College and University Monitor

This is a guest blog written by Ofir Dayan, President of Students Supporting Israel at Columbia University.
Few are the issues that can make 150 people wait outside a room for five hours, knowing that only 20 will be able to enter. One such issue is the boycott of Israel, discussed this week at the Columbia University Student Council, and while Columbia is one of the best universities in the United States, it is also one of the most anti-Israel ones. The anti-Israel students and organizations were not afraid to use lies in order to persuade the council to promote an initiative to withdraw the University’s nearly $10 billion worth of investments from companies doing business in Israel. It turns out that in the imaginary world in which they live, the UN decision that Zionism is racism is legitimate and has never been annulled; the term “Apartheid” refers to Israel and not to South Africa; the university should withdraw its investments from companies that it’s not even invested in.
But we won. Even at one of the more hostile universities to Israel, the Student Council could not deny the direct connection between BDS to the increase in anti-Semitic incidents and the unequivocal calls by members of the boycott organizations, including students in Colombia, to wipe the State of Israel off the map. After their defeat, the anti-Israel organizations proved exactly what they had been saying over the last few weeks. Instead of honoring the council’s decision and to conclude the event, they began to block the passage to pro-Israel students, screaming at them slogans calling for the destruction of Israel, such as “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and cursing the council and its members with insults that should not be repeated....