RESOLVING TO

DIVEST
THE HISTORY OF SJP AT UCLAS
DIVESTMENT CAMPAIGN

Arturospeaksatdivestment,Fall2014

ABSTRACT
----X
This article reviews the history of Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLAs campaign to pass a
divestment resolution through the Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC). In the
pages that follow, this article briefly historicizes campus Palestine activism, reviews the history
of SJP at UCLA, and then provides a detailed historical account and analysis of the divestment
struggle, from the first discussions of ethical investments in early 2013 to the ultimate passage
of divestment in November, 20141.

ThisarticleistheculminationofyearsofadvocacyforthePalestiniancauseaswellasaconscious
attempttobattleanahistoricalunderstandingofcampusPalestineorganizingthathasallowedforpersistent
mischaracterizationsofthisstrandofactivismandrelevantorganizations.Butmanyoftheissuespresented
herearepresentlyevolving,andinformationpertainingtotheformativeyearsofPalestineorganizinginthe
USremainsdifficulttocomeby.Thecoauthorsthereforeconsiderthistexttobeafluidarchive,andinvite
allconnectedtotheeffortsrecountedheretocontinuetosharetheirstoriesandwisdom.
1

Background
----X

PART1:SJPSHISTORY

A Brief History of Campus Palestine Activism

As Raja Abdulhaq writes in an article reflecting on the legacy and present status of the General
Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS), "From the very beginning, students have played an active
role in the Palestinian national movement2 ." The Organization of Arab Students (OAS), founded
in the US and Canada in 1952, was the first North American student organization to engage in
pro-Palestine activist work, which it carried out within the context of a larger, pan-Arab struggle.
However, GUPS would soon come to take the helm concerning student Palestine organizing.
Founded in Cairo in 1959, GUPS had "more than 100... branches worldwide." In her lecture,
"Historicizing the Palestinian Struggle," Jennifer Mogannam explains how the framing of
Palestine as an anti-colonial cause resonated with the internationalist bents of many
organizations3. North American branches of GUPS forged connections with other causes, a
pattern that continued up through the 1980's with GUPS at San Francisco State playing a
particularly crucial role. These developments occurred in tandem with the redefinition of the
campus as a critical setting for political activism that had been initiated by the Free Speech
Movement, which began at UC Berkeley, and the student-strikes of the late 60s/early 70s that
included addressing crucial gaps in educational curricula through the formation of Ethnic Studies
5
programs (among others) as a platform4,
. Contemporary manifestations of inter-community
accompliceship around the Palestinian cause on campus were made possible by these early
legacies of joint struggle6.

But over time, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) shifted its focus from an
international anti-colonial struggle to a two-state solution, and following the Oslo Accords all
2

RajaAbdulhaq,RebuildingaGeneralUnionofPalestinianStudents
https://electronicintifada.net/content/rebuildinggeneralunionpalestinianstudents/7821
3
JenniferMoghannam,
HistoricizingthePalestinianStruggle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0KIORWHaUw
4
Calisphere,TheFreeSpeechMovement
http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/themed_collections/subtopic6b.html
5
JoanneBarker,TheBeginningandEndofEthnicStudies
https://tequilasovereign.wordpress.com/2016/02/22/thebeginningandendofethnicstudies/
6
JimmyJohnson,OurPalestinestatementdrawsonhistoryofBlackinternationalism,saysorganizer
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/jimmyjohnson/ourpalestinestatementdrawshistoryblackinternationalis
msaysorganizer

North American branches of GUPS eventually dissolved with the exception of the San Francisco
State chapter, which remains active to this day7 . Relatively little is known about the state of
campus organizing in the years directly following the decline of GUPS, but in 2001, the first
chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) was formed at UC Berkeley. In 2002, a new
national student coalition known as the Palestine Solidarity Movement was formed, holding
conferences at Berkeley, Michigan, Ohio State, Duke, and Georgetown. Although the organization
dissipated, by 2005 SJPs had sprung up at universities across the country. And in 2011, a new
organization named National Students for Justice in Palestine had been formed to continue
organizing national conferences and providing support for the roughly 100 chapters of SJP that
now exist across the country.

BDS work, primarily in the form of passing resolutions calling on universities to pull
funding from companies complicit in the occupation, began to take increasing priority in the
efforts of campus groups such as SJP and Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER)
following Palestinian Civil Society's call in 2005. These early political formations and subsequent
domestic, international and ideological shifts remain a living component of the present state of
campus Palestine activism.

The Founding and Growth of SJP at UCLA

Although campus activism for Palestine had been taking place at UCLA for many years
prior to the foundation of Students for Justice in Palestine, records of this activity are spotty at
best. Palestine was certainly an issue on the campus, with the campus paper's editorial board
openly endorsing divestment as early as 20028. What is known is that by 2005, students on
campus had decided to establish an independent organization to carry out Palestine activism
work. Founded in 2005, SJP at UCLA began organizing events in early 2006. The organization's
first events included a talk on connecting Native American and Palestinian struggles with
Professor Robert Perez of UC Riverside, a Hip Hop for Palestine Event featuring Invincible, the
Nomads, and the Philistines, and a speakout with an IDF refuser. 2006 also saw the start of ten
consecutive years of Palestine Awareness Week on campus.

The early years of the organization were marked by energetic and creative protests and
actions, such as mobile mock checkpoints and impressive outreach efforts in classrooms. One
shortcoming, however, was a relative lack of focus - the organization's goals shifted depending
on the interests and goals of its leadership. This characterization of the organization may have
applied between 2005 and 2008, but Operation Cast Lead, and the student reaction to it, marked
an important shift in consciousness and strategy.

SFSUGUPS
https://www.facebook.com/GeneralUnionofPalestineStudents
DailyBruinEditorialBoard,UCmustrespecthumanrights,divest
http://dailybruin.com/2002/07/07/editorial19/
7
8

Operation Cast Lead shifted campus activism in two important ways. First, SJP at UCLA
engaged with the political process on campus for the first time, working to pass a resolution
condemning Israel's assault on Gaza and its deadly consequences for the Palestinian people9 .
After a long debate, the resolution eventually passed overwhelmingly. It also enjoyed the
support of student groups from across campus. It was one of several resolutions of solidarity
passed at UCs after Cast Lead. However, despite the resolution's political importance, and the
high degree of work involved in getting it passed through the student government, the text did
not engage with UCLA's own institutional relationship to Palestine/Israel (namely, investments
in companies complicit with the occupation). Second, the post-Cast Lead period of student
organizing at UCLA focused on understanding and working to end institutional complicity with
Israeli human rights violations. In May of 2009 SJP at UCLA held its first event focused on the
BDS call. Although subsequent programming in the years after 2009 included a focus on BDS, it
took several more years for the debate to return to the level of student government. In that
period, other SJPs in the state were also beginning to pass divestment resolutions. In 2010, UC
Berkeley held a highly publicized divestment campaign which was vetoed by the student
government president. Other campuses, such as UC San Diego, also made multiple attempts to
pass divestment. In 2012, however, UC Irvine became the first SJP to successfully pass
divestment in California. It was followed by successful campaigns in 2013 by UC San Diego and
UC Berkeley, with other campaigns growing across the state10.

