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The final vote was 20 in favor, nine against and seven abstentions.
The BDS resolution named companies such as Elbit Systems Ltd., Northrop Grumman and Raytheon as “involved in human-rights violations and violations of international law, including the confiscation and destruction of Palestinian lands, criminalization of immigrants and communities of color, and other human rights violations,” and therefore “make UIUC complicit in these crimes.”
The resolution was co-authored by Dunia Ghanimah, president of the university’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and has 22 sponsors, including Academic Affairs chair Sihah Reza.
It was endorsed by half of the student senate’s leadership committee, including Kirsten Peterson, chair of Community & Governmental Affairs; Internal Affairs Chair Katrina Rbeiz; Campus Affairs Chair Alexis Perezchica; Financial Affairs Chair Jessica Tiggelaar; Bugra Sahin, chair of Sustainability, Resilience and Environmental Justice; and Shelby Sears, an event management student ambassador at the university’s division of intercollegiate athletics, according to her LinkedIn profile.
An amendment to take out all references to Israel failed by a vote of 11 in favor, 22 against and six abstentions.
Jewish and pro-Israel groups expressed stark disapproval over the resolution’s passage.
In a joint statement, Illini Hillel and the Jewish United Fund in Chicago said, “Jewish students and allies worked hard to defeat the bill, with more than 30 students speaking out against the bill in public comments. Unfortunately, the climate of ISG was deeply hostile not only to Israel, but also to Jewish communal concerns.”
“Jewish student leaders spoke clearly and thoughtfully about the threat of rising antisemitism,” they added, ”and the fact is that the U of I student body overwhelmingly rejected BDS referenda twice in prior years.”
