The Associated Students board held a meeting Wednesday afternoon where they discussed a resolution to call upon the university in the form of a letter to establish a group for Southwest Asian and North African students (SWANA).
The meeting resulted in a heated discussion between members of SWANA and advocates for Jewish students to be under the SWANA umbrella.
SWANA is comprised of students that are seeking representation from the demographic region of what’s eurocentrically known as the “Middle East.” “SWANA” is also a term used to describe that region.
The resolution allows the group to draft a letter to San Jose State to achieve recognition as a group and potentially create a dedicated space for SWANA members on campus.
A member of the public forum named Liz, whose last name was not given, spoke on Zoom at the beginning of the meeting, bringing up a Feb. 22 opinion article published by the Spartan Daily about how SWANA students need more representation on campus.
She said the article had “a calculated and deliberate exclusion of Jewish students,” referencing the map on the article showing Palestine and not Israel, insinuating members of SWANA were making steps to exclude this demographic of people.
Forensic biology senior and member of the SWANA project, Maryam Moshref, was quick to elaborate on Liz’s comment.
“[The author of the Spartan Daily Article] wanted me to also present to you guys that [Jewish and Israeli students] are more than welcome to be part of SWANA as well as having that safe space to be opened up toward them because they are part of the region,” Moshref said. “We didn't deliberately separate them because of Palestine, so we just wanted to clarify that.”
The action item on the agenda was named “Letter of Support for SWANA,” which was a motion that quickly derailed into a tense back-and-forth about the inclusion of Israeli and Jewish students under SWANA.
The A.S. Director of Student Affairs Magnus Herrlin said in the one month of SWANA’s deliberations, no one within SWANA tried to contact Jewish or Israeli students and claimed this was a anti-Zionist and antisemitic move by SWANA.
“The SWANA group and the SWANA project has been around for roughly a month right now on campus, and in no time did that in that month did they seek to reach out to our Jewish and Israeli brothers and sisters who are on campus.” Herrlin said. “Moreover, I think this demonstrates a kind of pattern of anti-Zionism and antisemitism that has that these two groups have experienced on this campus.”
Before proposing an amendment to the SWANA letter, he referenced an alleged comment made by a separate group on campus that claimed House of Representatives member Ro Khanna was a white supremacist and was working with Israeli arms dealers.
Herrlin pulled up a photo of Khanna and said, “Does this look like a white supremacist to you?”
Herrlin’s first amendment was to add a commitment to the SWANA letter that allows students who support Israel to be included in SWANA and all future conversations about it.
Fatema Balkhi, forensic biology student and member of the SWANA project said SWANA is not a religious group on campus, and that SWANA is about demographics.
“[SWANA is] for people who like our demographic, and identify as such and want to come and advocate for their own, like whatever they want to advocate for,” Balkhi said. “For example, Afghans can come and advocate for issues in Afghanistan, Iranians can come and advocate for issues in Iran, and since Justice in Palestine can come and advocate for their issues, the Israeli club can advocate for their issues.”
A member of the Jewish Student Union, Michael, whose last name was not given, spoke during the meeting saying he initially saw the Spartan Daily article as SWANA excluding Jewish community members.
He came to understand how this wasn’t the case after Balkhi and Moshref’s clarifications.
After an hour of back and forth conversation about the amendment, A.S. director of intercultural affairs Luis Aquino had to step in to remind everyone that this wasn’t a place to point fingers, and a clear miscommunication because of the focus on the map in the referenced Spartan Daily article.
Herrlin then called upon the board to condemn antisemitism and claimed the board failed to condemn anti-Zionism.
Anti-Zionism is the opposition to the establishment or the support of the modern nation state of Israel, according to an April 28, 2016 BBC News article.
Anti-Zionism can be erroneously conflated with antisemitism, which is hostility and prejudice towards Jewish people, while anti-Zionism critiques the actions of the Israeli government, according to the BBC News article.
When nobody seconded Herrlin’s proposal or his second proposed amendment to add the Jewish Student Union to SWANA, he accused the board of being anti-Zionist and antisemitic.
“Director Nikalwala has said you know our actions speak louder than words.” Herrlin said. “Clearly this board has antisemitism and anti-Zionism.”
A.S. President Nina Chuang swiftly interrupted the accusation by pounding her nametag down, immediately calling for a point of order after his comment.
She commended the members for advocating for their respective communities and the conversation was about a center for SWANA students.
Balkhi said that semitic languages span the demographic area they are discussing, she was also disgusted at being called antisemitic while trying to give voices to semitic people.
“Palestinians are semitic, Arabs are semitic,” Balkhi said. “The word ‘semitic’ actually does not explicitly focus on an ethnic demographic, it focuses on the demographic of regions in which a language is spoken, Arabic is a semitic language, Hebrew is a semitic language.”
Balkhi defended her group’s position and advocacy to create a SWANA group on campus for students who are part of the Southwest Asian and North African communities.
“It is insulting to call the people here [antisemitic] who are trying to give voices to semitic people who are considered a large portion of the SWANA demographic.” Balkhi said. “To say ‘antisemitism’ is insulting, it's disgusting.”
By the end of the long back-and-forth between nearly the entire board and students, the motion to add the amendments failed, and SWANA was granted the ability to create the letter to the university.
Chuang, after the meeting, explained more about the letter.
“This letter not only tells [the] university, ‘hey, we want the space but also educates anyone who's reading it about our history here.’ ” Chuang said. “But for us at San Jose State, we need to really help recognize and amplify these voices so that everyone has a seat at the table.”
