After much debate, Oswego State’s Student Association voted to pass the resolution to request the Flag Policy Committee add five new flags to the Marano Campus Center when the other flags return from being cleaned and renewed.

While not nearly as many community members attended this week’s SA meeting as they did the previous meeting, a few members of the public spoke to the senate as to why they do or do not support the bill. 

Rabbi Yossi Madvig spoke on behalf of concerned people in the Jewish community of Oswego in regards to the addition of the Palestinian flag. Madvig said he does not oppose hanging the flag itself, but rather the wording used in the resolution about why it was chosen.

According to the original resolution, “the Palestinian flag (Appendix F) represents Pan-Arabian heritage and is a symbol of hope for a people’s group whom in a modern society face second-class citizenship status and are subject to brutal Apartheid oppression based on religious affiliation.”

Madvig said the use of the word apartheid is incorrect and in order to be a second-class citizen, one must be a citizen in the first place. Palestinians hold refugee status and are not Israeli citizens. He said non-citizens do not have access to services that citizens get because they are not citizens themselves. By saying there is apartheid in Israel, Madvig said it is like a “big middle finger” to Jewish people.

“Words have specific meanings, and it’s extremely insulting, and somewhat of a lie – it is a lie, an outright lie,” Madvig said. “Arab Israelis and Muslims in Israel have the exact same rights as everyone else. … Yes, there are problems, and there’s certain room for criticizing the Israeli government.”

Madvig proposed three different possible compromises: to split the resolution up and vote on the flags individually, to change the wording of the proposal or to switch the Palestinian flag with the Pan-Arabian flag. 

Student Kieren Guy spoke about how many flags which have already been hanging up are of countries with dark histories, the U.S. included for its history with slavery.

“We’re not proud of that,” Guy said. “What we’re supporting is we have this idea of freedom, liberty and justice, and that’s what we represent – the people of the United States. We don’t represent the government.”

Later in the meeting, SA moved into debating the resolution, when Senator Matthew O’Donnell made a motion to amend the resolution to make it so the flags would not be “permanently” hung in case there should be any reason in the future to take them down. The amendment passed by general consensus. 

Senator Shareese Worrell proposed to split the resolution to separate bills per flag because having all of them in one bill was like asking a double-barreled question.

“We can give each one of these flags the same amount of attention, but we do not need to put them all in the same bill to get to push that diversity and inclusion,” Worrell said.   

As a response, Vice President Edward Kelly recommended voting on keeping the same bill, but splitting the question and debate and vote on each individual flag. Professor Allison Rank abstained from voting for every motion. The senate voted by general consensus and passed the Iroquois Native American flag and the Philadelphia pride flag, which is the gay pride flag with the addition of a black and brown stripe in solidarity of people of color in the LGBTQ+ community.

In regards to the transgender pride flag, O’Donnell asked the senate if adding this flag would be necessary because the Philadelphia flag also represents the transgender community.

“This is us making it very clear that we are supporting our transgender population on our campus because there are a lot of organizations and legislators in the United States that [do] not support them,” Senator Jade Laplante said.

Following the debate of the flag, the senate voted in general consensus to pass it, with O’Donnell voting no.

When the Black Lives Matter flag came into debate, O’Donnell said since the resolution states it does not endorse any outside organizations or platforms, “there is no way on God’s green earth that this political message can be dismissed just because you say so.”

President Omar van Reenen responded by thanking O’Donnell for voicing his opinion and then said the Black Lives Matter flag does not represent black extremists.

Before the senate voted on the flag, Senator Sabrina Shortall reminded the senate it is their job to vote based off of the needs and wants of the student body, not their own opinions. 

The senate voted and passed the Black Lives Matter flag on general consensus. On matters of the Pan-African flag, this was not debated and moved straight into a vote whre it passed by general consensus. 

Senator Khalia Hepburn proposed to remove the word apartheid in the section of the Palestinian flag in the resolution. After debate among the senate on the word’s intended purpose and impact, Laplante recommended changing the word apartheid out for the word segregation. The amendment passed by general consensus. As for the flag itself, the senate voted to pass it by roll-call, with O’Donnell and Shortall voting no and Worrell and Rank abstaining. 

The senate then voted on the resolution as a whole by roll-call, which passed 11-1-2, with O’Donnell voting no and Worrell and Rank abstaining. 

The resolution will now be sent to the Flag Policy Committee to be considered.