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14 November 23 • 2017 jn Students pass BDS resolution at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. S eth Schostak says the power of the University of Michigan's Central Student Government (CSG) to influence the administration — especially in matters of money — is overesti- mated. Still, he was disap- pointed in the CSG vote Nov. 15 on a resolution that asks the school to divest from three major corporations that do business with Israel. Schostak, a junior from Huntington Woods who serves as a voting member of the CSG, was among the many students who spoke at an all-night debate over the resolution that pinpointed U-M's holdings in Boeing, Hewlett-Packard and United Technologies — compa- nies that produce weapons and information systems Israel uses to prop up its alleged "apartheid system" against the Palestinians. The resolution, which passed 23-17, with five abstentions, asks regents to appoint a committee to "investigate the ethical and moral implications of our invest- ments in corporations Boeing, HP, and United Technologies, which are involved in human rights violations against the Palestinian people according to international law" and to do so within a year of the committee's recommendations. The vote was the first success- ful attempt in the past 12 years to pass a divestment resolution, which was brought by a group called Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE). "I voted against the resolution. I voted the same way last year," he said. Schostak thinks one of the main reasons the resolution passed this year was the "false dichotomy" SAFE presented. "They equated a 'no' vote to mean that you do not care about Palestinian human rights, whereas a 'yes' vote would mean you believe in Palestinian human rights," he said. As presented, the resolution said nothing of the anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiments that have made Jewish students uncomfortable, he said. U-M Regent Andrea Fischer Newman said on the morning of the vote that the board will not take up the resolution. "The students have the right to express them- selves, and obviously a right to free speech," she said. "We're not going to disinvest in Israel. Our invest- ment strategies are based on what's best for the endowment, what's best for the university. We're not in agreement with using politics to make decisions." The only times in recent his- tory that the Board of Regents divested holdings was in South Africa in 1978 to protest apartheid and in 2000, from tobacco companies. The weeks leading up to th e U-M vote were fraught with protests and accusa- tions and leaks. Hillel sent around a petition asking students to oppose the resolution, and provided several trainings to empower stu- dents to speak against the resolution. Ari Spellman, 21, the Israel Cohort chairman of Hillel, blamed Canary Mission, in part, for the passage of the resolution. The organi- zation collects names of students it deems to be anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic. "Their goals are to intimidate students on college campus, blow their statements and actions out of propor- tion, and prevent BDS votes from passing. That seems pretty ironic considering that their blacklist was one of the key factors in last night's resolution passing," he said. An unjust narrative that sug- gests that anti-divestment, pro- Israel students are racist and xenophobic also contributed to a lack of sympathy, he said. "I would say this isn't a good sign for Jewish students, but I wholeheartedly believe the outcome will not impact the Jewish stu- dent experience in any way," Spellman said. Hillel Executive Director Tilly Shames issued a joint state- ment after the vote with senior Joshua Blum, Hillel board chairman, urging U-M President Mark Schlissel to condemn this "one-sided and hurtful" resolution. Yet, "while deeply hurtful to many stu- dents, this was a Student Government vote that has no bearing on the university or its investment policy. In fact, the Board of Regents has already spo- ken against a similar resolution passed at U-M Dearborn last winter, [with U-M Regent Mark Bernstein] calling [BDS] 'an intel- lectually bankrupt and morally repugnant expression of anti- Semitism,'" the statement read. "We hope students will take advantage of all the ways they can engage in dialogue with other communities, Israel educa- tion programs and the numer- ous access points to Jewish life through Hillel." Blum, an Atlanta native, said the current cultural climate likely made it easier to pass the resolu- tion after so many past attempts. But he doesn't see it as anti- Semitic. "I think the authors' goal of the resolution was to serve as a way for Palestinians to express their sentiments regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I don't believe their intentions were to attack Jewish identities, but rath- er, discuss their own," he said. The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit helped to circulate the Hillel memo to the community and alumni. Federation President Beverly Liss said she was disappointed and "deeply saddened" by the vote. "On the other hand, I commend students for all the work that went into defeat- ing the resolution," despite the outcome." Federation, JCRC/ AJC and Anti- Defamation League Michigan issued a statement Wednesday about the vote: "The passage of the resolution reflects the advocacy of a small and vocal group of students who made this their priority issue. These activists took advantage of conditions on campus favorable to their cause as they conflated divestment with other popular social justice causes." • For more on this story, go to Views, page 8. U-M professor Victor Lieberman, who was not allowed to speak at the CSG meeting, and U-M Regent Mark Bernstein offer their comments online at thejewishnews.com. JULIE EDGAR CONTRIBUTING WRITER Attendees at the Central Student Government (CSG) at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, which voted last week for a resolution to divest the university's holdings in companies that do business with Israel. jews d in the (CREDIT: YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT) Tilly Shames Joshua Blum Beverly Liss Ari Spellman Andrea Fischer Newman Historic Vote Seth Schostak