At that time, SJP at UCLA did not see the orientation of the student government as
favorable to a divestment resolution, and chose not to engage in a specific campaign at that
point. However, the growing campus wide interest in divestment campaigns in general meant
that although SJP wasn't ready to propose divestment, the issue was coming to the campus
anyways. In spring of 2013, a coalition of student groups proposed something more broad,
namely an ethical investments framework that would enact criteria in regards to labor rights,
environmental justice, and human rights.

UCLAs2009GazaResolution
http://www.sjpbruins.com/2/post/2009/02/textof2009uclagazaresolution.html
10
RahimKurwa,BDSCampaignsSweepUCCampuses
http://solidarityus.org/pdfs/ATC\%20165BDS.pdf

EarlyPhotosfromSJPatUCLA

Part2:MomentumBuildsforDivestment
The Beginnings of the Divestment Debate
----X

The Ethical Investments Resolution

"The USAC Resolution for Ethical Investments" proposed in spring 2013 called for the UC
Regents to pull funding from any company found to be complicit in practices harmful to the
environment, workers, and human rights. At the time, one student aptly qualified the collective
relevance of the resolution as follows:

"The USAC Resolution for Ethical Investments is in the interests of all students on campus and
is based on widespread public support for policies favoring human rights, workers' rights and
environmental sustainability11 .

Although not specific to Palestine/Israel, it was common knowledge among concerned

parties that any effort to apply socially responsible criteria to the UC's investments would
necessarily touch on the UC's investments in companies aiding Israel's occupation of the
Palestinian territories.
Unfortunately, a largely conservative student council tabled "The USAC Resolution for
Ethical Investments," and later, at a forum dedicated to addressing public concern about the
resolution, pro-Israel students demanded a clause saying that Israel would be exempt from the
ethical investment framework. This demand revealed that even pro-Israel campus activists knew
Israel's actions were in violation of Palestinian human rights. But in a broader sense, pro-Israel
opposition to the ethical investments resolution demonstrates the hypocrisy of future
anti-divestment tactics: at this point in time, pro-Israel students attacked resolutions for being
too broad, whereas later on they would attack resolutions specifically focused on Israel/Palestine
as too narrow (usually by asking why Israel was being `singled out' when there were so many
other countries perpetrating human rights abuses). According to their stated logic, the broadly
construed ethical investments resolution should have been the perfect solution for those who
use this line of argumentation to oppose Palestine-related divestment measures. The fact that
pro-Israel students nevertheless felt compelled to oppose the resolution shows the artificiality of
the argument, suggesting that the singling out' complaint is merely one out of a slew of often
contradictory and disposable rhetorical strategies used to disguise straightforward nationalism
as ethical vigilance.

At any rate, pro-Israel groups now knew that the issue of divestment had come to UCLA,
and that divestment measures specific to companies aiding Israel's occupation would likely
follow shortly. The ethical investment resolution had opened up a debate that garnered the
widespread interest of students. In May 2013 the student government passed a fossil fuel
divestment resolution, which served as yet another warning sign that more divestment
resolutions were to come12 . This prompted pro-Israel groups to try a new way to head off the
passage of divestment - positive investments.

11

JasonSmith,USACtreatmentofethicalinvestmentpolicyresolutionfailstodisplayunity
http://dailybruin.com/2013/04/15/submissionusactreatmentofethicalinvestmentpolicyresolutionfailstod
isplayunity/
12
UCLAResolutiontoDivestfromFossilFuels
https://www.usac.ucla.edu/documents/resolutions/UCLAResolutiontoUSACfortheDivestmentofFossilFuels.p
df

The Anti-BDS Resolution

SJP-UCLA's first divestment-related victory was not the passage of a divestment

resolution, but rather the successful countering of an anti-divestment resolution authored by
then-USAC Internal Vice President (and later Student Regent) Avi Oved (who would later go on
to be one of the central figures in the Adam Milstein funding controversy)13. Titled, "A
Resolution in Support of Positive Steps Towards an Israeli-Palestinian Peace" (sic) the document
was presented as a "pro-dialogue" and "pro-peace process" measure that called for the UC to
invest in companies employing both Israelis and Palestinians - a concept labelled "positive
investments." But buried in the second page of the resolution were several clauses that actually
disavowed the tactic of divestment as harmful and counterproductive. The resolution was
transparently cynical. As we asked in an article at the time,

"How does ending our investments in companies that violate human rights, in Palestine
or anywhere else, harm anyone on campus? On the other hand, many Palestinian
students at UCLA and on other campuses have expressed great discomfort with the fact
that their tuition dollars are being funneled into companies that are harming their own
families in Palestine14."

Following a lengthy public comment portion (during which many student organizations
came out in support of SJP and against the resolution), as well as an extended editing session on
the part of the student representatives, the resolution was ultimately voted down by a 5-7
margin. The resolution lost its momentum once the clauses banning the student government
from considering divestment were highlighted, and once council members realized how
inappropriate it was to have excluded Palestinians from a resolution that claimed to speak on
their behalf. Further, many found it hard to believe Oveds claims about having written it by
himself in good faith, having equally excluded pro-Israel groups and pro-Palestinian groups from
involvement. Momentum against the bill also shifted as the student body and many council
members defended the university's time-honored ability to use divestment as a tool to promote
social justice, and saw the anti-divestment clause in the bill as threatening that history. But after
these clauses were removed, there was no longer any impetus to pass the resolution, and Oved
and the resolution's sponsors made no effort to bring it back. This behavior suggested that the
other vague language around dialogue and promoting peace was less important than the
language around stopping divestment.

13

AlexKane,Caughtinalie:EmailsproverightwingproIsraeldonorAdamMilsteingavemoneyto
Californiastudentcandidates
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/milsteincaliforniacandidates/
14
RahimKurwaandOmarZahzah,USACbillfailstoconsiderPalestinianview
http://dailybruin.com/2013/10/22/submissionusacbillfailstoconsiderpalestinianview/

10

What came out of the discussion was the news that one of the resolution's sponsors had
taken a free trip to Israel provided to him by the Anti-Defamation League15. Sunny Singh, the
student in question, denied that the free trip could in any way have inappropriately influenced
his views on the subject, but nevertheless continued to cultivate a relationship with the ADL,
including giving a speech at its annual gala. This revelation foreshadowed much extended
debate over the appropriateness of free trips offered to student government members by
lobbying groups16.

