USAC condemns violence
Council vote split on controversial resolution criticizing actions taken by Israel, Hezbollah
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.
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