(Irvine, CA — February 10, 2020) — StandWithUs strongly condemns the passage of an antisemitic student government resolution to divest from companies doing business with Israel. The Associated Students of the University of California in Irvine (ASUCI) Senate passed the resolution with a vote of 19 in favor and 3 against on February 10.
“We are proud of the students who stood up to this campaign of hate,” said Roz Rothstein, StandWithUs co-founder and CEO. “It is shameful that the Senate passed a resolution with such hateful and misleading language. As the Middle East and the rest of the world move towards viable solutions to a more peaceful future, this does nothing to help Israelis or Palestinians, and will only deepen divisions and hostility against Jewish students on campus.”
“We appreciate UCI Administration’s statement issued on February 10 that confirms that the BDS resolution has ‘no impact on UCI’s operations and does not reflect the university’s views…'”, added Rena Nasar First, StandWithUs executive director of campus affairs.
The vote clearly did not reflect public opinion, as the majority of those who spoke in public comment were against the resolution. Additionally, students reported that antisemitic comments were made during the meeting, as frequently happens when such resolutions are brought to student governments. The resolution itself smeared Israel by falsely claiming it is denying COVID-19 vaccines to Palestinians, among other vicious and dehumanizing accusations.
StandWithUs will continue to work with ICC, Hillel, and all of our partners to support the Jewish and pro-Israel community at UC Irvine, as they fight antisemitic and educate about Israel on campus.
StandWithUs is proud to have launched the People’s Abraham Accords which invites people from all over the world to sign these accords in support of cooperation, normalization, and peace. We hope that students at UC Irvine and beyond will explore such initiatives going forward instead of supporting destructive antisemitic trials against Israel.
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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