We, as UCLA students from various backgrounds and perspectives, ask that elected officials refrain from taking free or sponsored trips with AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), or Hasbara Fellowships.
As many students have experienced this year, AIPAC and ADL have political agendas that marginalize multiple communities on campus. Recently, student government trips to AIPAC have come under scrutiny (1) because of the organization’s ties to anti-Armenian groups and public figures. Both AIPAC (2) and the ADL (3) (as well as its current president (4)) have histories of Islamophobia. AIPAC has sponsored Islamophobic speakers at it’s conferences (5) and has also consistently pushed for war with Iran (6), even while the Obama administration has sought a diplomatic route. AIPAC also marginalizes the Afrikan and Palestinian communities, as the organization has consistently endorsed and protected actions that have violated human rights and international law.
Hasbara Fellowships is housed under Aish International (7), an organization which has helped disseminate Islamophobic materials (8) on campuses and around the country. These materials portray the Muslim community as threats, have incited violence against Muslims, and serve to marginalize Muslim students on campus.
We further ask that USAC Council Members do not accept free or sponsored trips that marginalize communities on the UCLA campus (9). This includes any outside non-student organization that promotes discrimination on the basis of race, religion, color, age, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, physical ability, mental ability, marital status, financial status or social status, or which engages in any form of systematic prejudiced oppression. The UCSA and USSA conferences are deemed acceptable as these conferences deal directly with student issues and do not marginalize any community.
Please sign as a candidate in the upcoming USAC elections assuring the campus that you will decline these trips while in elected office:
(1)
http://dailybruin.com/2014/04/09/aram-ghoogasian-usac-members-should-not-participate-in-external-lobbying-groups/ (2)
http://mondoweiss.net/2013/03/approval-islamophobe-emerson.html (3)
http://www.alternet.org/world/how-anti-defamation-league-fuels-islamophobia(4)
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/29/abe-foxman-rationalizes-blanket-spying-on-american-muslims.html (5) see reference 2
(6)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/lobbying-for-iran-war-aip_b_4569882.html(7)
http://www.aish.com/ai/ip/ (8)
http://www.alternet.org/world/follow-money-islamophobia-israel-right-or-wrong,
http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=1705 (9) see reference 1
Current Signees:
5/2/2014 14:56:53
Negeen Sadeghi-Movahed
5/2/2014 15:12:56
Winnie Galbadores
5/2/2014 15:39:38
Francesca Rebosura
5/2/2014 18:41:18
Manjot Singh
5/2/2014 21:02:06
Irmary Garcia
5/2/2014 21:24:56
Janay Williams
5/2/2014 21:33:44
Devin Tré Murphy
5/2/2014 21:47:08
Erineo Garcia
5/3/2014 13:32:31
Alexander Joseph Maximilian Mercier
5/3/2014 14:59:47
Conrad Contreras
5/5/2014 15:32:39
Miriam Rodriguez
5/5/2014 15:32:39
Harwind Lasher
5/5/2014 15:32:39
Angel Garfio
5/5/2014 15:32:39
Jazz Kiang
5/5/2014 15:32:39
Teri Nguyen
5/5/2014 15:32:39
Gabriel Gutierrez
5/5/2014 15:32:39
Der Xiong
*Carlos Quintanilla, Savannah Badalich, Greg Kalfayan, Kevin Patterson, Heather Rosen, Fabienne Roth, Cynthia Wong, and Sachin Medhekar declined to sign because of issues with specific language in the document but claims they will not be attending such conferences if elected in upcoming year
