Students for Justice in Palestine has presented its fourth anti-Israel resolution of the 2025-2026 academic year to the Student Government Association at the University of Maryland, College Park. It is slated for a vote on February 11.
SJP is urging UMD and the University System of Maryland Foundation to divest from and commit to not investing in arms-producing companies. Specifically mentioning Israel, it says, “USMFs investments may include companies such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Elbit Systems, Caterpillar Inc, and RTX Corp, all companies that, in some form or another, supply weapons, surveillance technology, or infrastructure used in Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and have been linked to human-rights violations in other regions.”
The previous three resolutions passed on September 17, on November 5, and on October 2 – which was the night of Yom Kippur, when Jewish students could not attend. The September 17 resolution demanded UMD to recognize Israel’s offensive as a genocide in Gaza, and the others dealt with a boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) approach to Israel and called for the university to ban former Israeli soldiers from coming to campus to speak.
Following last spring’s student government elections, an overwhelming majority of voting members now align with SJP and have demonstrated that support by backing all three of SJP’s previous resolutions this academic year. The vote totals for each resolution were: 25 yes, 1 no, 1 abstain (September 17), 28 yes, 0 no, 1 abstain (October 2), and 25 yes, 0 no, 1 abstain (November 5).
In an Instagram post, Students Supporting Israel at UMD College Park wrote, “While we had hoped the conclusion of the war in Israel would yield some collective acknowledgements of Israel’s propensity towards peace, this bill is reinforcing an unfortunate sentiment of perpetual demonization of the only Jewish state… SGA has become an echo chamber whose sole objective is to make the University of Maryland an uncomfortable place for Zionists.”
Uriel Appel, a senior and president of SSI at UMD College Park, said, “When it came time to confront Jew-hatred on our campus, they [the student government] not only stood by but actively perpetuated it. They held votes and hearings over boycotts against the world’s only Jewish state on two separate Jewish holidays and subjected Israel to disproportionate scrutiny unmatched by any other country. At the same time, they have turned a blind eye to crimes in Iran, Syria, and anti-Christian massacres in Africa. SGA at the University of Maryland has made one thing clear: its Jewish constituents are not represented.”
“SGA at the University of Maryland has made one thing clear: its Jewish constituents are not represented.” – Uriel Appel
Meirav Solomon, a senior at UMD, echoed a similar sentiment.
“It’s disappointing to see SGA once again focus on Jewish students instead of addressing broader issues that could improve the university,” she said. “Being put through this situation repeatedly is frustrating and unnecessary.”
The latest resolution is similar to the February 4 resolution that was passed by the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska. It stated, “As a university institution, it is antithetical and contradictory for us to continue investments in bombs that have destroyed every university in Gaza and the livelihood of Palestinian students, professors, and administrators.”
Another resolution, put forth at the University of Michigan in the fall, looked like the ones from UMD, College Park and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln as well. It had the same title as the Nebraska resolution, “Divest for Humanity Act,” and the Michigan group collaborated on an Instagram post with UNL’s SJP, celebrating the passage of their February 4 resolution.
The post read, “Divest for Humanity just went national… our colleagues in Nebraska just earned a huge victory in the fight to divest our $$$ from genocide.”
According to SSI’s Instagram, the UMD, College Park chapter of SJP on their FAQ sheet, “refuses to condemn Hamas, does not believe Israel has a right to defend itself, and does not believe Israel has a right to exist. Because the sponsor does not believe Israel has the right to defend itself, we remain unsurprised that this bill is calling for the divestment of some of the biggest companies that help Israel defend itself.”
The post continued, “the University of Maryland should be a place where difficult global conversations are met with intellectual honesty and respect for the lived identities of all students. We urge SGA to recommit itself to those principles, not by singling out one people or one state, but by fostering a campus culture where Jewish and Zionist students can participate safely and without fear of exclusion.”
