A majority of the Barnard College student body voted to ask the school administration to divest from eight companies because they do business with the State of Israel.
Nearly 50 percent of the entire student body took part in the vote, with 64 percent voting in favor of asking the Student Government Association to write the administration a letter asking the college to divest from Israel. Barnard has a whopping 33 percent Jewish population.
Pro-Israel students on the campus, which is connected with Columbia University, reported that they were only given one day’s notice of the student government meeting addressing the ballot, and were not given time to make a presentation or contribute to the wording of the measure.
Supporters of the measure said that Israel’s power advantage neutralized the need to include pro-Israel voices in the discussion.
The companies targeted by the campaign are Caterpillar, Mekorot, Bank Hapoalim, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems and Boeing.
Student government members will meet on April 23 to determine whether they will go through with penning the letter.
