A Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) resolution at UC San Diego’s (UCSD) Graduate & Professional Student Association (GPSA) failed on June 7.
According to StandWithUs, the resolution called for UCSD to end their partnership with the University of Haifa, including a joint project investigating “how humans have adapted to climate and environmental change over the past 11,000 years.” The resolution also contained “misleading and hateful rhetoric,” per StandWithUs. The resolution was ultimately amended to form a committee tasked with developing a resolution that will be palatable to both Israeli and Palestinian students.
“We are so proud of the Jewish and Israeli students who spoke out against this malicious resolution and succeeded,” StandWithUs Executive Director of Campus Affairs Rena Nasar First said in a statement. “Because of their efforts, the GPSA chose cooperation, dialogue, and academic freedom over harmful and discriminatory boycotts.”
AMCHA Initiative Director Tammi Rossman-Benjamin similarly said in a statement to the Journal, “We applaud the Graduate Student Government for recognizing how deeply harmful academic BDS is to all UCSD students and faculty. If implemented, it would directly subvert the educational opportunities and academic freedom of students and faculty wanting to study about or in Israel, as well as those in the UCSD community engaged in collaborative research with Israeli scholars.
“We urge the Chancellor to issue a campus-wide statement condemning academic BDS and reminding the community that in 2018 all 10 UC Chancellors stated unequivocally that an academic boycott of Israel ‘poses a direct and serious threat to the academic freedom of our students and faculty, as well as the unfettered exchange of ideas and perspectives on our campuses, including debate and discourse regarding conflicts in the Middle East.’”
On the other hand, Jack Saltzberg, president and founder of The Israel Group, said in a statement to the Journal, “The BDS resolution did not fail. The students were only targeting Israel for human rights violations; therefore, BDS spent months poisoning students against Israel while the pro-Israel community reacted, as always. Now BDS will submit another resolution with another opportunity to influence more students negatively about Israel.”
