‘Israel’ is engaged in the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians, says UCLA student

The student government at the University of California, Los Angeles passed a resolution on March 3 that says ‘Israel’ is engaged in the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians.

Titled “A Resolution Calling for the UC to Divest from War,” it urged the academic institution “to sever itself from companies that engage or aid in the oppression of any people” and called on the school to divest from Israel’s “war industry.”

“The UC serves as an extension of war and policing through its technologies, weapons, and tactics, which are spread and applied throughout Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, the Philippines, Mauna Kea, Somalia, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, native nations and reservations, Akwesasne of the Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) Nation, San Diego, U.S. border lands, and Los Angeles,” the resolution reads.

The resolution also stated that divestment is a tactic in fighting against injustices, such as “South African apartheid” and the “ethnic cleansing in Palestine by the Israeli government.”

This resolution supports an older resolution passed by the UCLA student government in 2014 that promotes the BDS movement.

Rabbi Aaron Lerner, executive director of Hillel at UCLA, claimed in an email to community members that the resolution “follows the familiar pattern of seeking to delegitimize Israel within a broader language. The resolution was deliberately hidden from Jewish students, preventing them from engaging in the debate.”

He also claimed that the passage of the resolution “invalid and anti-democratic.”