Cornell Graduate Student Workers United, the union affiliate of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America on the Cornell University campus, said on Wednesday that its members voted to endorse a boycott of Israel.
“Standing with the strength of Palestinians resisting a genocide, and their unequivocal human right to resist oppression by any means necessary, workers around the world are building power through the belief that we free Palestine, and Palestine frees us,” the union stated.
Some 72.2% of the union members who cast a vote were in favor of the measure, and 27.8% were opposed, according to an email to union members that JNS viewed.
The union told its members in an email, obtained by JNS, that 72.22% of its members voted for the referendum and 27.77% voted against it. (JNS sought comment from the union.)
The measure both accuses Cornell of being “implicated in the Israeli genocide of Palestinians through research, recruitment and financial ties with the weapons industry and endowment investments.
The resolution “explicitly echoes Hamas’s rhetoric used to justify the atrocities of Oct. 7” and “fosters a hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli students,” David Rubinstein, a doctoral student at Cornell who testified on the subject before the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions in September, told JNS.
It is “beyond time” for the university to hold the union “accountable and stop ignoring its calls for violence,” he told JNS. “If the university abdicates responsibility for its civil rights obligations, it must face consequences.”
A Cornell spokesman told JNS that the resolution from the union, which is a separate entity, doesn’t reflect the views of the private Ithaca, N.Y., school.
“Cornell’s leadership firmly denounces antisemitism and has repeatedly affirmed the university’s dedication to ensuring the safety and well-being of all students,” the spokesman said.
