CUNY student council approves resolution boycotting Israel, calls on university to kick out NYPD
The resolution divests student council funds from companies like Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Papa John’s, which the students condemned for having ties to the Jewish state.
The resolution also seemingly called on the school to approve the use of terrorist violence, calling on CUNY to recognize ‘the right . . . of colonized peoples to resist their colonizers, including by armed means.’
The Doctoral and Graduate Students Council (DGSC) at the City University of New York (CUNY) passed a resolution to stop DGSC funds from going to “products or services that support or benefit from” what the group termed “the US-backed Israeli occupation of Palestine.”
The resolution, titled “Five Demands for Palestine,” was passed on Oct. 18 by a 31-8 vote. The list of brands that the DGSC will now boycott includes Starbucks, Sabra hummus, McDonald’s, Papa John’s, several Israeli companies, and “[e]vents or publications that cooperate with or promote Israeli academic institutions.”
The “Five Demands” of the activists call for CUNY to divest from Israel, ban “all academic trips to Israel,” recognize “the right . . . of colonized peoples to resist their colonizers, including by armed means,” terminate the New York Police Department and Israeli Defense Forces presence on campus, and provide a “fully-funded, free CUNY” for students.
[RELATED: ‘Meet the 11 anti-Israel agitators arrested after occupying a University of Minnesota building’]
The resolution also condemned CUNY for spending more than $8 million in Fiscal Year 2020-2021 on companies that have ties with Israel, which the DGSC accuses of “occupation and genocide.”
The student council has received criticism for passing the anti-Israel resolution.
Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, former member of the CUNY board of trustees, said: “It’s an absolute violation. You can’t have Jewish students pay for fees used for prejudicial activity against them.”
He added: “Absolutely 100 percent it’s antisemitic.”
CUNY Professor David Seidemann told Campus Reform: “Withholding publicly funded resources from those with different political beliefs - as the council rule threatens - constitutes viewpoint discrimination, a violation of the First Amendment.”
He also said that the resolution violates “NYS Executive Order 158,” which “directs State entities to divest all public funds supporting the BDS campaign against Israel.” Seidemann asked: “Why hasn’t the state Commissioner listed the student council, in its capacity as a subsidiary of CUNY, as being an entity in violation of the prohibition against BDS activity? That would compel CUNY to act to stop funding the student council[?]”
“Alternatively, why hasn’t CUNY acted on its own to stop funding the student council, given that the council is clearly engaged in what Executive Order 157 prohibits[?]” he added.
Seidemann also shared with Campus Reform an article discussing a report from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office that stated that “current [CUNY] policies and procedures for preventing and addressing antisemitism and discrimination need to be significantly overhauled and updated.”
A CUNY Graduate Center spokesperson also told Campus Reform that the resolution “does not represent the views of CUNY Graduate Center or those of the University community as a whole. The CUNY Graduate Center is home to a great many membership organizations that hold their own opinions, and we remain committed to building a welcoming campus for all members of the community.”
