Student activism in the BDS movement

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement have merged together in their effort to lead the struggle to ending Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Hampshire College
SJP claimed that Hampshire College decided to divest from holdings in Israeli companies. In response, Alan Dershowitz called for a divestment from Hampshire College. However, Hampshire College president, Ralph Hexter, said that decision to divest from certain companies was not aimed at Israel and criticized the pro-Palestinian students for suggesting otherwise, saying "I think they crossed the line of appropriate behavior.”
Princeton and DePaul campaign to boycott Sabra
In 2010, the SJP at both Princeton University and DePaul University tried unsuccessfully to ban the Israeli brand of hummus Sabra on campus.
California BDS initiative
SJP at University of California branches at Berkeley, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Irvine and Stanford University failed to have a resolution pass for divestment from companies which do business with Israel.
South Florida divest
Placing BDS on the ballot
In mid-January 2013, University of South Florida SJP presented a divestment resolution which was rebuffed by the Senate President who refused to place it on the Senate floor despite several Senate sponsors. Student Government informed SJP that it had to gather 1,540 signatures to have the referendum placed on the ballot for general elections. SJP submitted petition of a non-binding resolution on February 8 with over 2,500 signatures gathered in three days which endorsed BDS and called for the divestment of corporations affiliated with human rights violations against Palestinians.
On February 21 — the Thursday before Election Week — SJP was notified that the referendum would not be on the ballot because of advise from a legal counsel representative. The legal counsel representative claimed USF can not take political stances and the referendum violated state statue because it was illegal for student employees to "directly or indirectly advice where a government entity spends its commodities." She also claimed it was illegal to discriminate against corporations.
SJP clarified that the non-binding referendum was strictly humanitarian not political. SJP also stated that student body is not composed of government employees, therefore the state statue does not apply to the non-binding student referendum. SJP made it clear it was illegal to restrict a referendum based on its content, regardless of whether it is political or not. SJP pointed out that student government had previous political referendums on the ballot including the Real Food referendum and the Health Care referendum. SJP stressed that the referendum was legal and simply an outlet to exercise their first amendment right as Americans to “freedom of speech.” Despite being pressed by SJP, the legal counsel representative did not provide where it was written that USF does not take political stances. SJP consulted American Civil Liberties Union and First Amendment lawyers from around the country who made it clear that the referendum was legal.
Student government ultimately decided to place the referendum on the election ballot for Election Week from February 25 to February 28.
Discounting the referendum
On March 1, the student body president sent out a mass email to the entire student body minutes before the announcement of election results. He stated the referendum could not be recorded as an official student government referendum because student government violated its own bylaws in not making the referendum public and accessible 1 week before elections. But the results of the referendum were publicly announced with 2111 students in favor and 609 students opposed.
Canada divestment movement
University of Regina student government became the first student government in Canada to endorse BDS after it unanimously passed a resolution presented by the SAIA chapter to endorse the BDS movement on February 1, 2012. In March 2012, SAIA presented a referendum on the Carleton University Graduate Student Association ballot. On March 21st and March 22, the graduate students voted 204-77 to support the initiative to divest.
On mid-November 2012, York University SAIA brought forth a resolution to divest from from Hewlett Packard, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, and Lockheed Martin. The York University Graduate Student Union voted 29-7 to endorse the resolution.
After an extended campaign by SAIA initiated in March 2011, University of Toronto's Graduate Student Union endorsed BDS on December 10, 2012 with a vote of 97%. On March 1, 2013, SAIA succeeded at University of Toronto Mississauga when its student government voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution endorsing BDS.
List of universities that have passed BDS
Universities that have passed BDS legislation at student government in United States:
* September 2006 - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
* June 2010 - Evergreen State College
* April 2012 - University of Massachusetts Boston
* June 2012 - Arizona State University
* November 2012 - University of California, Irvine
* March 2013 - University of California, Riverside
* March 2013 - University of California, San Diego
Universities that have passed BDS legislation at student government in Canada:
* February 2012 - University of Regina
* November 2012 - York University
* March 2013 - University of Toronto Mississauga
On February 2009, Hampshire College became the first and only university to divest from Israel.

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