UC Irvine student government passes BDS legislation

The University of California, Irvine (UCI) student government passed legislation on Tuesday night divesting from companies that work with Israel, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, 4M and Ford, among others.

The legislation stressed that the motion to divest was in “no way related to Judaism” and described the legislation as “divestment from apartheid,” according to a copy of the legislation available on the student government’s website.
The legislation passed 19 to 3.
Similar legislation had been passed by a previous student government, but was repealed by legislation passed by the 2019-2020 student government, which the new legislation described as “hastily written to dismiss the voices of the students.”
The student government called for what they described as the “millions spent on apartheid” to be redirected to students who do not ave their basic needs addressed.
While the legislation extensively listed alleged apartheid actions by Israel, no mention was made of Palestinian terrorism at any point in the entire piece of legislation. While describing the situation in the Gaza Strip, for example, the legislation stated that the Strip is “bombed repeatedly by the Israeli military” without any mention of the Hamas rocket fire and terrorism that targets Israeli civilians and usually precedes most Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip.
The legislation also claimed that the Likud party used hidden cameras and recording devices to spy on Arab voters in 2019, citing this as evidence of voter suppression by Israel on Palestinian citizens. The legislation did not clarify how actions by a singular party within the Israeli government are legally considered apartheid or voter suppression by the State of Israel.

The legislation also made explicitly false claims, including that Israel refuses to give Palestinians access to coronavirus vaccines, a common claim made by politicians and activists in recent weeks. Not only is Israel planning to facilitate the delivery of coronavirus vaccines from other countries to the Palestinian Authority, but Israel has also already directly provided thousands of vaccines for Palestinian medical workers in the West Bank.
In the live streamed online meeting in which the legislation was passed, one member could be heard voicing concerns that the legislation left out important contextual and historical information.

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