(Tallahassee, FL — February 8, 2021) — StandWithUs applauds Florida State University (FSU) students for defeating hateful and misleading Student Senate resolutions which supported BDS and attacked the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism.
The resolutions were authored by former Student Senate President Ahmad Daraldik, who repeatedly used his position to promote antisemitism in 2020. After being removed and later reinstated as a senator, he introduced three resolutions that were harmful to the Jewish community. Two of them attacked the IHRA Definition, which FSU Jewish students overwhelmingly support and was adopted by the university in August, 2020. The other was a discriminatory BDS resolution promoting divestment from companies doing business with Israel. Jewish students and their allies firmly advocated against these unacceptable attacks against the Jewish community, and defeated all of them in committee before they could reach the Student Senate floor. The BDS resolution failed unanimously. One of the anti-IHRA resolutions failed with a vote of 0-7-3, while the other was unanimously amended to remove all anti-IHRA language that was harmful to the Jewish community.
“I am so proud of Jewish and pro-Israel students at Florida State University for their tireless work. They did not rest until they made sure their community was represented, supported, and protected. They told their stories bravely and did an outstanding job educating their peers about Israel, the Jewish people, and antisemitism. “ said Talia Lerner, StandWithUs Senior Southern Campus Coordinator.
These reprehensible resolutions followed a tumultuous summer which saw Jewish students spend months fighting the former Senate President’s antisemitism. Due to their efforts, the Student Senate passed a resolution in support of Jewish representation and protections, including an endorsement of the IHRA Definition.
StandWithUs commends the Jewish Student Union, Noles for Israel, CUFI, and Mishelanu for their dedication and courage in standing up for Jewish students. We will continue to work with ICC, Hillel International, Hillel at FSU, and all of our partners to help students fight against antisemitism and educate about Israel on campus.
About StandWithUs
StandWithUs (SWU) is an international, non-profit and non-partisan Israel education organization that works to inspire and educate people of all ages about Israel, as well as challenge misinformation and fight against antisemitism.
Through university fellowships, high school internships, middle school curricula, conferences, materials, social media, educational films and missions to Israel, StandWithUs supports people around the world who want to educate their schools and communities about Israel.
Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Los Angeles, the organization has chapters and programs on 5 continents, including the U.S., Israel, UK, Canada, South Africa and Brazil.
For the last 7 years, SWU has consistently received the highest possible ratings from Charity Navigator (4 stars) and Guidestar (Platinum).
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