UC Davis student government president vetoes boycott Israel resolution
Mondavi Center at University of California, Davis Image by wikimedia
(JTA) — The president of the student government at the University of California, Davis, vetoed a resolution supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.
The day after the measure passed last week, Kyle Krueger said he acted “because it included minimal to no input from the Jewish community beforehand,” and the resolution “has been widely condemned by Jewish students of many different sects/beliefs who feel marginalized by ASUCD and its actions.”
The Associated Students, University of California Davis, or ASUCD, had passed the measure in a 5-4 vote with one abstention, the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles reported Monday.
It was the third time the student senate had passed such resolutions in the past several years, but the others were overturned — once by a student court and once by the campus Judicial Council.
Krueger said in a statement defending his decision that he has “been humbled by (the) overall nuance and complexity” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“As a 20-year old who has not finished a college degree and who is not from Palestinian or Jewish descent, I do not feel qualified to make a decision about one of the most complex international conflicts in the world on my own,” he said.
Krueger said the student government has failed the campus Jewish community, pointing to a history of anti-Semitism on campus, and acknowledged that ASUCD must be an ally to Palestinian students as well.
“But our respect for the Palestinian community cannot come at the expense of the respect for the Jewish community,” his statement also said.
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