Israel Divestment Clash In Berkeley Student Govt
A marathon meeting of the UC Berkeley student senate has ended without taking final action on an Israeli divestment bill.
The resolution, which calls on Berkeley to divest from two corporations that do business with the Israeli military, was passed by the ASUC senate a month ago by a wide margin, but vetoed by president Will Smelko a week later.
Today’s meeting began last night and continued for more than twelve hours. The resolution was brought to a vote just before dawn, at which time the override effort failed, but supporters quickly passed a motion to reconsider and resumed debate. A few minutes after seven this morning senators voted to table the discussion until the senate’s next meeting.
The tally of the override vote, as reported on Twitter, was 12 in favor, seven opposed, with one abstention. Fourteen votes are needed for passage.
It appears that one of the bill’s supporters voted “no” in order to set up the motion to reconsider, suggesting that override proponents fell just one vote short.
The resolution became the focus of intense international attention in the weeks since it was approved by a 16-4
The resolution, which calls on Berkeley to divest from two corporations that do business with the Israeli military, was passed by the ASUC senate a month ago by a wide margin, but vetoed by president Will Smelko a week later.
Today’s meeting began last night and continued for more than twelve hours. The resolution was brought to a vote just before dawn, at which time the override effort failed, but supporters quickly passed a motion to reconsider and resumed debate. A few minutes after seven this morning senators voted to table the discussion until the senate’s next meeting.
The tally of the override vote, as reported on Twitter, was 12 in favor, seven opposed, with one abstention. Fourteen votes are needed for passage.
It appears that one of the bill’s supporters voted “no” in order to set up the motion to reconsider, suggesting that override proponents fell just one vote short.
The resolution became the focus of intense international attention in the weeks since it was approved by a 16-4
