By: David Sverdlov

The author is the co-president of Tikvah Students for Israel at UC Berkeley and a Hasbara Fellow. Last week, in an unprecedented event, the question of whether J Street U would be admitted into the Jewish Student Union was put up to a vote at UC Berkeley. Various student organizations led by Hasbara Fellows voted against the measure, including Tikvah Students for Israel, Jews in Engineering, and the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. The author shares his perspective as a Jewish student leader on campus.

I am an active member in the Jewish Student Union (JSU) at the University of California Berkeley. I am pro-Israel and pro-peace, an adamant supporter of the State of Israel and a believer in the future establishment of a Palestinian State at its side. All the actions I take as a student activist conform to these principles. That is why I lobbied and voted against the inclusion of JStreet U as a member student organization in the Jewish Student Union last week.

During the final JSU meeting of this year, JStreet U sought membership in the union. Representatives of Jewish student groups, many of whom had previously been unaware of JStreet, found themselves embroiled in a vociferous debate between JStreet supporters and opponents. Complicating the debate even further, both sides presented themselves as ‘pro-Israel and pro-peace.’ The fundamental question of the debate therefore boiled down to whether or not JStreet U was actually both pro-Israel and pro-peace.

Proponents of JStreet U argued that there could be no doubt in regards to the principles of the organization, seeing that its constitution clearly expressed the group’s commitment to both a Jewish and democratic state. But the actions of JStreet, both nationally and on campus, have shown otherwise.

Among the most shocking actions taken by JStreet on a national level is the organization’s decision to lobby in opposition to sanctions against Iran, despite Iran’s unceasing nuclear program and repeated calls by its leaders for the destruction of Israel. JStreet has also said in words that it is against Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions, a movement that does not recognize Israel as a Jewish state. But JStreet has hosted and given platforms to various supporters of the campaign. Here is a list of additional questionable actions taken by JStreet.

On the Berkeley campus, JStreet U’s actions have barely deviated from its national model. Last year, the group hosted Assaf Sharon, an organizer of the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement; a group which protests Jewish land ownership in parts of Jerusalem. The group argues that Jewish residents of Eastern Jerusalem have the "aim of creating a situation in which it will be impossible to reach a peaceful solution."

The member student groups of the Jewish Student Union decided that this did not represent them. With a vote of ten against, nine for, and two abstentions, the petition for admission failed momentously, as a two-thirds majority was necessary for it to pass. Not allowing JStreet U into the union was not a means of silencing the views of students who conform to the group’s principles. No one involved is proposing that JStreet be banned on Berkeley campus. But this vote affirmed the right of the Jewish community at Berkeley to set a reasonable definition of the term ‘pro-Israel,’ and to ensure that the true pro-Israel and pro-peace voices would be neither distorted nor silenced.