After three hours of debate UBC student council lifts freeze on funding
After three hours of debate, University of British Columbia students will be funding an aid flotilla to Gaza after all. UBC`s students`union, the Alma Mater Society (AMS), had frozen $700 that student group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) was to donate to an aid flotilla to Gaza.
The funding was initially approved by an intermediary resource group that is financed by the AMS but retains operational autonomy. The donation was objected to on grounds ranging from alleged ties to terrorism to claims that the resource group had not held a proper annual general meeting. The AMS executive froze the funds last week.
On Wednesday, some 200 students packed into a campus theatre where an AMS council meeting was being held to decide what to do about the donation. The Israeli Awareness Club presented a petition with 908 signatures opposed to the move while the SPHR produced its own petition in favour with 547 signatures.
However, after hours of debate and several rejected amendments, the donation was approved in part because the resource group was able to produce documents that proved it had in fact held an AGM.