ProPalestinianstudentslineuptospeakatthedivestmenthearing

15

UCLASJP,TheIsraelLobbysUseofFreeTripstoSwayStudentGovernment
http://www.sjpbruins.com/newsopinion/theisraellobbysuseoffreetripstoswayuclastudentgovernment
16
UCLASJP,JudicialBoardCaseSummary
http://www.sjpbruins.com/judicialboardcasesummary.html

11

SJP Launches its First Divestment Campaign

----X

By the end of 2013, the alternatives to a direct debate over the university's financial
involvement in Israeli violations of human rights were exhausted. Perhaps scoring an own-goal,
the pro-Israel community had sunk the broader student attempt to ensure ethical investments. It
then failed to mis-direct the student government through the positive investment/anti-BDS
resolution. All that remained was for SJP to construct its own divestment campaign.
Starting in December, 2013, SJP at UCLA began its first divestment campaign, drafting a
resolution calling on the UC Regents to pull funding from five companies complicit in the
occupation: Caterpillar, Cemex, Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH), General Electric (GE), and
Hewlett-Packard (HP) 17. SJP also made sure to prioritize outreach with other student
organizations. Significantly, SJP did not limit our outreach to organizations that would
automatically agree with divestment or SJP's politics more broadly, but at the time believed that
it was important also to convey our position to student organizations with opposing viewpoints,
including pro-Israel groups. These groups stated that they did not object to the text of the
resolution, but would nevertheless oppose divestment anyways, even if further clauses that they
wished to see were added. As we described in another article, however, an atmosphere of
intense normalization led to such outreach being deemed insufficient, and everyone from
pro-Israel groups to student politicians who would later vote on the measure voiced the opinion
that mere outreach wasn't enough and that SJP should have actually allowed pro-Israel groups
to co-author the resolution18. This is, of course, a double standard to which no other group would
have been held. But it also promoted an idea that simply was not true. In private, these groups
admitted that they had no problems with the text of the resolution, but that they still could not
cooperate with SJP in any way, shape, or form. But in public, they claimed that their
non-cooperation was a product of a lack of outreach by SJP. This was finally made public in a
radio interview in which a pro-Israel leader admitted that the most her group would be willing to
cooperate on was a statement that the parties would agree to disagree19.

This is an important issue to reflect on because it represents another challenge

commonly encountered by students who organize around Palestine: the misconception that
Palestine solidarity work is inherently divisive, and so campuses should emphasize collaboration
17

KalebAdney,OurMoney,OurResponsibility
http://www.sjpbruins.com/newsopinion/ourmoneyourresponsibility
18
OmarZahzahandRahimKurwa,GoodFaithorGoodTactics?HowSomeAntiDivestmentGroups
ManipulatePublicDiscourseandSmearSJP
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/17319/goodfaithorgoodtacticshowsomeantidivestmen
19
DailyBruin,LongStoryShort
http://dailybruin.com/2014/02/25/longstoryshortfebruary242014/

12

and partnership with pro-Israel groups rather than allowing students interested in Palestine
activism to pursue their cause with full autonomy. Such attitudes are also connected, more
broadly, to the post-Oslo shift in official and popular discursive framings of Palestine/Israel from
an issue of anti-colonial liberation to a simple "conflict" best remedied by universal emphases on
the need for "peace," collaboration and co-existence, as neatly outlined by Joseph Massad20.

On February 5th, 2014, another divestment campaign came to the UCLA student
government - this time centered on private prisons which the UC system was invested in. The
campaign, led by the Afrikan Student Union, was extremely successful, and quickly earned an
22
overwhelming majority of votes on the council21,
. At the discussion of the resolution, one of the
non-voting administrative assistants who sits on the council extolled the campaign for
presenting human narratives and stories that powerfully conveyed the need to divest from
private prisons as a strike against the broader system of mass incarceration which affects
communities of color in the United States and at UCLA as well.

20 days later, Students for Justice in Palestine presented its resolution to the same
student government that had just voted to divest from private prisons. In favor of the resolution
were several progressive and independent council members, joined by 19 student groups. Given
the size of the turnout (estimated at roughly 500 students), the hearing was moved to the
campus' largest public venue - Ackerman Grand Ballroom. The debate lasted over ten hours and
went until 6 in the morning the following day23. Of note was the intrusion of individuals from the
anti-Palestinian organization StandWithUs, who filmed pro-Palestinian speakers without first
securing permission until they were eventually kicked out. The atmosphere of intimidation
created by StandWithUs was compounded by the presence of IDF soldiers speaking out against
divestment and a string of violent and Islamophobic comments made by anti-divestment
speakers24. Intimidation also reached council members. As Daily Bruin columnist Eitan Arom
wrote in March of 2014,

Three separate unsigned emails to USAC Student Wellness Commissioner Savannah

Badalich, who was seen as a swing vote on the divestment issue, made that comparison
[of support for divestment being anti-Semitic], with one saying if you as a council
20

JosephMassad,PalestiniansandtheDilemmasofSolidarity
https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestiniansanddilemmassolidarity/14518
21
KendalMitchell,
USACpassesresolutioncallingforreevaluationofcompanyinvestment

http://dailybruin.com/2014/02/05/usacpassesresolutioncallingforreevaluationofcompanyinvestment/
22
UCLAPrivatePrisonDivestmentResolution
https://www.usac.ucla.edu/documents/resolutions/USACPrivatePrisonDivestmentResolution.pdf
23
UCLAFebruary2014DivestmentLivestreamArchive
http://dailybruin.com/2014/02/25/watchliveusacdiscussesdivestmentresolution/
24
PressRelease,MuslimStudentAssociationcallsforprioritizationofDiversityRequirement,
accountability,andpositivecampusclimate
http://www.sjpbruins.com/newsopinion/muslimstudentassociationcallsforprioritizationofdiversityrequir
ementaccountabilityandpositivecampusclimate

13

member vote for this you are undoubtedly anti-semitic. Another wrote that those
pushing for divestment should watch your backs25.

Although the leaders of the anti-divestment side claimed to reject Islamophobia, their
official presentations to student government were riddled with the same racist tropes they
claimed to eschew26. But putting aside the racism and intimidation present in the debate, the
core issues were relatively clear, and even the campus paper, shy to explicitly endorse
divestment, could not help but editorialize in favor of the resolution. In its editorial calling for a
broader student referendum, the editorial board wrote, "the moral core of the resolution is on
point the University of California should not invest in companies complicit in human rights
abuse" and later added,
"UC investments in companies that support the military occupation of the Palestinian
West Bank and provide for the building of illegal Israeli settlements in the region are
deeply problematic and contribute to a status quo that threatens the ongoing peace
process27 ."
Despite the outpouring of support and the fact that the large majority of public comment
was in favor of the resolution and came from a diverse cross section of the student body, the
student government narrowly defeated the resolution28. Organizers in SJP were humbled by the
solidarity shown by a diverse array of student groups, activists and faculty who showed their
support by co-sponsoring the resolution, coming out for public comment, and issuing official
statements in defense of the measure. But in addition to the fact that every divestment
campaign, regardless of the outcome, is a victory in that it allows for coalition building and
outreach and forces student politicians to discuss the plight of the Palestinian people at the
hearing, the results of the night in question also illuminated two starkly different world-views.
On one hand, there was a wonderful outpouring of support of a wide swath of the UCLA
community. From groups with a deep history of cross-movement solidarity, to organizations
whose members quickly came to support the position of SJP, there was an outpouring of support
based on the commitment to human rights and desire not to contribute to the degradation of
25

