Columbia University to Hold Israel Divestment Referendum; Supporters Chant ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free’
Shiri Moshe
The Algemeiner
Mon Nov 25 2019
Student leaders at Columbia University in New York voted on Sunday to hold a referendum on divestment from Israel, following a multi-year push by anti-Zionist students and protests from the campus Jewish community.
Columbia College Student Council (CCSC) representatives voted 25-12 via secret ballot in favor of the initiative, which was brought forward by members of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD).
The measure, which will appear on the Spring 2020 elections ballot, will ask students whether the university should 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 student-run Columbia Spectator reported.
CAUD has called on university officials to divest since 2016, drawing opposition from Jewish and Zionist groups on campus. An earlier CUAD attempt to pass the ballot initiative was voted down by the CCSC this past March by a margin of 20-17, and in 2017 by a margin of 26-5....
