Few disputes fought out by student governments have been as acrimonious as the battles raging intermittently across this state on whether to push University of California regents and trustees of other universities to join an international campaign against Israel. This movement seeks to boycott Israeli companies and academics, demands divestment from companies doing business there and demands trade sanctions.
Only the small minority of students who vote in school elections are directly involved. But the student officers they select purport to represent all students, even those unaware of what they’re up to.
Leading the campus boycott movement, known as BDS (boycott, divest and sanction), is an outfit called Students for Justice in Palestine, whose membership includes many international students.
These folks keep maligning the Jewish state even while the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel are affirmed. They ignore obvious human rights violations by China, Syria and Iran and those of the murderous, head-chopping Islamic State.
Now they’ve gotten Local 2865 of the United Auto Workers, the union representing 13,000-plus graduate student teaching assistants (TAs) in the UC system, not only to adopt BDS as its policy, but also to advocate that members “teach … the struggle of the Palestinian people.” The union’s early-December vote was 1,411 for BDS and 749 against — with only about 15 percent of TAs voting.
Originally published in the San Diego Source