Anti-Israel divestment proposal fails at Princeton
A student-led effort to divest from Israel has failed at Princeton University.
The proposal was backed by 32 campus groups, including the Alliance of Jewish Progressives, Princeton Students for Justice in Palestine, and the Black Student Union.
A student-led effort to divest from Israel has failed at Princeton University.
The Daily Princetonian has reported that the proposal pushed by the Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest student group will no longer be considered by the university’s Resources Committee, which is a collection of students and faculty who “consider questions of general policy concerning the procurement and management of the University’s financial resources” for the board of trustees.
[RELATED: Anti-Israel student activists double down on calls for Princeton to divest from Israel]
On March 5, Resources Committee Chair John Groves published a piece explaining the decision.
”[T]here does appear to be sustained campus interest in the question of whether to dissociate from Israel, as evidenced by the intensity of input we received and the persistence of interest over time,” he noted.
”Without the possibility of consensus, there can be no divestment and dissociation at Princeton, and the feedback we received made it plain that our community is sharply and inexorably divided on this topic,” he continued. “Indeed, our process revealed that a lack of consensus is a defining quality of the Princeton conversation about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
Groves also noted how the committee “reached the same conclusion” against an anti-Israel measure in 2014.
That same day, the Resources Committee also published a report further detailing its decision against advancing the resolution to the board.
”Given the stark divide in perspectives on campus, and the corresponding divergence in the application of the University’s values, the Resources Committee has concluded that widespread, deliberative agreement and consensus related to the content outlined in the PIAD proposal has not been achieved,” the document reads.
The Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest proposal consisted of over 60 pages and accused the Jewish state of “Violations of International Law and Human Rights.” The document was also backed by 32 campus groups, including the Alliance of Jewish Progressives, Princeton Students for Justice in Palestine, and the Black Student Union.
The failed resolution called for the university to adopt a policy stating: “Princeton University is committed to divesting its endowment of entities that enable or facilitate human rights violations or violations of international law as part of Israel’s illegal occupations, apartheid practices, and plausible acts of genocide.”