Jew World Order

On April 27th, Students for Justice in Palestine and the #MUDivest coalition presented their recommendation for socially responsible investment and divestment to the Marquette University Student Government (MUSG) at the last meeting of the year. The resolution targeted the following major companies: Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard , G4S, and United Technologies. The supporters making up the coalition expected an uphill battle during the months leading up to the divestment vote, but they did not expect to encounter the unjust proceedings set forth by MUSG and attempts by student senators to remove the Palestinian voice entirely.

The legislation had 13 co-sponsoring student organizations and over 700 signatures from faculty, alumni, and students in support of the resolution. Before hitting the senate floor for voting the legislation had to go through the Business and Administration committee made up of students from MUSG. The role of the committee was to read over the legislation while making sure it was legible and correctly structured in order to be presented to the senate. The resolution was presented to the committee on March 19th and after weeks of debate and changes made to the first draft it was allowed to hit the floor over a month later.

Many of the supporters felt that the unusual length of time it took the Business and Administration committee to vote on the resolution and determine whether it could hit the senate floor signified the senators’ attempts in pushing back the campaign in hopes of running out the clock before summer vacation. When the #MUDivest coalition noticed that the resolution was taking an unprecedented amount of time in the B&A committee they packed the room at the MUSG meeting to voice their concerns and show the strength and amount of people behind the campaign. The B&A committee voted to bring the resolution to the floor the following week.

A week before the senate was scheduled to vote on the resolution the #MUDivest coalition endured multiple attempts from MUSG senators and other students to silence their voices. Recommendations made by the student senators to members of SJP in order to get them to vote in favor of the resolution were to remove Palestine entirely, take the companies out of the legislation, and focus on human rights globally. Nearly every time a SJP member voiced their concern during a MUSG meeting a bias incident report was filed against them for creating an “uncomfortable space.” In further attempts to silence the Palestinian voice entirely, MUSG scheduled a financial advisor to speak at the senate meeting before the vote about the university’s endowment fund, which was a point of focus in the resolution.  After the author of the legislation voiced his concerns about how this speaker could sway the vote of senators and after being assured by the administration and the MUSG president that it would not have this effect, the speaker was canceled the day of the vote.

Students at the divestment vote. (Photo: #MUDivest)

On the day of the vote, over 100 students filled the room, with an overwhelming majority of the students in support of divestment. In attempting to set up a live stream MUSG demanded it be taken down although the meeting was open to the public. This was only the first incident in lack of transparency the student encountered that night. When the floor opened up to student concern a majority of those that spoke out expressed their support for divestment, some as members of other student organizations and some as individuals not affiliated with any of the co-sponsoring organizations. A time limit was set to the forum and three law students who recently took a trip to Israel were remaining in the line when the time had passed, but nonetheless they were allowed to speak. The president of SJP spoke up and voiced her concern, as well as the concerns of those around her, about law students being able to speak in an undergraduate forum. The law students had no voice in electing those student senators to those positions, and students felt they should have no voice in the forum, but MUSG allowed it and the law school students went on to speak about their experience in Israel and how divestment would harm the Palestinian economy.

After the forum closed, senators voted to move into executive session for debate and demanded everyone who was not a senator leave the room. One senator spoke out against this motion and asked his fellow senators what they were hiding and what they were afraid of that made them go to extremes of kicking out the students that so tirelessly worked on this campaign. This senator motioned to allow the students to stay in the room during executive session but the motion was voted down. The students were shut out of the conversation and informed that nothing discussed during the executive session would be made public record. After two hours of waiting the students were allowed back in and the vote was announced. The resolution passed with a 25-3-0 vote but the announcement of the vote was followed by silence. The resolution passed with significant changes that stripped away the very clauses that made it a divestment resolution. They took out any mention of the word “divestment,” and removed all references to Palestine or the companies in violation of Palestinian human rights. The legislation turned into a recommendation for the university to implement socially responsible investing.

Student sit in. (Photo: MUDivest)

A week after the vote was made SJP organized a sit-in at the MUSG office. Students walked into the office of student senators with black tape over their mouths holding signs that read “You’ve chosen to silence us,” and other signs mentioning the companies taken out and the values that Marquette claims to guide themselves by. MUSG chose to disregard the voice of the students while priding itself in being “the primary student voice,” and they also chose to shut out the voices and organizations who signed onto the petition. The actions of MUSG have led students to believe that the history of close-mindedness and discrimination that precedes Marquette University is not only upheld by the administration but by the very students that claim to uphold the university’s mission to “be the difference.” However, this is not the end for the #MUDivest coalition.

The #MUDivest logo