Adeena Liang

Overview

Adeena Liang voted in favor of a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement resolution in April 2021 at Pomona College (Pomona). 

Liang’s BDS vote was in the Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC) Senate, the Pomona student government, where Liang served as the 2020-2021 ASPC Vice President (VP) of Finance. 

As of March 2022, Liang served as the 2021-2022 ASPC VP of Finance.

Also as of March 2022, Liang’s LinkedIn page said that Liang had been ASPC VP of Finance since September 2020. Liang served as the ASPC’s Director of Operations from May to October 2020.

Liang’s LinkedIn said Liang was seeking a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Mathematics and Economics from Pomona, slated to graduate in 2023. 

Pomona is one of five undergraduate colleges and two graduate colleges that share a campus in Claremont, California. The colleges are a consortium called The Claremont Colleges (Claremont) and alternatively are known as “5Cs” or “7Cs.” 

As of March 2022, Liang was listed on LinkedIn as having been a Technical Program Manager Intern at Microsoft in Seattle, Washington, from May to August 2021.

Also as of March 2022, Liang wrote on adeenaliang.com that Liang was a “Data Structures teaching assistant.” In August 2021, Liang wrote on adeenaliang.com that Liang was a “tutor in a variety of subjects across various age groups” and acted to “mentor younger students in certain affinity groups.”

As of March 2022, Liang used the handle “@adeenal” on Twitter and “@adeena.l” on Instagram.

As of the same date, Liang’s LinkedIn said that Liang was located in Seattle, Washington.

Voting in Favor of BDS

On April 22, 2021, Liang voted in the ASPC Senate in favor of a BDS resolution that compelled BDS compliance for ASPC campus stores and student clubs receiving ASPC funding. The campus Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) chapters (Claremont SJP and 5C JVP) co-sponsored the resolution.

On April 15, 2021, Liang indicated support for the resolution at an ASPC meeting. Liang said that as the ASPC VP of Finance, Liang would “make sure” that BDS is enforced at ASPC campus stores and the ASPC investment portfolio.

As of May 2021, Liang included a link to Liang’s resume on Liang’s website which said Liang’s duties as ASPC VP of Finance was also to “[c]hair the budget committee that manages the budget to cover funding for all student activities at Pomona and the Claremont Consortium, and oversee the creation and funding of new clubs.”  On April 15, 2021, Claremont SJP and 5C JVP introduced their resolution to the ASPC Senate that mandated ASPC compliance with BDS. 

The resolution was titled [p.1], “Banning the Use of ASPC Funding to Support the Occupation of Palestine” and it required [p.2] that ASPC “internal spending” could not be used on products or services from companies that “knowingly support the Israeli occupation of Palestine.” 

The Claremont SJP and 5C JVP resolution cited [p.2] a list of mostly Israeli companies compiled by the United Nations Human Rights Council as a guide for which companies to boycott. ASPC internal spending includes multiple items such as funding 5C student clubs and student-run events. 

The resolution created [p.2] an oversight role for Claremont SJP over the ASPC-run Coop Store and the Coop Fountain restaurant. ASPC would “work in tandem with members of SJP, and other pertinent parties, to perform an annual check on the ASPC’s businesses to ensure all goods sold adhere to the guidelines outlined in this resolution.”

The resolution also said [p.2]: “Clubs that fail to divest and/or refrain from such uses of funding would face the loss of all Claremont Colleges Student Government Association funds.” This clause effectively mandated BDS compliance even for pro-Israel and Jewish student organizations like Claremont Hillel and Claremont Chabad.

Claremont Colleges pool mandatory student activity fees and distribute the money to the 5C student governments. ASPC provides almost 47% of the funding for all 5C clubs, although each 5C student government can fund 5C clubs. 

In spring 2021, ASPC gave more than $10,000 to 5C clubs. It also gave $30,000 for student-run events at Pomona that were coordinated through the ASPC’s Pomona Events Committee (PEC). The full ASPC spring 2021 budget was $216,700. 

The Claremont SJP and Claremont JVP resolution also said [p.2] that ASPC’s “end goal” would be to lead other 5C student governments to pass similar BDS resolutions.

On April 22, 2021, the ASPC Senate passed the resolution with a vote of 10-0-0. Five senators were not present, representing one third of ASPC Senate’s 15 seats.

On the same day, Claremont SJP issued a press release calling the resolution’s passage “an important first step in reducing our complicity with a country that maintains an illegal military occupation and regularly commits crimes against humanity against the indigenous Palestinian population.”

On April 23, 2021, following criticism of the resolution reportedly among campus and national Jewish groups, Pomona President G. Gabrielle Starr sent an email to the student body opposing the resolution. Starr said that requiring student clubs to boycott Israel was “deeply concerning.” He said that since the vote “was held without representation from any student opposition,” the ASPC Senate should “reverse course and allow for full discussion.” 
 
On April 29, 2021, the ASPC Senate held a Zoom meeting that included a “comment period” for student senators and student guest speakers to express their feedback on the resolution. 

On April 30, 2021, the ASPC Senate reportedly decided to “table the resolution” for further discussion on the resolution’s call to deny funding to student clubs that failed to adhere to BDS.

On May 6, 2021, the ASPC Senate reportedly passed a modified resolution that omitted the original clause forcing student clubs funded by ASPC to comply with BDS.

BDS

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true. 

One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”  

Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”

In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”

The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.

BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.

The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.

Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.

BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.

Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adeena.liang

Twitter: https://twitter.com/adeenal

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adeena.l [Private]
                   
https://www.instagram.com/food.footprints
 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adeenaliang

Website: http://adeenaliang.com

WayUp: https://www.wayup.com/profile/Adeena-Liang-74bb5e4007 [Deleted]

GitHub.com: https://github.com/adeenal