The original version of this article contained an error and has been changed. See the bottom of the article for additional information.
As of press time, the Undergraduate Students Association Council had not voted on the resolution, though multiple councilmembers had expressed disapproval of the resolution’s text and the council had amended it multiple times.
Internal Vice President Avi Oved wrote the resolution, titled “A Resolution In Support of Positive Steps Towards an Israeli-Palestinian Peace.” The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a regional dispute about the occupation of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian West Bank by the Israeli military.
The majority of students who participated in more than two hours of public comments at the meeting said they opposed parts of the resolution and thought it was divisive, despite its claim to promote a peaceful approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Rasha Howlader, a fourth-year electrical engineering student and member of Students for Justice in Palestine, said she opposed the resolution because she thinks it did not include the views of Palestinian students, many of whom support divestments, she said.
“Why weren’t actual Palestinian desires and demands accounted for (in this resolution?)” she asked. “(The conflict) goes beyond hurt feelings on a college campus and goes on to affect actual Palestinians’ lives.”
Other students who said they supported the resolution claimed that it would promote positive dialogue on campus, while allowing USAC to remain neutral on the issue.
“This resolution facilitates the opportunity for students to promote peace,” said Miriam Eshaghian, a fourth-year psychobiology student and the president of the student group Bruins for Israel.
The resolution brought to council Tuesday calls for USAC to solely consider legislation that represents the “complex, multi-faceted nature” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and recognizes the rights of both groups. Oved said he wrote the resolution to encourage positive dialogue on campus and that the resolution does not call for USAC to take a side on the conflict or to speak on behalf of Israelis or Palestinians.
The resolution also asks the council to support investments by the Associated Students UCLA and the UCLA Fund in companies such as Sadara Ventures, Al-Bawader, Cisco Systems Inc., Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp. and Google Inc., since it claims that those companies have used their resources to promote cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians through their support of both groups’ economic growth.
Some of the students who opposed the resolution protested that it called for USAC to support investments in specific companies. The students said they supported divestment instead, and that, by supporting investment, councilmembers who voted for the resolution would be silencing the Palestinian community on campus and taking the option of divestment off the table for the future.
Students who said they were against the resolution also expressed anger that they were not included in the writing of the resolution. They said that if the resolution was meant to create dialogue, they should have been reached out to before the resolution was brought to council.
Oved said that he did not reach out to groups on either side of the conflict because the resolution addressed an issue personal to him and the resolution was not intended to speak on behalf of any campus group.
Some students from the region talked about hearing bullets and losing their friends and about continuing to have nightmares about the conflict and the violence that accompanies it.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has drawn large crowds to USAC meetings before. Last spring, more than 100 students also attended a meeting where council was set to vote on a controversial resolution about divestment.
At press time, councilmembers were going through the resolution line by line and discussing their concerns, including clauses about the University of California Board of Regents and divestment.
Correction: Rasha Howlader is a fourth-year electrical engineering student and member of Students for Justice in Palestine.
Its good to know the majority of our council voted to not pass this resolution, and that they truly REPRESENT the greater UCLA student population.