EitanArom,Natureofdivestmenttalksreflectspoorcampusclimate
http://dailybruin.com/2014/03/04/eitanaromnatureofdivestmenttalksreflectspoorcampusclimate/
26
SJPatUCLA,
SJPatUCLADenouncesRacisminBruinsforIsraelPresentationtoStudentGovernment
http://www.sjpbruins.com/newsopinion/sjpatucladenouncesracistspeechbybruinsforisrael
27
EditorialBoard,
Editorial:USACshouldletstudentsvoteondivestmentissue
http://dailybruin.com/2014/02/24/editorialusacshouldtabledivestmentresolution/
28
PressRelease,
PressRelease:StudentsforJusticeinPalestineDecriesFailuretoSupportPalestinian
StudentsandHumanRightsatUSACHearing
http://www.sjpbruins.com/newsopinion/pressreleasestudentsforjusticeinpalestinedecriesfailuretosup
portpalestinianstudentsandhumanrightsatusachearing

14

Palestinians through our own university investments. A post-divestment meeting held just after
the resolution failed was a particularly remarkable moment, as tearful students explained how
the divestment debate had catalyzed them to action and strengthened their resolve to pass
divestment on the next attempt. In the weeks following the vote, students began a second class
Bruins campaign to highlight how the lack of respect for human rights affected Palestinian
students. Some Jewish students composed a statement encouraging more progressive views than
30
were present in their communitys discourse, prompting a response by SJP as well29,
. On the
other hand, the leadership of the pro-Israel community saw the events in a different light. Rabbi
Chaim Seidler-Feller wrote the following in a message to the Hillel community after the vote:
"I look at it all and view it as a periodic ritual that different minority groups have had to
enact in order to legitimate their claim to victimhood. The ritual involves making the
case that your oppression was caused by the world's most recognized victims-the Jews.
And the goal is to establish that the Victims are actually the most egregious victimizers.
Last night the Palestinians took the stage to attempt to gain their bona fides; and they
failed...The initiative and others like it thus had little to do with Israel and the
Palestinians. Rather, it was about one community at UCLA getting' and outing another
community as racists and bigots, part of the oppressor class in America. This is a sick
remnant of the identity politics of the 90's."
Seidler-Feller's view of pro-divestment Jewish students was just as hostile. He wrote,
[There were]... a host of Jews and Israelis who marched up to the mike [sic] in order to
announce that they were really moral human beings because they had the courage to
publicly denounce Israel and distance themselves from their own community."
Those students later went on to found the UCLA chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace.

"Whenwefirststartedorganizingourdivestmentcampaignin2012,we
wereadvisedtogiveourselves10yearstogetadivestmentresolution
passed.That'sabouthowlongittooktopassresolutionsondivesting
fromSouthA
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nd
ivestingf
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ivestment,i
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suchashorttimeframe,wasthebiggestvictoryofourcampaignwould
bealie.Weeducatedstudentsandfacultyabouttherealitiesof
Israeliapartheid,b
uiltac
ommunityo
nc
ampus,a
nds
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ndividualsf
rom
allwalksoflifejointhemovementforPalestinianrights.Inmy
opinion,thatwasthebiggestvictory."Lila

29

OntheIsraeliPalestinianConflict:AStatementbyProgressiveJewishStudentsatUCLA,
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1FN_nU9ru4ihkUvjKdsuS_z8n4iI2szzyOuo2wmLpRaA/viewform
30
OpenResponsetoProgressiveJewishStudentsatUCLAStatement
http://www.sjpbruins.com/newsopinion/openresponsetoprogressivejewishstudentsatuclastatement

15

The influence of outside anti-Palestinian groups on the campus

debate
----X
Free trips as a means of gaining influence

The divestment campaign also provided students with the incentive to begin looking into
the role of the Israeli lobby in student government. SJP uncovered a shocking pattern whereby
anti-divestment lobbying groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish
Committee would actively recruit student politicians and provide them with free "educational"
trips to Israel with the expectation that these politicians would return to their respective
32
campuses to "apply what they learned.31 ,
Two of the USAC members who voted against SJP's
resolution had received such trips, a circumstance that provided the material for a subsequent
Judicial Board complaint filed by SJP against the two USAC members in question. The logic of the
complaint was that large gifts made in advance of a vote could sway elected leaders of student
government to consider the position of their beneficiary rather than the student body. The
Judicial Board ultimately ruled in favor of the two USAC councilmembers, maintaining that there
could be no conflict of interest when benefits were received prior to (rather than after) voting.
The narrow reading of the concept of conflict of interest was disappointing, but the case was
nevertheless crucial in calling attention to what had been a hitherto silent pattern of lobbying
groups trading benefits of an exorbitant financial value for political favors, primarily votes
34
against divestment resolutions33,
. Exposing the extensive intervention of off-campus pro-Israel
forces in student political affairs became a pivotal component of SJP UCLA's work well into the
summer of 201435.

SJPatUCLA
ChargesCouncilMembersSinghandRogerswithConflictofInterest
http://www.sjpbruins.com/newsopinion/pressreleasestudentsforjusticeinpalestineatuclachargescoun
cilmemberssinghandrogerswithconflictofinterest
32
RahimKurwa,ComingtoaCampusNearYou:ADLrecruitsstudentpoliticiansforIsraeltrips
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/08/defamationrecruitssenators/
33
SJPatUCLAConcernedbyJudicialBoardVerdictanditsImplicationsforStudentGovernment
http://www.sjpbruins.com/newsopinion/pressreleasesjpconcernedbyjudicialboardverdictanditsimplic
ationsforstudentgovernment
34
TheIsraelLobbysUseofFreeTripstoSwayStudentGovernment
http://www.sjpbruins.com/newsopinion/theisraellobbysuseoffreetripstoswayuclastudentgovernment
35
OmarZahzahandRahimKurwa,
Lobbyists,politiciansmustnotmeddleincampusdebates
http://dailybruin.com/2014/09/10/submissionlobbyistspoliticiansmustnotmeddleincampusdebates/
31

16

Funding student elections to create an anti-BDS bulwark

In the summer of 2014, leaked emails from the campus group Bruins United revealed that
an anti-Palestinian real estate mogul named Adam Milstein had been funneling off campus funds
from pro-Israel sources to Bruins United candidates for student government in an effort to
ensure that these students would be elected and not allow divestment to pass36. Milstein, it
should be noted, had also been funding the AJC trips to Israel given to council members for free.
What we know of the system is as follows: some members of Bruins United emailed Milstein
making general pitches for contributions to the Bruins United campaign. The pitches explicitly
stated that the election of pro-Israel candidates through Bruins United was the only thing
38
standing in the way of SJP 37,
. Milstein then turned around and sent these solicitations to other
donors, directing them to make tax-deductible contributions to Hillel at UCLA, which would then
funnel the money to Bruins United. Those involved in the project were clearly aware of how
inappropriate it was. In an email to Milstein, Avinoam Baral wrote,

I can not stress enough how discrete (sic) this initiative must be. If this letter or any
evidence of outside organizations involvement in these student government elections
were to be found by our opponents it would compromise our campaign, Bruins United
and all student government pro-Israel activism across America39.

