question CMENAS’s decision 
to hold an event discussing a 
movement some equate with 
anti-Semitism. He explained 
CMENAS 
decided 
BDS 
is 

too vital a movement to not 
be discussed, claiming the 
movement is against a racist 
institution rather than a group 
of people.

“Why hold an event like 

this 
after 
such 
a 
terrible 

tragedy?” Ali said. “Frankly, 
we considered canceling the 
event altogether. But violence 
is contagious … BDS is the 
most important global issue for 
thousands of students on the 
U-M campus. This nonviolent 
movement is part of who they 
are. BDS is not against any 
group, but against a racist 
structure 
that 
oppresses 

millions of people daily.”

The 
first 
speaker 
was 

Susan Abulhawa, a political 
commentator, 
poet 
and 

founder of Playgrounds for 
Palestine. 
Abulhawa 
began 

her presentation by reading 
aloud some of Israel’s laws. 
One of these was a law put 
into effect this summer, which 
declared Israel as the nation-
state of the Jewish people and 
downgraded Arabic from its 
official language status.

Abulhawa then talked about 

the history of Palestine and 
Zionism. Seventy years ago, she 
said, Palestine was a thriving, 
pluralistic 
country 
with 

sophisticated businesses and 
infrastructure. She said this 
changed with the introduction 
of Zionism, which was seen as a 
movement for Jews to return to 
a land devoid of a culture and 
a people. 

“They said it was a land 

without a people for a people 
without a land,” Abulhawa 
said.

She showed an image of 

an online recipe for falafel, 
calling it an Israeli dish. This, 
Abulhawa said, illustrates how 
Israel has co-opted Palestinian 
culture.

“You get to see this kind of 

stuff,” Abulhawa said. “Israeli 
cuisine, 
falafel, 
shakshuka, 

hummus, which has nothing 
to do with Israel. Not only has 
Israel stolen our home, and 
our lands and our dignity, and 
our heritage. But they’re also 
stealing our culture and our 
story and our history.”

Abulhawa 
continued 
to 

describe some of the Israeli 
government’s 
policies, 

including 
former 
prime 

minister 
Yitzhak 
Rabin’s 

instruction to Israeli soldiers 
to break Palestinians’ bones 
while he was the minister of 
defense. She said in response 
to these types of policies, and 
despite what she described as 
the U.S.’s perception of Israel 
as a start-up nation, protesters 
and 
activists 
in 
the 
BDS 

movement work to hold Israel 
accountable.

The next speaker, Israeli 

sociologist and activist Tom 
Pessah, spoke of the difference 
between 
anti-Semitism 

and what he called “anti-
Semitizing.” He delved into the 
history of anti-Semitism and 
explained anti-Semitizing is 
a way of equating criticism of 
Israel with the hatred against 
Jews.

“The most common response 

that you see is what I would call 
anti-Semitizing, which means 
casting the words and the 
deeds of the opponents of Israel 
as resembling traditional anti-

Jewish posts,” Pessah said. 
“This is a way of stigmatizing 
people as anti-Jewish in order 
to silence opposition.”

This conflation is bad for 

everyone, 
Pessah 
said. 
He 

said he believes strongly in 
solidarity and noted he has 
found 
that 
while 
working 

with the BDS movement — a 
movement which he said works 
to end the Israeli occupation 
— to recognize equality of 
Palestinians, 
and 
to 
allow 

Palestinian refugees to return 
home. Pessah said BDS is 
a strong opponent of anti-
Semitism.

“BDS has been a model of 

solidarity from my knowledge 
of 
participation 
in 
the 

movement,” Pessah said. “You 
see many Palestinians, many 
Jews, many Israelis working 
side by side, acknowledging 
the rights of Palestinians as 
we said. But also, the BDS 
movement has been outspoken 
in combating anti-Semitism.”

Huwaida Arraf, a civil rights 

attorney and co-founder of 
the 
International 
Solidarity 

Movement talked about state 
policies targeting institutions 
that participate in the BDS 
movement. Arraf explained the 
foundation BDS is built on.

“In 2004, Palestinian civil 

society, 
170 
organizations, 

unions, representing really all 

facets of Palestinian society, 
political factions came together 
and announced this call to 
the world to help us achieve 
our freedom by instituting 
the same kind of pressure on 
Israel that the world instituted 
against apartheid in South 
Africa that helped bring it to 
an end,” Arraf said.

Arraf 
encouraged 
the 

audience to research and verify 
anything her or the other 
panelists discussed in order 
to form their own opinions. 
But 
she 
said 
she 
expects 

independent 
research 
will 

affirm her points.

“Anything I’ve said here, I 

don’t expect you to take as a 
given — please go and research 
yourself to learn more about 
it,” Arraf said. “Anything that 
Susan said, anything that Tom 
said. We want people to do the 
research themselves and then 
I’m confident you will also sign 
on.”

