The piece of legislation proposed as an alternative to the Israel divestment resolution approved April 18 at U.C. Berkeley has been killed.
Rafi Lurie and Jason Bellet, Associated Students of the University of California senators who sponsored and helped author SB 158, pulled the bill at the April 24 meeting after an amendment they introduced to “bring back [the bill’s] spirit and core” failed to pass in the senate.
Lurie said the amendment called for ASUC to support a two-state solution. However, of the 20 senators, eight voted against the amendment and four abstained. Lurie said he and Bellet were chafed that 12 senators were “not willing to affirm the right of the Jewish people to a Jewish state in Israel.”
He also criticized the external affairs committee for watering down the original SB 158 with a load of amendments before it was presented to the full senate on April 17. The final version of the bill, Lurie said, “did not have the message and spirit that the Jewish community wished to communicate with the original SB 158; therefore, we chose to kill it.”
On April 18, after 10 hours of debate, the senate passed the controversial divestment resolution 11-9. It calls for ASUC and U.C. to divest from companies that provide support to Israel’s military in the Palestinian territories or contribute to the welfare of Israeli settlements. It is a nonbinding resolution and U.C. has stated it will not change its investment policy.