Milstein, for his part, lied to the press about his donations, stating that he did not give
funds to candidates. Another student government member, Avi Oved, who was being considered
as Student Regent at the time the emails became public, also issued contradictory statements to
the campus press. His claims that he did not know who was donating to his campaign were
contradicted by evidence that he personally solicited funding and was copied on emails in which
Milstein himself confirmed his own $1,000 donation. Finally, the Bruins United party lied by
omission, telling the public that it received funds from corporate sponsorships and from
candidates themselves, but omitting its pro-Israel funding sources. When these documents
became public, four of the five council members from Bruins United claimed no knowledge of
this funding scheme, and one disaffiliated from the party 40. Apparently aware of how
unsustainable their position was, Bruins United leaders slated a pro-divestment student to run in
special campus elections in fall 2014.
36

AlexKane,ProIsraelMuslimbasherAdamMilsteinatcenterofstormoverfundingofCaliforniastudent
elections
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/milsteincaliforniaelections/
37
ChloeHunt,FundstoUCLAstudentpoliticalpartycamefromoutsidesources,leakedemailsshow
http://www.dailycal.org/2014/07/03/fundsuclastudentpoliticalpartycameoutsidedonorsleakedemailssh
ow/
38
AmandaSchallert,LeakedemailsrevealhiddensourcesofBruinsUnitedcampaignfunds
http://dailybruin.com/2014/12/11/leakedemailsrevealhiddensourcesofbruinsunitedcampaignfunds/
39
ibid
40
AmandaSchallert,USACcouncilmembersrespondtocampaignfundingconflictofinterest
http://dailybruin.com/2014/12/11/usaccouncilmembersresponsetocampaignfundingconflictofinterest/

17

AfrikanStudentUnionmakespubliccommentatthedivestmenthearing

UnitycircleoutsideAckermanUnionaftertheresolutionfailstopass

Prodivestmentstudentsprotesttheoutcomeofthefirstdivestmentvote

18

"IwouldwalkonBruinwalkduringfallquarterof2
014a
ndh
earp
eople
Ihadnevermetbeforetalkingaboutwhatdivestmentwas,whichtous
mightbeas
impleo
ro
bvioust
opicb
utt
oar
egularc
olleges
tudenti
sa

complexissueo
fh
umanr
ightsa
dvocacy.F
ort
hef
irstt
ime,t
housandso
f
peoplepeopleIneverknewandwhowerenotinanysocialjustice
organizationsw
erec
riticallyt
hinkinga
boutP
alestine.S
tudentsi
nm
y
microbiologyclasseswerediscussingifthemilitaryoccupationofG
aza
andtheWestBankwasillegal.StudentsImetforthefirsttimeina
coffeehousew
oulds
eem
y
UCLAd
ivests
hirta
nda
pproachm
ea
nda
skm
e
questionsabouthowUCLAwascomplicitinhumanrightsv
iolations.E
ven
studentswhoIknewwereverypolarrightonthetopicbefore,and
unwillingtohearaboutthePalestinianstrugglewerefinallymoving
moretowardsthecenter."Ayesha

Inthefirstiterationof#UCLADivest,theresolutiondidnotpass.In
thehourthatfollowedthevote,Iremembersteppingoutsidetomeetthe
sunrise,numbequallywithshockandgrief.Itwasalltooeasytofeel
asthoughourcountlesshours hadgonetowaste.ButI'llneverforget
whatmyfriendtoldme.Hesaid"ifIhadknownatthebeginningofthe
yearthatbytheendofthis,wewouldhavegottendozensofstudent
groupendorsements,hundredsofnewmemberstoourlistserve,andevery
cornerofthiscampustalkingaboutPalestinianhumanrights,Iwould
havedoneitoverandoveragainregardlessofthevote."Reem

"InmyfouryearsatUCLA,thebiggestachievementofSJPwasnotthe
passageofdivestment,but theshiftinpoliticalconversationon
Palestine.WhenIgottoUCLA,IwouldpresumethatbesidesSJPand
organizationsadvocatingf
orm
inoritiesa
ndc
ommunitieso
fc
olor,n
oo
ne
reallyknewmuchaboutPalestineatall.Manypeoplemighthavehada
veryskewedperceptionthatwasdictatedbyabiasedmediaorwere
merelyignorant.Throughthedivestmentcampaign,andtheeventsand
efforts of SJP, the atrocities inPalestine werebroughttothe
forefrontofourcampus.YoucouldevensayaregularUCLAstudentnow
hadsomethingofanunderstandingabouttheviolationofPalestinian
humanrightsandhowUCLAhasaroletoplay.Thisishuge.Icouldn't
havedreamedofthis...Theresolutionfailingforthefirsttimewasa
blessingindisguise.Itgaveustheopportunitytoeducatethecampus
andraiseawarenessaboutwhyPalestinedeservedattention;whyit
deservedjustice.Theshiftincampusconversationsandawarenesson
PalestinewasS
JP'sb
iggesta
chievementa
ndIc
ouldn'th
aveb
eenp
rouder
tohavebeentheretowatchithappen."Ayesha

19

Part3:PassingDivestment
After Protective Edge, Divestment Passes
----X

Following the return to campus after Israel's latest assault on Gaza, Operation Protective
Edge, SJP UCLA again undertook a divestment campaign, drafting a new resolution that added
Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and United
Technologies for these companies' role in servicing the IDF with the weapons and technologies
42
used in Protective Edge41,
. As before, outreaching to student groups was a priority. SJP at UCLA
reached out to over 50 groups and made roughly that many presentations. Sometimes, those
presentations redounded to endorsements of divestment. Other times, those presentations
helped decrease the level of opposition of other student groups. One example was the Bruin
Democrats, which openly opposed divestment the first time, but decided to remain neutral the

StudentsforJusticeinPalestineatUCLAAnnouncesFall2014DivestmentCampaign
http://www.sjpbruins.com/newsopinion/forimmediatereleasestudentsforjusticeinpalestineatuclaanno
uncesfall2014divestmentcampaign
42
SJPDivestmentPage
http://www.sjpbruins.com/divest.html
41

20

second time. This shift might be attributed to ongoing engagement with the group, even though
it ostensibly shared little in common with SJP's core principles. In addition, SJP held regular
teach-ins, showing Roadmap to Apartheid regularly, as well as explaining the principles of
divestment and walking students through the arguments for and against the campaign.

One change from the first campaign bears examination, however. Although SJPs first
divestment campaign was transparent and open, the second effort was significantly more so, and
particularly because of a growing public interest in the issue from students across campus who
had little formal contact or membership in SJP. In other words, once the debate had been
brought to the forefront of campus, a much larger subset of the student body became invested in
it. Students from around campus engaged in the debate about Palestine with their peers without
prompting by SJP or its members. This flowering of public discourse was remarkable, and
included the creation of student initiated projects to demonstrate support for divestment, from a
creative YouTube video counteracting pinkwashing to a campaign highlighting the international
support for Palestinian freedom through the creation of divestment-flag icons for use on social
media platforms like Facebook and Twitter43.
To support and keep up with this dynamic, SJP made the process more inclusive by providing an
online forum for students to give feedback about what they would like to see in a divestment
resolution and hosting a Town Hall attended by roughly 100 students designed to consolidate
the feedback and allow any and all interested students to voice their opinions of the resolution
45
and help shape it to fit their interests and concerns44,
. While during the first campaign, SJP
reached out to the pro-Israel community to discuss the resolution in private, this time the entire
process was conducted publicly, with pro-Israel students included in the larger cross-section of
students providing their input and feedback. Ultimately, these efforts helped to demonstrate the
strength of the ideas undergirding divestment and allowed other students to participate and take
ownership of the resolution. It also put the lie to the claims that SJP was not open to talking to
pro-Israel groups. SJP also moved its annual Palestine Awareness Week up in the yearly calendar,
using it as a teaching week to build education and momentum for divestment. The week
highlighted featured talks by Sherene Seikalay and Nasser Barghouti about the history of
Palestine/Israel, the current facts on the ground, and, most importantly, students' responsibility
to address the issue through campus BDS work46.

