UC Santa Cruz Jewish Student Leader Told To Abstain From BDS Vote

truthrevolt

"Echoes the racism Jews have faced all over the world throughout our history.”

11.19.2015 

News Mark Tapson 

The president of the UC Santa Cruz Jewish Student Union (JSU) was warned to abstain”from voting earlier this week on a pro-BDS resolution because he was “elected with a Jewish agenda.”

JNS.org reports that the incident occurred prior to a vote by the council on an earlier Israel divestment bill. On Tuesday, the UCSC student council voted 28 for and five against, with seven abstaining, to reinstate a divestment resolution that had been vetoed in 2014. 

In a text message sent to President Daniel Bernstein prior to that vote, the sender wrote,

“You will be abstaining, as the president of JSU that is the right thing... There was also a comment tonight that you were elected by a..hmm [I don't know] if these are the right words but let’s say…a Jewish agenda." 

Bernstein responded on Facebook:

“The implication that I, as a Jewish student and leader in the Jewish community, should not be allowed to vote on an issue that so deeply impacts the Jewish community, and that I should abstain because I cannot be trusted due to an alleged, ‘Jewish agenda,’ echoes the racism Jews have faced all over the world throughout our history.”

“I am calling on the leadership at UC Santa Cruz, from the student level on up to start taking concrete action to get the anti-Semitism at this campus under control."

JNS reports that this is just the latest incident of anti-Semitism involving a student at a California school: "In February, UCLA student Rachel Beyda was asked if her Jewishness could be a 'conflict of interest' when she applied to be a member of the student judicial board. A similar incident also took place at Stanford University this year, when student senate candidate Molly Horwitz’s Jewish background was called into question."

In a statement about the UCSC incident, Roz Rothstein, CEO of the pro-Israel group StandWithUs, said:

“It is deeply disturbing that on a campus that claims to be so dedicated to opposing racism, Jewish students are still subjected to classic anti-Semitic slurs and marginalized because of their involvement in the Jewish community.

“The anti-Israel extremism of BDS has contributed to the rise of anti-Jewish racism across the UC system, and hopefully this incident will serve as yet another urgent wake up call to the leaders of the university. This highlights the need for college campuses to adopt the State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism."

Andy Borans, executive director of a Jewish fraternity at UCSC, described the incident against Bernstein, a fellow member of the fraternity, as “blatant anti-Semitism”:

“When a student like Daniel Bernstein, a democratically elected student representative, is told that he should abstain from a vote affecting the entire campus community because he is a Jewish student, we must not sit idly by.

“We call on the UC Regents and the Santa Cruz community to take a stand against anti-Semitism and provide a safe environment for all students.”

Thank You Mr Tapson and truth revolt. 

And to Mr Borans, from what we've seen so far, you can call on these people till the cows come home. It's going to get you nowhere and nothing.

You're going to have to serve them in Court and good luck to you.