The University of Maryland SGA passed an emergency resolution Wednesday urging this university to acknowledge Israel’s military offensive in Gaza as a genocide and call for a ceasefire.
The resolution came in response to a United Nations commission report released Tuesday that urged Israel and all countries to fulfill their obligations under international law “to end the genocide” in Gaza and punish those responsible for it. The Student Government Association approved the resolution nearly unanimously, with 25 representatives voting in favor, one opposed and one abstention.
“The SGA calls upon the UMD administration to issue a public statement urging for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, in alignment with its stated humanitarian and equitable values,” the resolution reads.
SGA demands statements from university administration that “publicly acknowledge the ongoing situation in Gaza as a genocide” in the resolution. The association will also advocate to establish a fund and support system for Palestinians in the university community, according to the resolution.
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It also urges university administration to condemn Israeli attacks and human rights violations in Lebanon. The resolution cites an Israeli attack last September on Hezbollah, a militant group that fired rockets into Israel nearly daily for a year in support of Palestinians in Gaza, the Associated Press reported. Israel’s attack exploded thousands of people’s pagers in Lebanon, leaving more than 3,000 people injured and killing 12.
“Calling on our university to make a statement on it is crucial, because of the Palestinian students that have lost their family and friends during this genocide,” said Zyad Khan, the resolution’s sponsor. “Their pain and suffering has not been acknowledged by the university.”
This university wrote in a statement to The Diamondback Wednesday evening that any resolution voted on by SGA will have no bearing on university policy or practice.
The resolution also referenced university student movements that successfully urged the University System of Maryland to cut financial ties with “companies complicit in human rights violations” from apartheid South Africa and Sudan.
Members of the United Nation’s International Committee of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel found Israel’s actions to meet four of the five criteria of a genocide established in the Genocide Convention. These include:
- Killing
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm
- Inflicting conditions meant to bring destruction
- Preventing births
Danny Meron, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, denied Israel has any genocidal intent, according to a news release from the United Nations.
Israel’s attacks have killed more than 65,000 people in Gaza since it declared war on Hamas nearly two years ago. Its war declaration came after Hamas killed more than 1,200 people in Israel and took about 250 more people hostage.
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Rumaysa Drissi, one of the SGA’s off-campus commuter representatives, thought it was important that the resolution was considered an emergency and voted on so quickly. Israel’s war in Gaza has been an emergency for two years but nothing has been done, the junior public health major added.
The bill was not discussed or debated during the general body meeting due to its emergency status.
“Now that [the United Nations] finally acknowledged it as a genocide, it might start helping to shift people’s perspectives, and hopefully the university as well,” said Jenna Awadallah, a sophomore physiology and neurobiology major and off-campus commuter representative.
A public statement is just the first step that needs to be taken by the university, said Khan, a senior computer science major and computer, mathematics and natural sciences college representative.
Another resolution calling on the university and the University of Maryland College Park Foundation to sever financial ties with companies that enable Israel’s violations of international law was originally set to be presented at this meeting. It was removed from the agenda before the meeting.
