The University of California, Irvine student senate passed a non-binding resolution Tuesday night asking the school to divest from eight companies doing business with Israel, accusing the Jewish state of "apartheid."
The resolution has not yet earned the approval of the UC Irvine student government's executive board, a body that would pass on the resolution to the school's administration. If UC Irvine adopts legislation recommending divestment from companies doing business with Israel, it would be the first California campus to do so.
Associated Students-UC Irvine (ASUCI) voted 16-0 to request divestment from Caterpillar, Cement Roadstones Holding, Cemex, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Raytheon, Sodastream, and L-3 Communications, according to the resolution (http://is.gd/A3NwN6). ASUCI—using language resembling that of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement—said those companies "have promoted and been complicit" in "ongoing human rights violations systematically committed by the Israeli government."
Roz Rothstein, CEO of the pro-Israel education group StandWithUs, told JNS.org: "This is extremely disappointing and divisive to the students on campus."
"We sincerely hope that the executive board of the student government will reject this extremist resolution," she said.
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