Stances on Israel roil UCLA campus

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Sunny Singh campaigned for UCLA student body president this spring, pledging to push for mental health resources, increase graduate school opportunities and make student government more efficient.

But try as he might, Singh believed his campaign kept getting overshadowed by one issue: Israel.

A student activist had asked candidates for all undergraduate student council offices to sign a pledge that they would not take trips to that Middle Eastern country under the sponsorship of three pro-Israel lobbying groups.

“It seemed unnecessary,” Singh said, adding: “We spent a lot of time talking about what we thought about Israel.”

Activists were successful in getting 17 of the approximately 30 contenders to sign the promise, saying they wanted the candidates’ positions about Israel on the record.

Singh and others felt that a small group of students had tried to bully them. Singh lost by 31 votes to a candidate who signed the pledge saying he wouldn’t take trips sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Anti-Defamation League or Hasbara Fellowships. The winner, Devin Murphy, could not be reached for comment.

The issue — part of a broader movement in Europe and on college campuses here opposing Israel’s policies — has roiled the Westwood school.

Although the new board already has taken office, administrators and others say that the effects of the election linger and that they want to take steps to reestablish a civil tone and prevent the polarization that the pledge engendered. Chancellor Gene Block sent an email to the campus Friday, saying he was disturbed by the events in the campaign. He asked for more tolerance and said administrators would try to find ways to avoid similar instances in the future.

Stances on Israel roil UCLA campus

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