UPDATE
On May 21st, the Judicial Board of the UCLA Undergraduate Students Association Council ruled that there was no conflict of interest. ADL was pleased, though not surprised, by this result. Though the result was positive, ADL remains concerned about the damaging campaign that has been waged against Singh and ADL for the past several months.
May 16, 2014
The Anti-Defamation League continues to closely monitor recent activities on the UCLA campus, including the smear campaign against ADL 2013 Campus Leaders Mission participant Sunny Singh. In February 2014, Singh, then a UCLA student council member, voted on a resolution to divest from companies doing business in the West Bank (the “Divestment resolution”). This resolution ultimately failed. A vicious campaign to discredit Singh and attack his motives ensued on-line and in person.
In April, the same day Singh announced his candidacy for student body president, and months after the failed Divestment Resolution, Students for Justice in Palestine (“SJP”) initiated efforts to nullify Singh’s vote and that of another council member, Lauren Rogers, who participated in a trip to Israel sponsored by American Jewish Committee’s (AJC) Project Interchange. In a petition to the judicial board, SJP asserted that these students committed an ethical violation merely by voting on the Divestment resolution after having participated in the trips to Israel.
Those questioning Sunny’s motives also suggested that his participation in the 2013 ADL Campus Leaders’ mission tainted him as a candidate for student body president. Ironically, the candidate who narrowly won the election participated in a similar trip to Israel sponsored by AJC’s Project Interchange just a year earlier. He was spared a smear campaign and ethics violations charges presumably because he remained pro-Divestment after participating in the trip.
ADL issued a statement on May 9, 2014, decrying these efforts as repugnant, misguided and based on one-sided anti-Israel bias.
The student council Judicial Board heard SJP’s petition in a hearing on May 15, 2014. ADL Regional Director Amanda Susskind attended the hearing as one of Singh’s witnesses. She described the ADL’s Campus Leaders Mission as an educational opportunity where students are exposed to diverse points of view. “Our goal is to spark critical thinking, and arm students with first-hand knowledge of the complexity of issues,” said Susskind. “The singular benefit is education.”
Susskind testified that ADL organizes these trips to present many diverse perspectives about Israel and that ADL has no expectation or requirement that students take any particular position on any particular issue upon their return.
Following the hearing, Susskind said, “I think the Judicial Board heard loud and clear that ADL has no expectations of students who participate in the Campus Mission, other than to apply what they learned on the trip – whatever that may be. We hope the Board’s decision will recognize the importance and value of expanding, rather than limiting, learning opportunities.”
Part of ADL’s work on campus involves ongoing outreach to college and system administrations. We routinely provide resources and are available when questions arise. To that end, we were pleased to see the statements from UCLA Chancellor Block and UC President Napolitano the day after the hearing.
ADL will continue to monitor the situation as it unfolds and respond when it is appropriate.
Read ADL viewpoint in Jewish Journal.
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