Go Anteaters! UC Irvine rescinds BDS resolution

The University of California at Irvine Student Senate has repealed a 2012 resolution that called for the campus to divest from companies that do business with Israel.

Meeting on March 31, the Associated Students of UC Irvine voted to repeal the earlier BDS resolution by a vote of 15 for, 6 against, with 2 abstentions.

Senator Marshall Roe introduced a resolution to repeal  R48-15 , stating it had contributed to a hostile campus climate for Jewish students.   The boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement was denounced as “contrary to the foundational ideals of Higher Education and thus the values of the UC.”

Senate Roe, quoted in the Jerusalem Post expressed his desire that the repeal of the highly divisive resolution would return the campus to a position of neutrality on the conflict

“I believe that embracing neutrality on this matter and thus repealing R48-15 would dispel the noxious atmosphere and create neutrality on campus, a neutrality that would foster an environment of reconciliation rather than rancor.”

When the original resolution passed in 2012, Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada gloated that the "historic" vote was a "stinging defeat" to "Zionist bullying" on campus.   He has not made a statement since the original vote was rescinded.

In the 8 years since  the passage of the  original BDS resolution, not a cent have been divested from UC Irvine, or any campus of the University of California. The UC Irvine / Israel Engineering Initiative remains strong and supports collaborative  educational research initiatives withTel Aviv University, the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology), Ben Gurion University and Hebrew University.

For more information on the repeal of UC Irvine's BDS resolution see:

UCI Student Senate Repeals BDS Resolution

UC Irvine Student Senate repeals BDS resolution

BDS : All wet at UC Irvine

The anti- Israel cru have failed to defeat Israel militarily.
They have failed to demoralize Israel through an ongoing terror war.
BDS is the current tactic, and after 12 years, it too is failing.
Why?

In Nov, 2012 the UC Irvine student council voted to divest from companies doing business in  Israel. This is what followed from the school administrators

Such divestment is not the policy of the campus, nor is it the policy of the University of California. The UC Board of Regents’ policy requires this action only when the U.S. government deems it necessary. No such declaration has been made regarding Israel.

In the spirit and practice of active engagement with all peoples of that region, UCI has been extremely pleased with recent global collaboration between leaders and researchers here and those at top universities around the world, including Israel. The campus looks forward to continued constructive exchanges that benefit our students, faculty and community.

Why have BDS activists put so much effort into a resolution with no teeth?
One reason is the publicity-  while sabotage of Israel's economy would be a welcome outcome , publicity and  "rebranding" of Israel are also primary motivators.

BDS  at its core is a paper tiger.
How do you defeat a paper tiger?
Try water.
In spite of the BDS resolution, or perhaps because of it, UC Irvine has been strengthening its ties with Israeli institutions. Israel and California both share the challenge of managing a limited water supply.

From Parallel Worlds: Water Management in Israel and California , posted by Jay Famiglietti of University of California, Irvine in National Geographic's Water Currents 

... It is a well-known fact that this entire region faces extreme challenges to manage their scarce water resources. Drought, increasing agricultural water demand, population pressures, and competing stakeholders add to an already stressed water system. Despite these challenges, this region is at the forefront of water management. The regional efforts to collaboratively manage surface water resources from the Jordan River and groundwater aquifers, for example by Friends of the Earth Middle East, as well as Israel’s strategies to maximize and efficiently use every last drop of water, are revolutionary.

In Israel, wastewater from urban areas is used to irrigate nearly 100% of crops in a desert while desalination accounts for 60% of water supply in densely populated regions. Pricing for water accurately reflects the costs to transport and produce the water, but these prices are affordable for all. Crops that can be grown with “poor quality” water, such as brackish or reclaimed wastewater, are cultivated while water-intensive agriculture and flood irrigation is rejected. Greenhouses and drip irrigation systems dominate the irrigation landscape. Clearly, the world, and including California, could learn a thing or two from Israel.

Over the course of our two weeks in the Middle East, we will meet with the key water authorities, water utility companies, civil society members, and university researchers in Israel, Palestinian territories, and Jordan. During our “science diplomacy” trip, we hope to not only share our research, but to learn from a region that is a prototype for effective water management...

For we Californians, it was surprising and inspiring to hear about the innovative strategies in place to meet agricultural water demands and, even more so, that the farmers were completely in support of these policies. In the States, we have very little monitoring of agricultural water use, particularly of groundwater abstraction. If groundwater were as closely allocated and monitored in the U. S. as the resources are in Israel, the monitoring may be regarded as a breach of personal freedoms, since groundwater rights are tied to property rights in much of the country. Yet here in Israel, the farmers have fully supported this progressive strategy to both strictly monitor and allocate water resources and to introduce new supplies through desalination and recycled water. Much of their support appears to be the result of an ongoing communication and social outreach initiative to inform farmers about the limits to water resources and the opportunities to meet water demands through more sustainable practices. How could we drive a shift in the United States to emulate this support for innovative water management policies?

His trip left UC Irvine's Jay Famiglietti energized  about further collaboration with Israel:

This Israel-California knowledge transfer model is an exciting venture, and we hope that over the duration of our trip we will find more ideas, collaboration opportunities, and links with civil society, academic, and governmental agencies. From domestic water use strategies to effective agricultural irrigation and high-tech water system modeling to the development of innovative distribution systems, the possibilities for international learning are endless. In the next few posts, you’ll hear about our conversations with key civil society leaders, such as Friends of the Earth Middle East, and regional water managers in Israel, Palestine, and Jordan as well as our insights to the region’s water initiatives, such as the proposed Red Sea-Dead Sea conduit. With this new cross-regional network as a foundation, our water future is looking brighter.

