Two weeks after a heated debate between two student political groups, controversy over the College Democrats’ alleged criticism of Israel persists.
Although College Democrats Campaigns Director Michael Besser denied making anti-Israel remarks at the debate, Maryland Federation of College Republicans Chairman Evan Lazerowitz issued a press release Nov. 24 calling for the resignation of the College Democrats leadership.
“The views of the College Park Democrats are far outside the mainstream of American politics and should be condemned,” Lazerowitz said in the statement. “We call upon the College Park Democrats’ Board to do the right thing and resign and issue an apology to the entire campus.”
The statement accused Besser, a senior government and politics major, of saying, “Israel is oppressing the Palestinian people.”
“It’s completely fabricated,” Besser said. “It’s not even taken out of context — it’s something I never said.”
At the debate, Besser said he voiced his support for the U.S. government to call on Israel to halt settlement construction in the West Bank — a policy he said would help to jumpstart peace talks.
Besser said he also stated that the United States has a responsibility to help Israel counter the influence of Hamas, the elected leadership of the Palestinian National Authority, which some consider a terrorist group.
But Besser insists he made no remarks that could be construed as anti-Israel.
“I’m not really sure how you get ‘Israel is oppressing the Palestinians’ from that,” he said, adding that he considers himself to be pro-Israel. “To make the quote up and attribute it to someone like that I think is pretty egregious.”
College Democrats president Amy Hartman said the press release was motivated by politics rather than legitimate concerns.
“The fact that they would call for our executive board to resign in a clearly partisan, inflammatory political attack is laughable,” the senior government and politics and women’s studies major wrote in an e-mail. “The College Republicans have no standing to make such a ridiculous demand.”
In response to a press release from College Democrats denying the remark, Lazerowitz released another statement Wednesday that stood by his initial statement and asked the Democrats to clarify their position on Israel.
Lazerowitz also questioned the Democrats’ decision to drop their co-sponsorship with the College Republicans of an event featuring speaker Matthew Levitt, a former career national security official and expert on the Middle East conflict.
“We were not given any information about Mr. Levitt’s opinions and views on Middle East policy and thus, we did not want to co-sponsor a speaker whose viewpoints and opinions we were unclear on,” Hartman wrote.
While the Democrats’ press release emphasizes diversity among their membership as how best to achieve peace in the Middle East, Hartman said the topic is important to pursue.
“We had a very heated, uncivilized discussion on this particular topic at the debate, and we wanted to allow things to cool down before we delved further into the issue,” Hartman wrote. “Anyone who has followed the College Democrats over the years knows that we are deeply committed to progress in the Middle East, and have held many events and discussions towards that end.”
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