As with the previous campaign, there was no shortage of challenges to our efforts: it was
eventually revealed that UCLA Hillel staff had hired an outside PR firm, 30 Point Strategies, for

QueersDivest,ItGetsBetter:ComingOutasProDivestment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNIWXUVRqAY
44
AlejandraReyes,
SJPannouncescampaignfornewdivestmentresolution
http://dailybruin.com/2014/11/03/sjpannouncescampaignfornewdivestmentresolution/
45
ChandiniSoni,
SJPmembersaddressdivestmentresolutionattownhallmeeting
http://dailybruin.com/2014/11/12/sjpmembersaddressdivestmentresolutionattownhallmeeting/
46

ZacharyMicheli,SJPsPalestineAwarenessWeekseekstoeducatestudents
http://dailybruin.com/2014/11/03/sjpspalestinianawarenessweekseekstoeducatestudents/
43

21

advice on how to combat the prospect of divestment passing on the UCLA campus47.
Interestingly, and in contrast to previous anti-divestment efforts, the advice consisted of urging
anti-divestment students to refuse to engage SJP or those in solidarity with SJP directly, instead
dismissing SJP and its allies as a collective of "isolated graduate students" and asking all third
parties who would listen to consider why SJP "doesn't condemn ISIS." Regardless of these tactics,
SJP made a serious effort to engage with pro-Israel students on the question of divestment48 .

These tactics represented the crumbling of a cohesive and compelling anti-BDS narrative.
Despite narrowly defeating divestment the first time around, it had become clear that their
earlier tactics, which included appeals to authority such as a statement of opposition to BDS
from Samantha Power, had little effect on free-thinking students49. The strategy the second time
around had changed in an obvious manner - if you can't win the debate, attack your opponents.
But this strategy of attack was not only reserved for SJP: pro-Israel students also applied it to the
entire student council. The pro-Israel group "Bruins Against BDS" created a cynical campaign
called "Students First" that argued that by debating divestment the student government had put
other interests above the interests of its own students. This strategy backfired as many on
campus noted that Palestinian students were affected by the Israeli occupation and that students
themselves had initiated and brought forward the divestment campaign. To erase divestment as
a student concern was to erase Palestinian students. On the night of the divestment hearing,
pro-Israel students did not show up, holding an alternative meeting instead. Instead, they sent
four representatives from "Bruins Against BDS" to make a public statement denouncing the
council as "unrepresentative" of UCLA students for voting on a measure that was so "irrelevant"
to student life and well-being, despite the fact that a much more diverse and numerous crowd of
students had mobilized in support of the resolution. One representative from J-Street protested
that the resolution for divestment was insufficiently deferential to the two-state solution
because the divestment logo used the historic map of Palestine, rather than one that delineated
only the Occupied Territories. Nevertheless, having failed to convince the student government,
they declared that they would reject student government50 . These tactics left greater space for
the pro-divestment side to make its case, including one important moment when a video appeal
by Palestinian students from Birzeit University was played for student government members at
the hearing51.

47

AlexKane,UCLAHillelpartnerswithPRfirmtofightBDSmovement
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/10/hillelpartnersmovement/
48
LettertoStudentsOpposedtoDivestment
http://www.sjpbruins.com/newsopinion/openlettertostudentswhomaybeopposedtodivestment
49
SamanthaPowersstatementagainstBDS,
http://static1.squarespace.com/static/533b1dc6e4b09e45fee141f3/t/533b9c3fe4b04aa62c005c35/13964155
51495/SamanthaPowers.pdf
50
BruinsforIsrael,UCLAStudentsRejectUSAC
http://www.bruinsforisrael.com/blog/2014/11/19/uclastudentsrejectusac
51
PalestinianStudents'VideoAddresstoUSAC,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcyqg3hfgks

22

In the end, all these strategies proved ineffective, as the new divestment resolution was
successfully passed by an 8-2 margin, making UCLA at the time the 6th out of 9 UC campuses to
have passed a resolution calling for the withdrawal of UC funds from companies profiting off of
53
the oppression of the Palestinian people 52,
. To be sure, myriad factors contributed to this
result, chief among which is, as always, the staggering displays of solidarity on the part of scores
of student groups and individuals of conscience. As SJP wrote in its year in review,

"The overwhelming show of support from the students who came out to provide public
comment as well as the fact that 32 student organizations endorsed our resolution and
15 co-sponsored it as equal partners was a definitive blow to the tired myth of
divestment being divisive. It's impossible to even count how many students contributed
to divestment's success in some way - through educating their peers, sharing information,
attending the town hall, talking to council members, presenting to student groups, and
so on. Tellingly, groups opposed to divestment failed to make a case against the
substance of the resolution itself, resorting instead to attacking the process and
organizations supporting this cause54."

To this primary factor, one might also add moral indignation at Israel's actions in
Protective Edge; the general shift rightward of the Israeli political scene; increasing skepticism
and criticism of third-party involvement in student political life; the overall transparency of SJP's
campaign; the failure of `dialogue' and `positive investments" as compelling alternatives to
divestment; and the comprehensively stronger set of arguments on the pro-divestment side as
key components that facilitated the passage of the resolution55. To wit, the eight votes for
divestment included both independent council members and one member of Bruins United. In
his statement preceding his vote in favor, this particular council member (Carlos Quintanilla)
noted that he had been conflicted on his position up until the start of the hearing - having been
torn between the claims and pressures of both sides. But hearing the case presented by students
giving public comment, seeing the broad support for the resolution from groups across campus,
and finding no error or fault in the resolution's text, he felt compelled to vote yes56. This was a
particularly poignant moment as SJP had no expectation that he would vote to support the
resolution, assuming that his position as a leader of Bruins United would outweigh other factors
of social justice and moral concern. Indeed, when he made the announcement, the public in the
room reacted in stunned shock.
52

AResolutiontoDivestfromCompaniesEngagedinViolenceAgainstPalestinians
https://www.usac.ucla.edu/documents/resolutions/USAC%20Divestment%20Resolution%20(11132014)_n
o%20sponsors.pdf
53
AdamHorowitz,Inlandslide,UCLAstudentgovtvotestodivestfromIsraelioccupation
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/11/landslidedivestmentresolution/
54
SJPatUCLA's201415YearinReview
http://www.sjpbruins.com/newsopinion/sjpatuclas201415yearinreview
55
AvinoamBaralTheRealWinnerinIsrael'sElection:BDS
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium1.648009
56
UCLADivestmentLivestream
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F01jTkwwzMU&feature=youtu.be

23

This moment made concrete an understanding held by many on campus: the

anti-divestment side of this public debate had no credible case to make. This fact, implicitly
acknowledged by opponents of divestment, is likely what drove individuals to solicit Milsteins
funding to capture seats on USAC; to rely heavily on anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiments in
their public appeals; to solicit outside PR agencies support; and what drove them to ultimately
abandon the cause and fail to show up at the second divestment hearing. For all the advantages
that this well-funded effort might have had, it could only hold back the tide of public opinion for
so long. Summarizing the meaning of the campaign, James Mroz wrote the following:

"The victory of this resolution is not just important for what it means to Palestinian
students and those who stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. It is not just
important for what it means to human rights and the responsibility of all nations to
preserve the human rights of all people. This resolution proves that the students at UCLA
are powerful. It shows that groups cannot simply rely on money or the influence of
outsiders to achieve their goals. Only students can decide the fate of their university, and
that makes me proud to be a Bruin57."

