Occupation Debate: Caterpillar, whose equipment is used by Israeli authorities, is one of the companies targeted by students at the University of California at Berkeley. Image by wiki commons

A student senate at the University of California, Berkeley narrowly passed a measure calling on the school to divest from three companies with dealings in the West Bank.

Following 10 hours of sometimes heated debate, the Associated Students of the University of California senate early Wednesday morning passed the resolution in an 11-9 vote, the student newspaper, the Daily Californian, reported.

The resolution calls on the school to divest more than $14 million in university and Associated Students funds from Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard and Cement Roadstone Holding, saying they profit from Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Jewish settlements there.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker, a proponent of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, came to support the resolution. Many faculty and community members attended the debate.

“Tonight is not about corporations,” Sadia Saifuddin, one of the resolution’s co-sponsors, told the Daily Californian, according to the j. weekly. “It’s about asking ourselves before we go to sleep whether our money is going toward the destruction of homes, toward the erection of a wall” – a reference to the security fence.

Saifuddin added, “I don’t want one cent of my money to go toward fueling the occupation of my brothers and sisters.”

Jason Bell, an opponent of the divestment measure, told the student paper, according to the j., that the resolution language “frames Israel as the sole aggressor.”

“This is more than just divesting from three companies,” he said. “Divestment is undoubtedly taking a side in the conflict.”

Similar resolutions have been passed at the University of California campuses in Irvine and San Diego.

The University of California, Riverside’s student government passed a BDS resolution last month that was overturned on April 3 – opponents argued that they were not given enough time to prepare for the vote. BDS measures also were rejected in the last two months at UC-Santa Barbara and Stanford University, the j. reported.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount