University Panel Orders Student Govt. Reps To Apologize For Passover BDS Vote
Image by University of Wisconsin
Student government representatives were ordered to apologize after they held meetings during Passover to discuss divestment from Israel.
The decision came from the Student Judiciary arm of the Associated Students of Madison, the university student government. It demanded that the ASM chairwoman write a letter to apologize and explain “why Passover is important to the Jewish community,” and advised the former chairwoman to attend religious tolerance training.
The controversy began in late March, when ASM members — at the urging of Madison’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter — proposed a resolution calling for the university to divest from corporations linked to the “Military-Industrial Complex, Private Prisons, [and] Fossil Fuel Companies.”
Most of the document focused on Israel, referring to the Jewish state as an “Apartheid Regime” and tying it to the American “alt-right” – a racist movement that has targeted American Jews for special censure. It also criticized programs in which American police officer receive training in Israel, tying those activities to cases of domestic police brutality.
Jewish students succeeded in having the measure tabled, only to see a version of it resurrected at a meeting held on the second day of Passover, when many Jewish students were tending to religious obligations.
The student judiciary ruled that this was wrong. “Excluding students from meetings due to their religious beliefs, particularly when said students have expressed interest in a committee’s activities, violates ASM’s Constitution,” it held.
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
