April 25, 2015 — New York, New York
AJC condemned the New York University Graduate Student Organizing Committee’s endorsement of a resolution to boycott Israel. The resolution, adopted by the group on the eve of Passover, calls on the university and the student group’s parent union, the United Auto Workers International, to divest from Israeli companies. It also calls on NYU to end its education program at Tel Aviv University.
“With this grotesquely misguided action, NYU’s graduate student union has now joined the BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement, which, let’s be clear, does not seek peace, but instead specifically targets Israel and questions its very right to exist,” said Michael Schmidt, Director of AJC’s New York Region. “The NYU graduate student union exists, we wished to believe, to improve the working conditions for the university’s graduate students, and not to engage in unrelated, anti-Israel political propaganda.”
In January, the UAW International struck down a similar boycott resolution against Israel that the University of California Student Workers Union, UAW Local 2865, had passed in December 2014.
“We look forward to the UAW International taking action to correct this mistake by the NYU graduate student union,” said Schmidt. “Moreover, as a NYU spokesman has emphasized, the BDS resolution contravenes the university’s longstanding policy opposing boycotts of Israeli academics and institutions.”
