MYTH BUSTING. By Vickie. 5/25/18
MYTH 1: Decolonizing Judaism is a fake group. Not true. The only standard for both CSI and ASUO recognition is 5 people (and minutes and bylaws and 6 months of existence). It is incredibly problematic to invalidate an entire student group just because you think it doesn’t exist or you think it shouldnt. Furthermore, there are about 170 ASUO clubs, and probably 300 total. Not every group is recognized nor does it have to be (on the list- Women in Computer Science, for example). Decolonizing Judaism is a community group, with active membership, and I want to affirm the existence of Decolonizing Judaism because these students have been unfairly treated.
MYTH 2: Jewish voices were intentionally excluded from producing this resolution. If Tess Mor and Alex Pear were not present while this was being proposed, it was because they failed to be present due to their own non-fulfillment of duties. Mor had to leave town on Thursday to go to Shasta. Not sure why Pear wasn’t there but Pear should have sent a notice of absence, not sure if she did but no one could have known if she wasn’t going to be there. Furthermore, there are Jewish people in SUPER, and have been in SUPER ever since they heard of its formation. They were in attendance at Nakba, (the night of the proposal) and were actively involved in working out the language of the resolution. (Also Shea Northfield was on the working group, hello?)
MYTH 3: The process for proposing this resolution violated the rules. The constitutional court chief justice validated this resolution as viable. Only a draft of the resolution must be submitted 24 hours in advance of the following meeting. Not the final copy. I can make edits. And no, this did not need to be submitted 24 hours in advance for proposal.
The process for submission of a resolution shall be as follows: (GTN pg. 68)
a. Any incidental fee paying student may submit a draft resolution or a resolution
proposal.
b. The ASUO Senate shall vote to form a working group to draft the resolution.
i. Discussion shall be limited to clarifying questions and major concerns
to provide the working group a direction when drafting the resolutions.
c. A minimum of one (1) ASUO Senator, and the presenter shall form an informal
working group to discuss and write a draft of the resolution.
d. The working group shall then submit the draft of the resolution to the ASUO
Senate at least 24 hours before the respective regularly scheduled ASUO
Senate meeting.
e. Once the ASUO Senate receives the resolution from the working group it can
take one of two courses of action at the next regularly scheduled ASUO Senate
Meeting:
i. Vote to pass the resolution.
1. A quorum for a vote of a resolution shall be four-fifths (4/5) of
the filled seats.
2. A simple majority is required to pass finance resolutions and
two-thirds (2/3) for non-finance resolutions.
3. The ASUO Senate can amend the resolution with a simple
majority vote.
MYTH 4: 800 students who opposed BDS, signed the petition. There are 800 signatures that were collected in 4 days. Many are not from uoregon emails, so it is not possible to verify if all the signers are students. It is inaccurate to say that document completely consists of ASUO constituents. However, there are 300 confirmed uoregon emails on the petition that supports BDS, and they were received in 2 days.
MYTH 5: This document was written in 30 minutes and there is no way this was thought out. Students, alums, faculty, and community members have been discussing, researching, and planning on proposing a BDS resolution for YEARS. And that includes Jewish people. Some have been involved in Palestinian advocacy for decades. There was communication and collaboration about this resolution for weeks. Just because this document appeared quickly does not mean it was not researched and it does not mean it is under-developed. It was not written in 30 minutes. That was an exaggeration. A joke. That joke did not come from a formal statement, but rather a personal facebook comment that was taken and intentionally misused.
MYTH 6: This was proposed at the end of the year so that it could be voted on during the last senate meeting of the year. It was not the last senate meeting. There is a senate meeting week 9, and the senate can also hold one week 10. Honestly if the vote failed during week 8 I would have just proposed a different version and there would have been another vote the next week (week 9).
1a. WHEREAS, Article II of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that all people “without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status” are entitled to the rights enumerated therein; and
1b. WHEREAS, ASUO’s commitment to diversity, inclusion, and safety of members of protected classes, should be demonstrated in our spending practices; and
1c. WHEREAS, in 2005 Palestinian civil society called for “international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era;” and
1d. WHEREAS, the goals of these boycotts and divestment campaigns are three-fold: ending Israel’s occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Separation Wall; recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and respecting, protecting and promoting the inalienable rights of Palestinian refugees to return to the homes and properties from which they were expelled in 1948 as stipulated in UN resolution 194; and
1e. WHEREAS, these campaigns are referred to as the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement; and
1f. WHEREAS, BDS is an inclusive, anti-racist human rights movement that is opposed to all forms of discrimination, including anti-semitism and Islamophobia
1g. WHEREAS, the University of Oregon has historically been a proponent in funding the business of state-sanctioned violence;
1h. WHEREAS, this resolution would set a precedent to call on the rest of the UO community to divest from companies and funds that are complicit in Israeli settler colonialism and the Israeli occupation of Palestine
2a. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that on the basis of the ASUO’s commitment to antiracism and social justice, it encourages the reconsideration of University of Oregon’s economic contributions to human rights violations worldwide,
2b. AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the ASUO endorses the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, by divesting from the Strauss Group, the Osem Group, Hewlett-Packard Company, Ahava, General Electric, Eden Springs, Motorola, Caterpillar, G4S, and Elbit Systems.
2c. AND BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that ASUO will prohibit the purchase of products from Sabra, Tribe, Hewlett-Packard Company, Sodastream, Motorola, Caterpillar, G4S, and Elbit Systems.
This resolution is binding and will take effect May 2018 and will remain in effect until this resolution is overturned