"Lastlesson.Don'tbecomplacent.EventhoughIwasn
evers
uperv
ocal,
inmyf
irsty
eari
nS
JPIg
ainedt
hec
onfidencet
os
peaku
pa
bouti
ssues
andspeaka
boutw
hatIk
nowi
sr
ight.A
ndIt
hinkt
hati
nau
niversitya

lotofpeoplewanttoblendinandjustgetby.Youwanttonotbet
oo
controversial,andjusthavefun,notbeserious.SJPchangedmylife
andIamsogratefulforit,becauseIl
earnedt
on
otb
ec
omplacenta
nd
tospeaku
p.In
evert
houghtI
'dl
earna
boutP
alestinea
sa
ne
ngineering
student.AndSJPchangedthat.AndI'msogratefulforit."Rasha

57

JamesMroz,TheHiddenActorsinUCLAsDivestmentCampaign
http://chicagomonitor.com/2015/07/opedthehiddenactorsinuclasdivestmentcampaign/

24

Part4:Lookingtothefuture

In the University of California, 8 out of 9 campuses in the UC system have passed

resolutions calling for divestment from companies that supply arms to Israel and/or profit from
the occupation58 . In early February of 2015 the University of California Students Association, the
statewide body representing the 240,000 students of the UC system, passed a similar resolution
calling for the Regents to divest from these companies59. In December 2014, in response to a call
from Palestinian labor organizations, local UAW 2865, the local union representing over 14,000
student workers, presented a resolution calling on the UC and the UAW International to divest
SJPWestBDSCampaigns
http://sjpwest.org/bds/sjpwestbdscampaigns/
OntotheRegents:InHistoricVote,UCStudentAssociationEndorsesCallforDivestmentinSupportof
PalestinianRights
http://www.sjpbruins.com/newsopinion/ontotheregentsinhistoricvoteucstudentassociationendorses
callfordivestmentinsupportofpalestinianrights
58
59

25

from the occupation and weapons manufacturers that passed by a 65% majority with a
higher-than-usual voter turnout60. 52% of voting members also signed on to a personal,
non-binding pledge to uphold the academic boycott of Israeli institutions. At the time, this made
UAW 2865 the first major US labor union to back BDS, though the UAW International Executive
Board, responding to an appeal filed by an anti-BDS rank-and-file UAW member, opted to nullify
the vote in December 201561. Though this nullification has since been upheld by the UAW 2865
Public Review Board62, scores of organizations and individuals have expressed their support for
UAW 2865's vote. Across the country, more than 25 campuses have passed divestment motions
through their undergraduate student governments, and major student coalitions such as
Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlan (MECHA), and United Students Against Sweatshops
64
(USAS) have endorsed BDS63,
.
In January of 2016, one of the UCs corporate divestment targets, the Irish cement firm
CRH, revealed that it was officially ending its relationship with Israeli cement companies. CRH
had been a divestment target because of its work with the Israeli cement industry to provide
cement used to construct the wall and settlements in the occupied West Bank. CRHs departure
was hailed as a major victory for both Irish and international divestment campaigners65 .

UCLA's divestment victory was an incremental outcome, the result of years of cumulative
student activist efforts. It is also part of a current, wider momentum driving BDS campaigns
forward, even as official instances of repression on all levels become more pronounced66 . But it
is also clear that there is much more work to be done. In the case of South Africa, it took myriad
forms of organizing, including inside and outside the university's political structures and at
60

Historic:UAW2865,UCStudentWorkerUnion,BecomesFirstMajorU.S.LaborUniontoSupport
DivestmentfromIsraelbyMembershipVote
http://www.uaw2865.org/historicuaw2865ucstudentworkerunionbecomesfirstmajoruslaborunionto
supportdivestmentfromisraelbymembershipvote/
61

BenNorton,Withhelpofcorporatelawfirm,smallproIsraelgroupderailshistoricUAWunionvote
endorsingboycott
http://www.salon.com/2016/01/25/with_help_of_corporate_law_firm_small_pro_israel_group_derails_historic
_uaw_union_vote_endorsing_boycott/
62
PalestineLegal,UnionofficialssuppressmembersupportforBDS
http://palestinelegal.org/news/2016/5/25/unionofficialssuppressmembersupportforbds?platform=hootsuit
e
63
NationalMEChAEndorsesPalestinianBoycottCallAgainstIsrael
http://www.nationalmecha.org/archives/2012/03/national_mecha_endorses_palestinian_boycott_call_agains
t_israel.php
64
StudentskeptbusyatUSASSummerConvention
http://usas.org/2014/08/27/studentskeptbusyatusassummerconvention/
65

IrishfirmCRH,keytargetofUCSJPsDivestmentCampaigns,endsitsfinancialcomplicitywith
violationsofInternationalLawandHumanRightsintheOccupiedPalestinianTerritories,
http://sjpwest.org/2016/01/20/crhdivestment/
66
GreatestThreattoFreeSpeechintheWest:CriminalizingActivismAgainstIsraeliOccupation
https://theintercept.com/2016/02/16/greatestthreattofreespeechinthewestcriminalizingactivismagainst
israelioccupation/

26

several levels of university activity (including undergraduate, graduate, and faculty votes for
68 ,69
divestment) to build enough pressure on the Regents to divest67 ,
. Indeed the organizing
around South Africa, and the contemporary work of groups working for fossil fuel and private
prison divestment show the pathway forward for Palestine solidarity campaigners. The passage
of divestment actions against major coal polluters and private prisons have shown that
consistent and persistent advocacy can result in victories for contemporary student divestment
71
movements (Fossil Free UC and Afrikan Black Coalition)70,
. It seems clear that campaigners at
UCLA and across the UC system will need to continue expanding the range of divestment
advocacy to bring a comparable level of pressure to bear on the University before it too divests.
But what is also clear from the experiences of this campaign and the lessons gleaned from past
movements is that the process of engaging in this organizing is itself tremendously important. It
was through the divestment campaigns that SJP organizers were able to reach and educate the
most students on campus, to activate its largest numbers of students into contributors in some
form or another, and to move the debate about Palestine forward in a significant manner.
It must be said that SJP's campaign worked hard to center Palestinian voices in numerous
ways. Presentations to student groups, meetings with student senators, and presentations during
divestment hearings were all led by Palestinian students, deliberately. The experiences of
Palestinian students vis-a-vis the occupation were also instrumental to explaining to the campus
why the issue of Palestine mattered in their local context. These efforts put into practice the
idea of resituating Palestinians in the US as a group with claims that should be heard alongside
the claims of Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza strip, and '48 territories. Moreover, the success
of this campaign rested in large part on the support of other groups on campus. This pattern
highlights a framework of organizing that Loubna Qutami has called the Palestine analytic: a
philosophy that recognizes the liberation of Palestine as inextricably bound up in the liberation
of all oppressed peoples72.
While the growing number of adherents to the cause for Palestinian freedom and
self-determination, as well as the attendant surge of BDS victories are cause for celebration, the
possibility for the student solidarity movement to translate these gains into effective pressure on
Israel rests on the ability to continue this organizing work and build upon it. Divestment
67

