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This episode of State Press Play deals with sensitive topics related to the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza.
Tyler Abrams:
Welcome to State Press Play. I'm Tyler Abrams with an update on a story that we've been following.
This past Tuesday, Students for Justice in Palestine presented their boycott and divestment petition to Undergraduate Student Government that called on ASU to divest from companies supporting Israel.The meeting consisted of five various Jewish organizations including Hallel and Chabad, as well as representatives from SJP. Unfortunately, the meeting was cut short due to disruptions from counter-protests outside of the meeting room.
Phineas Hogan has more on what happened during the meeting. Thanks for coming on the podcast Phineas.
Phineas Hogan:
Yeah, absolutely Tyler. Thanks for having me on.
Tyler Abrams:
So Phineas, when you last spoke with one of our anchors, Damian Goacher, you had covered the Student for Justice in Palestine's petition to boycott and divest companies supporting Israel. You also covered the presentation of the terms of SJP's petition to the Undergraduate Student Government this past Tuesday. How did this meeting unfold?
Phineas Hogan:
As it got closer to the meeting time. Members of the USG Senate came out and started organizing everybody, getting people in lines. Each side had a couple of speakers that they had planned and had a list of speakers that they provided to the USG.
So after the process went on, people got organized. They let in all the speakers for each side. I think it was like 16 each. And then after all the speakers were in, they let in one student from each side at a time. So that there could be an equal amount of representation from either side of the conflict in the meeting. Then it got to the public hearing section. So each side had 10 minutes to present to USG what they wanted to say.
The Palestinian side went first. They went up, they spoke about you know all the things that are happening in Gaza to the Palestinian people right now. They described what they said are war crimes. And what BDS is and why it would help and why it's important for them. The university has come out and said that they are for Israel and a lot of the Palestinian students at this university feel unprotected by the university.
Presenting this to USG it's kind of saying "We want our voices heard like we're still here even though if you don't want to recognize us." So that's what they went up and talked about you know the SJP president, Finn Howe, that had a pretty good speech you know talked about BDS. They had tried to implement BDS in in past years on this has been a thing for like the last 10-20 years.
And then, you know, it was time for the people supporting Israel, and so a lot of their language was met by responses by the Palestinian side.
To hear more from Hogan, please tune in to State Press Play.
READ MORE: USG ADJOURNS MEETING EARLY OVER PHYSICAL AND VERBAL DISRUPTIONS FROM OUTSIDE PROTEST
WATCH MORE:
Tyler Abrams:
Thanks for coming on the podcast, Phineas.
Phineas Hogan:
Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
Tyler Abrams:
That's State Press Politics reporter Phineas Hogan. You can find more coverage of what's been going on around campus at statepress.com.
And that's all for this week's State Press Play. I'm Tyler Abrams.
State Press Play is produced and mixed by our podcast desk editor Amber Victoria Singer. Our managing team is Alexis Heichman and Reece Andrews. Our original music is by Ellie Willard and Jake Leroux.
See you next week, Devils.
