Classes needed for student writing
It was upsetting to read that college composition and ESL tutoring is going to be suspended (“Tutorials to be suspended,” Feb. 19). Writing well is central to a college education, and the tutorial lab has provided much-needed assistance over the years. Is there no place else that UCLA can cut funding?
Mike Rose,
Professor, UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
Budget is wrong answer, wrong time
Just because you want an answer does not make any answer a right answer.
On Thursday, we received an answer to California’s budget crisis, and it definitely was not the best for the state. Now Californians will have to pay even more income and sales tax than we already do ““ and for the record, our state income tax was already the highest in the country. In our present economy, how can families struggling to buy what they need afford to pay more in taxes? Raising taxes does no good if people don’t have extra income to spend in the first place ““ and it ignores the real problem infecting Sacramento.
This budget crisis was created by irresponsible and unnecessary spending increases that could not sustain themselves ““ especially in this dismal economic climate. There is no fiscal accountability required of our elected officials because of the peculiar notion that government should not be treated as the business it is. We, the customers, pay for services with our tax money, and if our government officials make poor decisions they should have to be held accountable and balance their budget internally ““ such as laying off employees, renegotiating contracts and cutting programs ““ just as in the private sector. The Republicans were simply standing up for their overcharged customers. And I for one was glad to see someone stand on my side for once.
Money still does not grow on trees, but according to our legislators, it grows on the backs of hard-working Californians.
Stephanie Trautwein
Third-year, Japanese
Professor should heed his own advice
In the article “UCLA professor helps launch boycott of Israel,” (Feb. 23) Professor Trachtenberg is quoted as opposing a boycott “because it is very one-sided” and goes on to explain “the key to a settlement is to put pressure on both sides. The more one side is castigated, the more power the other side feels and the less pressure they feel to act. … It’s counterproductive.”
This argument ignores, of course, the fundamental asymmetry of the situation in Palestine itself ““ occupier vs. occupied, colonizer vs. colonized, oppressor vs. oppressed, a large army against ragtag guerrillas with AK-47’s ““ but it is also curious on its own grounds. The Palestinians are constantly “castigated” ““ in the media, by Western government and in Congress ““ while Israel receives billions of dollars of military support each year. Just recently, Israel improved its relationship with the European Union and generally is never put under any pressure by the world’s powerful states.
One would think, then, that his own argument will convince Professor Trachtenberg to join the boycott, divest and sanction against the Israel movement, rather than repudiate it.
Christian Haesemeyer
Professor, UCLA Department of Mathematics
Pressuring both sides ignores dynamic
Thank you for the article highlighting the growing movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel for its policies of discrimination, occupation and displacement of the Palestinian population (“UCLA professor helps launch boycott of Israel,” Feb. 23). The fallacy of Professor Trachtenberg’s position of putting “pressure on both sides” is illustrated by the fact that, should his suggestion be taken seriously, it’s not Hamas or any other Palestinian group for which billions of U.S. tax dollars in annual funding would be threatened but rather Israel. Furthermore, talk of putting pressure on both sides misses the point that the conflict is not between two equal sovereign parties but rather between an occupying power (the state of Israel) and an occupied people (stateless Palestinians).
This dynamic, coupled with the active support of U.S. political, economic and military aid, should compel civil society’s individuals and organizations to put pressure on Israel through our everyday activities related to our careers, education, consumption and affiliations.
The blood of more than half a century of Israeli displacement and occupation of Palestinians is on all our hands.
This is the case both as U.S. taxpayers and as individuals who partake in the normalization of Israel’s discriminatory and violent policies. Continued Israeli defiance of international law leaves people of conscience with no choice but to refuse to do business as usual with Israeli businesses, academic facilities and civil society organizations, unless they take a stand against the policies of the Israeli government.
This was the only way the Afrikaner population as a whole and the apartheid regime of South Africa came to reconsider its long-standing discrimination against black South Africans.
It is painfully apparent that nothing short of a similar campaign will force the Israeli voting public and its Israeli government to reconsider its long-standing discrimination against Palestinians.
Ziad Abu-Rish
Graduate student, history
Professor’s actions will only delay peace
I was appalled to read the news about Professor Hale’s attempt to organize an academic boycott of Israel (“UCLA professor helps launch boycott of Israel,” Feb. 23). As a Muslim American who firmly believes in the rights of the Palestinians to have a country free from occupation, I believe that the strategy employed by Professor Hale will only worsen the prospects for peace in the region.
Hale misunderstands the need to foster constructive cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians. Academia has traditionally been an arena in which people from different sides of conflicts have been able to cooperate on non-political projects for the benefit of both populations. By suggesting that we boycott Israeli academia, Professor Hale makes it clear that she does not value this sort of peaceful cooperation.
Professor Hale’s energies would be much better spent promoting dialogue in the field of her expertise ““ women’s studies. She could organize a conference of Palestinian and Israeli women scholars regarding the hopes and visions that women have for peace in the Middle East and the particular roles that women may play in achieving this peace.
I truly hope that in the future the faculty at UCLA will look for more positive ways to promote peace between Palestinians and Israelis.
Adeeva Muhammed
First-year, undeclared
Writer highlights meaningful issue
Thanks to writer Anna Andersen for providing the UCLA community with her piece on the cultural and academic boycott of Israel (“UCLA professor helps launch boycott of Israel,” Feb. 23).
I commend the Daily Bruin for keeping students up to date on how our campus is involved in international affairs.
I would also like to commend Professor Sondra Hale and others for their support of human rights and academic integrity.
Reem Bailony
Graduate student, history