Sure looks like BDS is all wet at UC irvine.

UC Irvine Chabad Rabbi's home vandalized

UC Irvine has long been identified as a hub of anti-Semitism. Todays despicable incident- an attack on the home of a beloved Chabad Rabbi- is just one incident in a pattern of attacks on Jewish students and Jewish interests regionally.


Official Statement from Chabad at UCI:

On Tuesday, May 31st at around 1:30pm a potted plant was thrown at the front window of the Chabad House at UCI. The home also serves as the residence of Rabbi and Mrs. Zevi Tenenbaum.

The object broke a glass panel of the front window. Thank G-d no one was hurt. The housekeeper was the only one home at the time. A police report was filed with the Irvine Police Department.

Rabbi Zevi and Miriam Tenenbaum regularly host UCI Students for Shabbat and Holiday Dinners at this location. There is a Menorah on display in the front patio.

At this point in time there are no leads as to who may have been the perpetrator.

--
Rabbi Zevi Tenenbaum
Chabad at UC Irvine

Eleven students charged with disrupting Israeli Ambassador's speech at UC Irvine

The Orange County District Attorney's Office has filed charges of misdemeanor conspiracy to disturb a meeting and misdemeanor disturbance of a meeting, said Susan Kang Schroeder, chief of staff for Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas. The charges stem from the disruption of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's speech Feb. 8, 2010. "This case is being filed because there was an organized attempt to squelch the speaker, who was invited to speak to a group at UCI," Rackauckas said.
We must decide whether we are a country of laws or a country of anarchy. We cannot tolerate a preplanned violation of the law, even if the crime takes place on a school campus and even if the defendants are college students. In our democratic society, we cannot tolerate a deliberate, organized, repetitive and collective effort to significantly disrupt a speaker who hundreds assembled to hear."

The defendants are:

Mohamad Mohy-Eldeen Abdelgany, 23, of UCI
Khalid Gahgat Akari, 19, of UC Riverside
Aslam Abbasi Akhtar, 23, of UCI
Joseph Tamim Haider, 23, of UCI
Taher Mutaz Herzallah, 21, of UC Riverside
Hakim Nasreddine Kebir, 20, of UCI
Shaheen Waleed Nassar, 21, of UC Riverside
Mohammad Uns Qureashi, 19, of UCI
Ali Mohammad Sayeed, 23, of UCI
Osama Ahmen Shabaik, 22, of UCI
Asaad Mohamedidris Traina, 19, of UCI


True to form, Jewish Voice for peace, known for their blog Muzzlewatch that claims to track "efforts to stifle open debate about US-Israeli foreign policy", spoke out in support of the disruptors. Apparently its perfectly fine to stifle open debate when they don't like whats being said.

A recent email sent out by Emily Ratner, on behalf of Jewish Voice for Peace, claims her interuption of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech before the Jewish Federation's General Assembly in November, was inspired by the brave example in part by these 11 students . Emily asked, paradoxically, "What will happen to the Irvine 11and to freedom of speech for all of us?".

Noam Chomsky once said (remember, this Emily) "If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." The attempts of the MSA in Irvine, and JVP to curtail others liberties is an affront to us all.

Read more here:

The Muslim Student Union at UC Irvine: Facing the Music

According to the Jewish Federation of Orange County, The University of California at Irvine (UC Irvine) has suspended the Muslim Student Union (MSU) for one year and placed it on disciplinary probation for an additional year. The MSU is also required to collectively complete 50 hours of community service. As a result, it will not be allowed to conduct organized campus events until at least the fall of 2011.

According to a UCI campus document, suspension means that the recognition of the MSU organization has been revoked. No current executive officer listed on the Dean of Students registration application form will be allowed to act as an “authorized signer” for any other student organization at UC Irvine during the suspension. The effective dates pertaining to the suspension are from September 1, 2010 to August 31, 2011.

This action is the direct result of a campaign of hate,incitement and intimidation organized by the MSA against Zionists and Jewish students on campus. According to Roz Rothstein of Stand with Us:

The Muslim Student Union (MSU) and Muslim Student Association (MSA), allied with extremist groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), focus single-mindedly on one goal: demonizing Israel. This is not your normal student activism. MSU and MSA members are obsessively driven by their mission. They are determined, methodical, focused, well-funded and strictly organized. The leaders are usually devout and infuse religious and moral justifications into the movement, making hatred of Israel akin to a religious as well as social justice cause.
The MSU, MSA and SJP groups don’t just plan actions for their own schools. SJP and the 600 MSU/MSA chapters across North America use the Internet to coordinate their anti-Israel strategies and to share their best practices. They exchange anti-Israel propaganda. They share fliers, props and slogans. They analyze what was effective and refine their tactics and execution for the upcoming year.

On February 8, 2010, Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren visited the Orange County, California campus to give a talk to UCI students and community members. During the 90-minute event, Oren was repeatedly interrupted by members of the Muslim Student Union, 11 of whom were arrested. One of those arrested was the president of the MSU at UCI. The investigation of this incident revealed the Muslim Student Union’s organized plot to prevent Oren from delivering his presentation.

The MSU brought fringe speakers to the campus, including Malik Ali,a radical Islamic preacher whose primary goal is the overthrow of the American government and its replacement with an Islamic dictatorship. He declared during a campus speech just steps from the UC Irvine administration building, “Ya’ll (Jews) are the new Nazi’s.” Ali also confirmed his public support for terrorist organizations Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.

The disciplinary action taken involving 11 students arrested was not disclosed because of laws meant to protect their privacy

Read more here