In 
November 
2017, 
for 

the first time in the school’s 
history after years of attempts, 
Central Student Government 
passed a divestment resolution 
calling for the University to 
investigate several companies 
it had investments in which 
have contracts with the Israeli 
military. The Board of Regents 
later rejected the resolution.

One 
student 
later 
asked 

how the panelists felt about 
the incidents of faculty and 
staff 
members 
declining 

recommendation 
letters. 

Abulhawa denied these actions 
were discriminatory, as the 
professors 
had 
originally 

agreed to write the letters 
before learning they wanted to 
study in Israel.

“I don’t believe the professors 

were discriminating against 
the students,” Abulhawa said. 
“The professors were pointing 
out, they were discriminating 
against Israel if you want to 
call 
it 
discrimination. 
My 

understanding is that they 
had actually agreed to write 
recommendation 
letters 
for 

those students, but when they 
learned that these students 
were applying to a colonial 
institution, 
they 
exercised 

their conscience not to be party 
to that.”

After these recommendation 

letter incidents, Shay Vaughn, 
an administrative partner and 
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 
advocate in LSA, said she 
received many phone calls 
about this issue. That’s why 
she attended the panel — she 
hoped to learn how to support 
as many people through DEI as 
possible.

“When it comes to being the 

DEI advocate, I think there is a 
responsibility to know certain 
things, and I take that very 
seriously, so I shared this event 
out to everyone in the office,” 
Vaughn said. “I just really 
appreciate being allowed to be 
here.”

“benchmarks” — university 
cities like Berkeley, California; 
Austin, Texas; and Madison, 
Wisconsin — have nonpartisan 
local elections.

Since 
2015, 
Lumm 
has 

introduced 
three 
ballot 

proposals before City Council 
to allow voters to decide if 
they want to get rid of partisan 
city elections. Each time, her 
proposal was voted down. 
Her most recent attempt in 
July 2018 fell one vote short of 
making the November ballot.

“It 
is, 
frankly, 
very 

frustrating, because I think 
that while one can debate the 
merits of nonpartisan versus 
partisan 
local 
elections, 

there’s no argument that I can 
see for not allowing voters to 
decide the question,” Lumm 
said.

Lumm 
said 
nonpartisan 

elections 
would 
shift 
the 

focus 
from 
Democratic 

primaries 
held 
in 
August 

to 
the 
November 
general 

election, when voter turnout 
is typically higher.

“Ann Arbor is a clear outlier 

in holding local elections on a 
partisan basis. We’ve been an 
outlier for a very long time,” 
Lumm said. “… None of our 
traditional benchmarks have 
partisan local elections. So 
that fact, coupled with the fact 
that Ann Arbor residents have 
not had an opportunity in 60 
years to weigh in on this, are 
compelling reasons why this 
question about nonpartisan 
elections should, I think, be 
on the ballot.”

Lumm pointed out that 

despite the fact the council 
is 
composed 
primarily 
of 

Democrats, members still have 
disagreements and spirited 
debates over municipal issues, 
pointing out political parties 
are not particularly relevant 
in local races. She also said 
her efforts were not related 
to the fact that she is the only 
Independent on the majority-
Democratic City Council.

“This isn’t about me,” Lumm 

said. “Local elections are not 
philosophical, 
ideological 

issues where party matters. 
It’s best practice. We’ll have 
higher turnout, we’ll attract 
more 
qualified 
candidates. 

It would require more voter 
scrutiny on the issues or 
candidates’ positions on the 
issues and the candidates’ 
priorities, and those are all 
really good things. I think it’s 
just good government, and 
that’s why I think we should 
be doing this.”

Jeff 
Hayner, 
D-Ward 
1 

candidate, disregarded party 
affiliation when he ran as 
an 
Independent 
against 

incumbent Democrat Sabra 
Briere in 2013. Hayner said 
he did so to spend more time 

talking 
about 
the 
issues 

central to his campaign.

“I’ve 
been 
a 
registered 

Democrat since ’84,” Hayner 
said. “The Democratic Party 
is where it’s at. In 2013, I 
knew I didn’t really have a 
chance to win because the 
woman who held the seat 
was sort of a beloved figure 
in local politics. I ran as an 
Independent so I could go all 
the way to November and talk 
about two issues that I ran 
on, which hadn’t been talked 
about at the time, which was 
the Gelman plume — the 
dioxane plume that’s creeping 
under our city — and also our 
city’s woefully underfunded 

pension mandates.”

Hayner said he focused 

more 
on 
the 
issues 
than 

political ideology.

“I know we’re a heavily 

Democratic 
city 
— 
that’s 

pretty evident — but there’s 
all kinds of people that live 
here and some of them aren’t 
as interested in politics as 
issues, so I’m just more of an 
issues guy,” Hayner said. “I 
guess that would make me a 
moderate.”

