Go Anteaters! UC Irvine rescinds BDS resolution

The University of California at Irvine Student Senate has repealed a 2012 resolution that called for the campus to divest from companies that do business with Israel.

Meeting on March 31, the Associated Students of UC Irvine voted to repeal the earlier BDS resolution by a vote of 15 for, 6 against, with 2 abstentions.

Senator Marshall Roe introduced a resolution to repeal  R48-15 , stating it had contributed to a hostile campus climate for Jewish students.   The boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement was denounced as “contrary to the foundational ideals of Higher Education and thus the values of the UC.”

Senate Roe, quoted in the Jerusalem Post expressed his desire that the repeal of the highly divisive resolution would return the campus to a position of neutrality on the conflict

“I believe that embracing neutrality on this matter and thus repealing R48-15 would dispel the noxious atmosphere and create neutrality on campus, a neutrality that would foster an environment of reconciliation rather than rancor.”

When the original resolution passed in 2012, Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada gloated that the "historic" vote was a "stinging defeat" to "Zionist bullying" on campus.   He has not made a statement since the original vote was rescinded.

In the 8 years since  the passage of the  original BDS resolution, not a cent have been divested from UC Irvine, or any campus of the University of California. The UC Irvine / Israel Engineering Initiative remains strong and supports collaborative  educational research initiatives withTel Aviv University, the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology), Ben Gurion University and Hebrew University.

For more information on the repeal of UC Irvine's BDS resolution see:

UCI Student Senate Repeals BDS Resolution

UC Irvine Student Senate repeals BDS resolution