The Florida State University student senate is expected to vote on three resolutions next week, including one calling on the university to join the BDS movement against Israel.
Before the resolutions can reach the full student senate, they must be passed by the Student Life and Academic Affairs Committee.
The BDS resolution calls on the university to divest from companies that do business in Israel—namely, for “FSU trustees to review their investments and to divest from companies that violate international humanitarian law.” It calls out Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and the U.K.-based multinational security services company G4S as examples.
An FSU spokesperson previously told JNS that while the university “supports freedom of expression, it does not tolerate discrimination of any kind.”
Another one of the resolutions calls on FSU to “rescind” its adoption of the widely accepted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism.
The resolution calls on the university to “find a more appropriate definition of anti-Semitism to ensure support and protection for Jewish students. However, this definition must not be one that will erode free speech rights for Palestinian, Jewish and Allied Students on campus who wish to legitimately support the Palestinians People’s movement for the right to Self-Determination, Freedom and Human Rights.”
The third resolution calls on FSU, the student senate and Student Government Association “to take both short- and long-term action to ensure that Florida State University is a just, fair and welcoming place for all students, but more specifically, for Arab and Muslim students.”
The primary sponsor of the resolutions, which JNS obtained, is Ahmad Daraldik, who was recently removed from his position as president of the student senate but is still a member. In June 2020, the student senate voted against removing him as president, despite his anti-Semitic posts.
