The University of California Student Association (UCSA) secretly passed a resolution last month which condemned the nation of Israel of “racism.”



The resolution, passed through the student organization with unanimous support, claims there is a “wealth of scholarship and legal opinion” that exists affirming “racism” on behalf of Israel.

The resolution was in response to HR 35, a California Assembly resolution condemning anti-Semitism in higher education.



No agenda for the meeting was published in advance and UCSA did not contact Jewish organizations about the vote, despite inviting SJP to give a presentation.



Internal emails, obtained by the Daily Californian reveal that the planning of the vote was kept quiet in order to intentionally suppress dissent.



Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) member Luma Haddad, acknowledged in an e-mail to her organization's board that the vote was kept quiet to prevent opposition.



“There was not much word spread about this in the last few days that led up to the meeting,” wrote Haddad. “This was done in order to prevent unwanted lobbying/intimidation tactics.”



Pro-Israel group, Stand With Us, swiftly responded with a statement condemning the tactics as “secretive” and a “guerrilla” way to conduct business.



“The resolution's attack on legitimate concerns about anti-Israel extremism and anti-Semitism is deeply disturbing, but even more disturbing are the proponents' devious, undemocratic tactics,” said Roz Rothstein, Stand With Us CEO.



She added that they “it is unacceptable that public tax money supports the UCSA when it promotes anti-Israel bigotry and willfully excludes tens of thousands of students who pay dues and whom it is supposed to represent.”

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