BDS supporters at City University of New York (CUNY), hoping to sneak a divestment vote through by scheduling it on the Friday night after the start of Shabbat (Jewish Sabbath), were thwarted after news of the maneuver was leaked to the media.
Had the move proved successful, it may have inspired more dirty tricks for the coming year, as BDSers look to capitalize on greater awareness of the Israel-Palestinian conflict to promote boycott and divestment of Israel.
At CUNY over the weekend, Doctoral Students Council (DSC), representing 4,700 students, called for members to endorse “the boycott of Israeli academic institutions and the divestment from Israeli companies” and to sever the link between CUNY’s Baruch College and Israel’s College of Management Academic Studies.
After intense debate, the council decided to postpone the vote “out of respect for the Jewish Sabbath”
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During discussions, Eric Alterman, a professor of English at Baruch College and outspoken critic of BDS, noted that scheduling a vote against Israel at a time that would exclude many Jewish students was a terrible idea. “It would look as it was done in the middle of the night, the way communists used to pass their resolutions in the 30’s.”
During the previous academic year, BDS supporters at Cornell University attempted to schedule a divestment vote while many students were away from campus for Passover. Earlier, New York University held a “secret” BDS conference on its campus, barring press from attending.
Jacob Baime, Executive Director of the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) told JNS.org , “It is a routine tactic of the BDS movement to hold votes on or around Jewish holidays in order to shut out pro-Israel voices.
“When the facts are known, BDS fails,” he said.
