Jewish leaders slam deferral of UA antisemitism resolution
A Jewish group in Tucson slammed a University of Arizona faculty leader for delaying discussion on a resolution condemning antisemitism.
The Joint Council on Jewish Life and Antisemitism condemned Leila Hudson, UA’s faculty senate chair, for her decision to postpone discussions on the resolution at a May 6 faculty senate meeting.
The council is led by local Jewish and university leaders, including the University of Arizona Hillel Foundation and Jewish Community Relations Council, among others. The group said it was “appalled” at Hudson’s refusal to adopt the resolution.
Hudson said more people, time and deliberation are needed for such an issue. She also added she didn’t want to open the faculty senate to becoming the “direct adjudicator” of bias on campus.
“Wrestling with the language on this matter been challenging … due to the events of the past three weeks,” Hudson said. “I have failed to come up with language on this matter that I think we could easily pass.”
Hudson said bringing such a resolution forward would fuel the “extremely concerning trend of the reflexive and unexamined mobilization of police power,” pointing out the recent use of police to clear a student-led Pro-Palestinian encampment and protests on May 1.
During that protest, law enforcement officers and tactical units dressed in riot gear clashed with protesters and used rubber bullets and chemical irritants to clear a pro-Palestinian encampment and protest on the University of Arizona campus and adjacent streets. Police used gas and rubber bullets again as they clashed with protestors Thursday night into the early hours of Friday morning.
The Jewish advisory group said the two issues had nothing to do with each other.
“Every day is a day to call out antisemitism; one of these events has nothing to do with the other,” said the council in a statement.
The council said Jewish UA students are afraid to walk to class and have been called “horrific epithets” and spit on since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the ongoing conflict.
“While we support students’ right to peaceful protest, we decry any intimidation of their classmates and colleagues,” said the council.
Hudson deferred the draft motion to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, reiterating that the current situation is a “critical moment for the principles of free speech and academic freedom challenged by that mobilization of force to silence urgent protest and debate.”
Hudson said she worked on the resolution with concerned faculty in response to an April 9 incident during which a Jewish fraternity house at the university was defaced with the words: “What side of history will you be on?”
The fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi International, denounced the act as antisemitic.