On Monday, Bella Brannon, Editor-In-Chief of Ha’Am, filed a Petition for Consideration with the Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC) Judicial Board, alleging that the Cultural Affairs Commissioner discriminated against Jewish students during the Fall hiring process for staff positions. The petition claims that Alicia Verdugo, the current Cultural Affairs Commissioner, rejected all applicants who identified themselves as Jewish based on their presumed association with Zionism, even though their applications did not mention Zionism or Israel.

According to evidence filed in the petition’s appendix, Cultural Affairs Commissioner Alicia Verdugo directed their subordinates to “please do your research when you look at applicants,” as “lots of zionists are applying.” The evidence also illustrates that they informed their co-workers that they would “share a doc of no hire list during retreat.”

Canary Mission:

On June 23 2024, Alicia Verdugo responded to the pro-Hamas riot outside the Adas Torah synagogue in Los Angeles by promoting yet more violence. Her post talked of a “cold civil war” and included an appeal to followers to fight “by any means necessary“. This followed Verdugo’s May 2024 call for Israel’s destruction while as a student government officer at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

In May 2024, Verdugo was arrested while protesting at UCLA’s unlawful anti-Israel protest encampment. Also as of May 2024, Verdugo was reportedly [00:00:08] the “encampment media liaison.”

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As of May 2024, Verdugo was reportedly the “Cultural Affairs Commissioner” leading UCLA’s “Undergraduate Students Association Council [USAC] office.” The USAC is the name of UCLA’s student government. Verdugo was listed as the first signatory to the USAC’s Cultural Affairs Commission (CAC) at UCLA.
On April 29, 2024, during Verdugo’s tenure as USAC’s cultural affairs commissioner, Verdugo’s office postponed a concert in order to encourage students to attend the university’s unlawful anti-Israel protest encampment instead. On May 13, 2024, the CAC announced [slide 1] that it was canceling its events for the rest of the academic year “due to the violent attacks occurring in Palestine…”
Verdugo also sponsored a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) resolution that the USAC passed by a vote of 10-3 on February 20, 2024. (continue reading…..)