College and University Monitor

Members of Columbia University’s student council voted on Sunday in favor of holding a divestment referendum in the spring of 2020, in which students will vote on whether to divest “from companies that profit from or engage in the State of Israel’s acts towards Palestinians that, according to CUAD, fall under the United Nations International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid acts against Palestinians.”

The secret ballot, proposed by student group Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), passed 25-12 in the Columbia College Student Council, reported the Columbia Spectator.
Following the vote, supporters were recorded chanting the slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which calls for the destruction of Israel between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea.

According to Ofir Dayan, the president of Columbia Students Supporting Israel, Jewish and pro-Israel students will fight the referendum, saying “we understand that the sole purpose of it is to marginalize us.”...