The student government at San Francisco State University passed a resolution on Wednesday calling on the school to divest from more than 100 companies that do business with Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
The resolution passed with 17 votes in favor, one against and two abstentions, according to journalist Gabriel Lorenzo Greschler.
“[T]hese investments harm San Francisco State’s Palestinian, Arab, Muslim students, many of whom have families who currently live under Israeli occupation, or are descendants of Palestinians who have been killed or forcibly relocated as a result of Israel’s occupation of Palestine,” stated the resolution, reported The Jewish News of Northern California.
San Francisco Hillel executive director Rachel Nilson Ralston denounced the resolution.
“This resolution has, sadly, had a real and negative impact on our students’ wellness and experience of their campus,” she told Jewish Journal. “Their health, safety and inclusion remain SF Hillel’s biggest concern.”
“This resolution was particularly upsetting, given the challenges they’ve already faced this semester and the fact that the resolution is symbolic,” she said. “Those actually responsible for SF State’s investments will not let BDS resolutions affect their stewardship. But BDS’s real danger is that it seeks to influence the open hearts and minds of tomorrow’s leaders from a one-sided, deeply biased narrative against Israel.”