MahaderTesfai,UCDivestmentFromSouthAfrica
http://scalar.usc.edu/works/livinghistoryproject/ucdivestmentfromsouthafrica
68
MichiganStateUniversityAfricanActivistArchiveProjecthttp://africanactivist.msu.edu/
69
ClarityFilms,HaveYouHeardfromJohannesburg?
http://www.clarityfilms.org/haveyouheardfromjohannesburg/episodes.php
70
FossilFreeUSA,UniversityofCaliforniaBeginsFossilFuelDivestment
http://gofossilfree.org/usa/pressrelease/universityofcaliforniabeginsfossilfueldivestment/
71
AfrikanBlackCoalition,AfrikanBlackCoalitionAccomplishesUCPrisonDivestment!
http://afrikanblackcoalition.org/2015/12/18/afrikanblackcoalitionaccomplishesucprisondivestment/
72
LoubnaQutami,RethinkingtheSingleStory:BDS,TransnationalCrossMovementBuildingandthe
PalestineAnalytic
http://socialtextjournal.org/periscope_article/rethinkingthesinglestorybdstransnationalcrossmovementb
uildingandthepalestineanalytic/

27

campaigning both moves public opinion and translates that opinion into institutional pressure
to end the occupation. By continuing to push divestment at the graduate and faculty level on
campuses, and by working to translate those votes into changes in UC investments, campaigners
can do exactly that. That is a long and difficult road, and one that will continue to present many
challenges, but the progress made in the past several years indicates that significant change can
be accomplished on campuses in a relatively short period of time, and that more progress is
indeed possible.

28

Watchingourfirstdivestmentresolutionnotpassthefirsttimeweproposeditwas
incrediblydraining,bothm
entallya
nde
motionally.W
eh
adw
orkedt
irelesslyb
uildinga

strongbasewithinS
JP,s
trengtheningc
onnectionsw
itho
therc
ommunitieso
nc
ampus,a
nd
meetingwithstudentc
ouncilm
embersa
crosst
hep
oliticals
pectrum.W
eh
add
edicateds
o
muchtimeandenergytoshiftingtheconversationsonPalestinearoundcampus,and
thoughtheresolutiondidnotpassthatfirsttime,Id
eeplyb
elievei
tw
asah
ugea
nd
necessarysuccess.IwillneverforgetsittinginAckermanGrandB
allroom,t
hel
argest
spaceoncampus,watchinghundredsofstudentsgatheringtodiscussPalestinefor12
hoursstraight.Hundredsofstudentsfromsomanydiversecommunitiescametosupport
ourefforts,andnotjustasurfacesupportpeoplewereincrediblypassionateand
welleducatedontheissue.Thatnight,wesawthefruitsofourefforts,andwe
witnessedashiftoncampus,onewewouldbeunabletopredict,evenayearearlier.
EveryonewastalkingaboutPalestine.Randomstudentsinclasses,inc
ampuse
levators,
onBruinWalk,weretalkingaboutPalestineandthedivestmentvote.Ihadnever
experiencedanythingliket
hat,a
ndIk
newt
hatw
ew
ouldo
nlyc
ontinueb
uildingo
nt
hat
awareness.

Aftertheresolutionfirstfailed,Iwasoverwhelmedwithemotiona
nde
xhaustion.A
sa

Palestinianstudent,Ic
ouldn'tc
omet
ot
ermsw
itht
hef
actt
hatac
ouncilo
fs
tudents,
afterbeingeducatedontheissueformonths,wouldactivelychoosetocontinue
investinginanoccupationthatmyfamilylivedunder.Tobehonest,itbecame
difficulttocometocampusforquitesometime.Ih
adn
everf
elts
ou
nwelcomea
ndo
ut
ofplace.Iwasveryfrustratedwithstudentpolitics,withpeopleprioritizing
partylineloyaltyoverhumanlives,overthelivesandrightsofmyfamilymembers.
DespiteknowingPalestinehadwidespreadsupportacrosssomanycommunities,Ididn't
knowhowtograpplewiththefactthatthoseinpositionsofpowerwerereadyto
undermineoureffortsanychancetheyhad.

Thesecondtimeweproposeddivestment,wehadbeenbuildingonsomuchmomentum.The
secondvotewasanexpansionoftheeducationandcrosscommunitysolidaritywehad
beenprioritizingovert
hep
reviousf
ewy
ears.T
hen
ightt
hatd
ivestmentw
asb
roughtu
p
inNovember2014isoneofthemostmemorabletome,andoneofmyproudestasan
organizer.IhadbeenorganizingwithSJPatUCLAforoverfouryearsatthatpoint,
andwatchingoureffortscomefullcircleandculminatinginanoverwhelmingmajority
voteinfavorofdivestmentwassoempowering.Seeingthefurthershiftincampus
discussionevenfromthefirstvoteinFebruary2014tot
hatN
ovember,w
asi
ncredible.
When wesatinAckermanandwatchedstudentafterstudentgivepubliccomment
supportingdivestment,withn
os
tudentso
pposingi
t,Ik
neww
ithoutad
oubtt
hatw
eh
ad
reachedatippingpoint.Thoseopposingdivestmentcouldnolongere
ngagei
nal
ogical
discussionaroundPalestineanddivestment.Wehadwonthelogicala
rgument,1
00%,a
nd
itwassoclearthatnight,whenevenacouncilmemberontheconservativeslate
unexpectedlyvotedinfavorofdivestment.Iknewtherewasnogoingbackafterwe
reachedthatpoint.
Dana

29

WithmanythankstothestudentGroupsendorsing
divestment
Afrikan Student Union
American Indian Student Association
Al-Talib Newsmagazine
Armenian Student Association
Asian Pacific Coalition
Bengali Students Association
Bhagat Puran Singh Health Initiative
Black Law Students Association
Bruin Feminists for Equality
FEM Magazine
Fossil Free UCLA
Improving Dreams, Equality, Access, and Success (IDEAS)
Incarcerated Youth Tutorial Project
Indus
Jewish Voice for Peace
Law Students for Justice in Palestine
MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztln) de UCLA
Mentors for Academic and Peer Support (MAPS)
Muslim Law Student Association
Muslim Student Association
Native Roots
Pakistani Student Association
Project One
Queer Alliance
Samahang Pilipino
Social Awareness Network for Activism through Art (SANAA)
Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation (SCALE)
UMMA Volunteer Project
United Afghan Club
United Arab Society
Vietnamese Student Union
Womyn of Color Collective at UCLA Law School

Contactusatsjpucla1@gmail.com