possible bias, students gathered to
make revisions to the resolution so that it contained criticism of
Hezbollah as well as Israel, an aspect that was not as prominent in
the original version.
The revised version condemned both Israel for its
“disproportionate response to Hezbollah’s
actions” and Hezbollah for its “unilateral crossing of
the Israeli border,” and asked the group to
“immediately cease its daily rocket attacks against Israeli
people.”
Despite the revisions made to the document, some still felt more
time should have been devoted to making it more balanced.
Academic Affairs Commissioner Nat Schuster said he believes an
entirely new document should have been drafted with participation
from people of all political perspectives.
“While some people might say that was a joint effort, it
wasn’t a joint effort,” Schuster said. “The
Jewish community was not involved in the writing of it.”
He went on to say they were involved “only in some
last-minute revisions.”
Supporters of the original version were adamant that USAC, as
well as the UCLA student body, look at the conflict overseas from a
humanitarian perspective, rather than a political one.
“We’re not only promoting peace, we’re
promoting dialogue on campus,” said Pouneh Behin, a
fourth-year French student who said she came to the meeting because
she feels the issue is important.
During the meeting, some students shared their own personal
experiences with the violence that is taking place.
“I’ve seen people burning in cars. They didn’t
look like Hezbollah militants,” said Sami Maalouf, a graduate
student in environmental engineering, who recently returned from a
friend’s wedding in Lebanon.
Maalouf said that it is important for people to look at the
issue from an impartial perspective.
“We reduce people to a terrorist, a Zionist, a
punk,” he said. “By reducing a person, I will
definitely block my views and open-mindedness.”
Shaun Doria, financial supports commissioner on USAC, said he
believes it is not USAC’s place to make a decision about
international issues.
“I really don’t think it’s our role to be
taking stances on political issues, and that’s the main
reason I voted against it,” he said.