AIPAC: We’ll Take Over the UC Berkeley Student Government

by Cecilie Surasky

Why bother with moral persuasion when you can just threaten to take over government . . everywhere?

On March 18, UC Berkeley’s student senate voted 16 to 4 in favor of divesting from companies that profit from the Israeli occupation. A week later, in a move oddly predicted by AIPAC’s Jonathan Kessler at AIPAC’s policy conference, the vote was vetoed by the student senate president. (Students hope the senate will overturn the veto next Wednesday.)

When asked about fighting the Berkeley pro-divest initiative, Kessler said, “We’re going to make sure that pro-Israel students take over the student government and reverse the vote. . . . This is how AIPAC operates in our nation’s capital. This is how AIPAC must operate on our nation’s campuses.” Kessler is at 3:58 in video below. Student elections are happening now at UC Berkeley and you can bet everyone’s looking for the AIPAC-Manchurian candidate, if such a thing exists.

Cecilie Surasky is Deputy Director of Jewish Voice for Peace and the founder of MuzzleWatch. This article was first published in MuzzleWatch on 7 April 2010; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes.



