Third Michigan Campus Passes BDS Resolution

Students at the University of Michigan-Flint adopted an anti-Israel resolution last Wednesday, making it the third Michigan campus to adopt a BDS (Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel) measure. The resolution, which was voted on slightly before the beginning of the Jewish Passover holiday, calls for the school to “divest from all companies that participate in the unethical violation of Palestinian human rights.” The measure, according to the Algemeiner, passed the Student Senate by unanimous approval, and was then signed by student government president Abdulrahaman Salman.

The two other University of Michigan campuses which have passed BDS resolutions are Michigan’s Dearborn campus, which did so last March, and its main Ann Arbor campus. The passing of the most recent measure at Flint means that there is no campus in the Michigan system that has not adopted a BDS resolution. The Ann Arbor campus, whose BDS measure passed last November, had previously seen the measure defeated ten times beforehand due to continuous opposition from the local Jewish community both on and off campus. The administration at the Ann Arbor campus reaffirmed after the passage of the resolution that it would “base…investment decisions solely on financial factors such as risk and return.” Jewish students reported finding anti-Semitic graffiti, in the form of swastikas, shortly after the adoption of the Ann Arbor resolution.

The passing of the BDS resolution at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan adds to the anti-Israel atmosphere highlighted by the passing of a referendum for divestment at the University of Minnesota earlier in the month. These successful BDS measures are, however, not the norm. Students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign defeated a BDS measure by a margin of over 1,400 votes in March, and the Student Senate at the University of Texas A&M approved a decision to oppose any and all boycotts of Israel. At the state level, Wisconsin’s state legislature recently passed an anti-BDS bill, making it the 25th state to do so. Lawsuits challenging state anti-BDS legislation have been filed in both Kansas and Arizona by the ACLU, but their claims that anti-BDS legislation stifles free speech have been heavily contested.

The BDS measures on campuses like those in Michigan and Minnesota are neither the norm, nor a statement of anything but bigotry. The animosity towards the one Jewish state on American college campuses is evidenced in this year’s round of university student organizations choosing to participate in anti-Israel “apartheid week” events. Schools, such as The College of William and Mary, the University of Pennsylvania, and a host of universities in both London and South Africa are all host to organizations that are currently holding Apartheid week demonstrations on campus. The bigotry of BDS is failing to sway students on college campuses, nor state legislatures, to divest from Israel. No amount of pomp and circumstance will change that.