At 5:37 am this morning, the UC Berkeley Student Government (ASUC) after a debate that lasted all night, upheld the veto by ASUC President Will Smelko of a measure calling for divestment by the university from two companies that do business with Israel.
Of course, when a bunch of students representing student government passes such a measure, it is symbolic. However, the symbolic effect would have been considerable. Now a similar measure is being intoroduced at Georgetown University and other schools.
As if the students don't have better things to do.
This follows a massive campaign by supporters of both sides of the issue. Reportedly some 26,000 letters or e-mails were sent to the ASUC. On the divestment side, lefties like Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky had urged the divestment be passed and that Smelko's veto be overridden. Today, they are crying in their lattes.
A motion to reconsider, however, was passed. That apparently means that the idea still has some life left in it, somewhat like Jason in those Friday the Thirteenth movies.
UC Berkeley's campus newspaper, the Daily Californian, was put to bed at 10 pm last night with no result. However, the thread that follows tells the story. Some of the e-mails to the paper are well worth reading, especially the one that is repeated over and over calling Smelko a racist.
"DO NOT LET IT SLIP BY YOU THAT A WHITE MALE TOOK IT UPON HIMSELF (PROBABLY COACHED BY BIRGENEAU AND OTHER RICH WHITE MALES) TO SILENCE THE VOICES OF STUDENTS OF COLOR ON THIS CAMPUS.
SMELKO IS A RACIST!
HE IS IGNORANT OF IT, BUT HE IS RACIST!!
DON'T SILENCE THE VOICES OF PEOPLE JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT THE SAME COLOR AS YOU SMELKO!
THE SENATORS WHO SWITCHED HAVE NOW TAKEN ACTIVE PART IN THE OPPRESSION OF COMMUNITIES OF COLOR AND ARE NOW GUILTY OF PERPETUATING RACISM!"
(That hysterical note was repeated numerous times. Talk about a filibuster.)
http://www.dailycal.org/article/109064/divestment_vote_attracts_hundreds_of_spectators
To those of you who weighed in with your own e-mails against divestiture, thank you. (I guess we need to keep the cards and letters coming for awhile yet.) Thankfully, there are still some sane people at UC Berkeley. And special kudos to Will Smelko for taking a very courageous stand.
4 comments:
I really hope the ASUC at UCB will stick to the sane side of things. If they keep the veto, it will set a precedent for the other universities that anti-Zionists are trying to immerse in this f*cking garbage.
Idiocy like this does nothing for the conflict except to make it worse. For both sides. Ironically, the anti-Israelis will never know or understand that.
I am posting this for a reason. Robert Spencer is someone connected to a viciously anti-Semitic website called Jew Watch, which you can access by clicking Spencer's name (or alias). This illustrates a point I have been making for years. There is indeed a great deal of anti-Semitism behind the campaign to de-legitimize Israel. This is nothing more than simple hate.
Thank you, Robert (or whatever your name is) for making my point. You may crawl back into your hole now.
I've said it before and I'll say it again - all forms of prejudice and bigotry are bad. However, there just seems to be an extra level of crazy that you get with Anti-Semitism.
My response to Robert is as follows:
COO COO! COO COO! COO COO!
Yes Lance, but let's not forget that this type of diseased mind would have been governing Germany in the 30's and 40's.
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