Yale student body approves divestment referendum targeting Israel

Speaking to the Yale Daily News, Han Pimental-Hayes, a leader of the anti-Zionist Sumud Coalition group which authored the resolution, praised the outcome of the referendum as expressing the will of students.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

Yale University students have voted in favor of a referendum calling for the school’s divestment from Israel — a core tenet of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement — the Yale Daily News reported on Sunday.

“The referendum, proposed and written by the pro-Palestine Sumud Coalition, asked three questions. The first two ask whether Yale should disclose and divest from its holdings in military weapons manufacturers, ‘including those arming Israel,’ and the third asks whether Yale should ‘act on its commitment to education by investing in Palestinian scholars and students,’” the paper reported, noting that while each item received overwhelming “yes votes,” they equaled just over one-third of the student body.

The low-threshold is, however, sufficient for the referendum questions being codified and passed as a resolution by the Yale College Council (YCC), which facilitated the referendum and spoke positively of it before students cast their votes.

It also rings loudly to the school’s Jewish community, senior Netanel Crispe told The Algemeiner during an interview, explaining that some 2,500 students voted for a policy aimed at compromising Israel’s national security to precipitate its destruction.

Crispe, as well as his fellow student Sahar Tartak, led a campaign against the referendum.

“We put up a good fight, and I am immensely proud and grateful for all the students who organized to support the ‘vote no’ campaign,” Crispe said.

“While this ultimately represents the opinion of less than half the student body, it highlights the level of animosity, discrimination, and, to a large degree, Jew-hatred that is present on this campus. What they said is that they support destruction of Jews, the abandonment of Western values, and are willing to do anything at their disposal to accomplish those goals.”

He continued, “The largest consequence of this resolution and its passing on the student level is its effect on the Jewish students. Some 2,000 of our peers were willing to publicly make it clear that they don’t support us and that they’re willing to go in favor of a bill that specifically targets the Jewish state and the land of Israel while labeling it as an apartheid state and perpetrator of genocide. I’ve seen no such bill or resolution put forth or passed to condemn Hamas’s actions on Oct. 7 or to support Jewish life or condemn antisemitism.”

On Monday, Yale University told The Algemeiner it will continue to foster intellectual diversity and a robust Jewish student life without discussing the merits, or lack thereof, of the referendum.

“The university remains committed to fostering an academic environment where all can feel a sense of belonging,” a spokesperson said.

“There are strong collaborations and close working relationships among the Joseph Slikfa Center for Jewish Life at Yale, Chabad at Yale, the University’s Chaplain’s Office, the faculty-led Advisory Committee on Jewish Student Life, and other offices across Yale, including the Yale College Dean’s Office and the Office of the President. For example, the Advisory Committee on Jewish Student Life is helping to guide the university’s continued efforts to support and enhance student life for Yale’s Jewish students.”

Regarding the referendum, the university said, “The referendum votes are expected to be formally transmitted to President [Maurie McInnis] this week. The YCC followed the referendum process according to its by-laws, and throughout the voting process, many undergraduate students and other members of the Yale community — including graduate and professional school students, faculty, staff, alumni, and parents — shared their views openly with one another and with Yale University leaders.”

Speaking to the Yale Daily News, Han Pimental-Hayes, a leader of the anti-Zionist Sumud Coalition group which authored the resolution, praised the outcome of the referendum as expressing the will of students.

“University leaders have long tried to paint pro-Palestine and pro-divestment students as a fringe majority,” she said. “The results of this referendum demonstrate that, in reality, the movement for a free Palestine and a more ethical endowment is overwhelmingly popular.”

Yale University’s Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility (ACIR) has before ruled against divesting from armaments manufacturers, saying in April that “it does not believe that such activity meets the criteria for divestment” because “this manufacturing supports socially necessary uses, such as law enforcement and national security.”

The decision set off a raging protest which resulted in the assault of a Jewish student and the arrest of some 47 students who had trespassed Beinecke Plaza, where they vowed to abstain from food unless the university acceded to their demands.

The campus has seen a heightening of anti-Zionist and antisemitic behavior since Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7.

Less than a month after the onslaught, the Yale Daily News came under fire for removing what it called “unsubstantiated claims” of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas raping and beheading Israelis on Oct. 7 from an article written by Sahar Tartak.

Published on Oct. 12, the column — which lambasted Yalies4Palestine (Y4P), for defending and seemingly applauding Hamas’s atrocities — was at some point afterward censored to no longer include a portion describing reports and eyewitness accounts of Hamas raping and beheading Israeli civilians. The paper later apologized.

Additionally, on the day of the massacre, Zareena Grewal — an associate professor of American Studies, Ethnicity, Race & Migration, and Religious Studies at Yale who describes herself as a “radical Muslim” — defended Hamas, saying it had “every right to resist through armed struggle” while denouncing Israel as as a “murderous, genocidal settler state.”

Most recently, a pro-Hamas activist spat in the direction of Jewish students, a group which included Tartak, for campaigning against the referendum.

On Monday, during an interview with The Algemeiner, Tartak called on the campus’ Jewish community to confront hostility with courage and strength in numbers.

“Our response to this should be an even stronger and prouder Judaism,” she said.

“We need Shabbat dinners to be twice as large, twice as many students visiting Israel for Birthright, lighting Shabbat candles, and coming to Jewish learning classes and Torah study. That’s the way we empower Jewish students: make them connected in proportion to the extent that they are being targeted on campus.”

American campusesAntisemitismBDSdivestmentYale