Councilmember 
Sumi 

Kailasapathy, 
D-Ward 
1, 

announced she would not be 
seeking re-election in April, 
and endorsed Hayner, who 
then narrowly won the Aug. 
7 primary in a contentious 
race against Ron Ginyard, 
who was backed by Ann Arbor 
Mayor 
Christopher 
Taylor. 

Ginyard, a retired financial 
adviser, faced criticism for his 
failure to vote in an election 
since moving to Ann Arbor 
four years ago, while Hayner 
received scrutiny over several 
uncouth tweets as well as his 
membership in the National 
Rifle Association.

“It was closer than I would 

have hoped since he had never 
voted, which I think is sort of 
a big red flag for a Democrat, 
you know, but people are 

involved and active,” Hayner 
said. “There was a lot of get-
out-the-vote efforts on one 
side or another. He had a 
backing 
from 
the 
current 

council majority, so you know, 
that’s a powerful lobby.”

In the general election, 

Hayner is facing off against 
Ryan Hughes, a Democratic 
Socialist. 
Hughes 
said 
he 

ended 
up 
running 
as 
an 

Independent rather than a 
Democrat because, by the 
time Kailasapathy announced 
she 
was 
not 
running 
for 

re-election, 
he 
felt 
there 

wasn’t enough time for him 
to 
marshal 
the 
resources 

necessary 
to 
compete 
as 

Democrat.

“I was worried if people 

saw the word ‘Independent’ 
on the ballot they would think 
I was just a Republican who 
was too ashamed to admit it or 
something like that,” Hughes 
said. “So I said, ‘I got to 
write Democratic Socialist on 
everything that I do.’ People 
have to know that’s what I 
stand for — I think this is the 
time and this is the place to be 
a Democratic Socialist right 
now.”

Hughes 
centered 
his 

campaign around the issue 
of affordable housing in Ann 
Arbor. He has called for the 
city 
to 
intervene 
directly 

to provide low-cost public 
housing. Hughes said there 
was a dichotomy between 
those 
who 
believed 
the 

problem 
could 
be 
solved 

with market forces alone and 
those who were preoccupied 
with concerns that building 
new housing would cause the 
price of existing housing to 
increase.

“That’s kind of been the 

spectrum of debate in the city, 
and I don’t think that either of 
those are very realistic plans, 
just in and of themselves,” 
Hughes said. “My whole point 
in running was kind of to say, 
there’s something else we 
could be doing. We could be 
tackling this problem more 
directly than either of those 
things will allow us to do.”

Lumm said she plans to 

introduce the ballot measure 
again after the November 
election, 
once 
the 
new 

members of City Council are 
seated.

“So in terms of next steps, 

where we go from here, I 
remain determined to provide 
voters 
an 
opportunity 
to 

decide 
this 
question 
and 

obviously 
I 
very 
much 

believe that we should afford 
residents the opportunity, not 
force folks to collect ballot 
signatures,” Lumm said. “If 
council 
rejects 
the 
ballot 

question for the fourth time, 
I am fully prepared to help 
folks obtain the necessary 
signatures.”

come in and seek the support, we 
will find a way to work with your 
concerns.”

Housing prices in Ann Arbor 

have long been on the rise. 
According to the U.S. Census 
Bureau, the median rate for rent 
in Ann Arbor has increased 14 
percent from 2010 to 2015 and now 
sits at approximately $1,075 per 
month. 

Last 
spring 
CSG 
received 

backlash 
for 
its 
Campus 

Affordability Guide, which offered 
tips to make University living 
more affordable. Suggestions such 
as cutting down on housekeeping 
services, 
laundry 
delivery 
or 

limiting impulse purchases were 
deemed out of touch by much 
of the student body. Students 
responded negatively to the Guide, 
calling it “out of touch.” Public 
Policy senior Lauren Schandevel 
and LSA senior Griffin St. Onge, in 
collaboration with other student 
groups, wrote an abridged guide 
called Being Not-Rich at UM 
which improved the advice from 

“So in terms 
of next steps, 
where we go 
from here, 
I remain 

determined to 
provide voters 
an opportunity 
to decide this 

question ”

“You see many 
Palestinians, 
many Jews, 
many Israelis 

working 

side by side, 

acknowledging 

the rights of 
Palestians as 

we said. ”

2018 FIR ST GE N WE E K 

NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily

Students attend the First Gen? First Year? community gathering in a series of 2018 First Gen Week events in Couzens Hall Monday evening. First Gen Week continues until this Friday, 

with events on topics like mentorship, mental health, and networking. 

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
 
 
 
 
 Tuesday, October 30, 2018 — 3A

ELECTIONS
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BOYCOTT
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Read more at 
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