Today through Wednesday, February 28th, UVa students will vote for a number of elected positions in the tradition of student self-governance. In that same tradition, a new coalition of over 30+ student and faculty groups at UVa has succeeded in putting a ballot initiative before the student body that would mandate the University’s divestment from any companies “engaging in or profiting from the State of Israel’s apartheid regime and acute violence against Palestinians.” The student group has been hosting educational events and outreach workshops since its launch earlier this month and is sure to have an impact on Grounds going forward.
Critics of the referendum, including organizations like The Jefferson Council, have lambasted the ballot initiative as a mockery of civil dialogue, angrily insisting that allowing the vote is equivalent to “listening passively to the demands of the militant, leftist minority.” Personally, I don’t see how encouraging an open, democratic process across the student body is cowing to the Militant Left, but maybe I’m naive. It’s also interesting that this is the primary criticism from antagonists to the referendum. At a time where Israel’s actions in Gaza have murdered over 30,000 civilians and 13,000 children, according to Human Rights group Euro Med Monitor, the student group is advocating for UVa to stop any role we may have in this massacre. They should be heard in our University’s tradition of civil discourse and debate, not maligned for daring to bring this initiative to the ballot.
UVa Apartheid Divest, or UVAAD, is following in the historical footsteps of UVa advocates against South African Apartheid. Using many of the same tactics of civil discourse, ballot initiatives, protests/teach-ins, and endorsing the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions) Movement, UVAAD hopes to achieve what the former student activists were able to: an end to the University’s support for and investment in a brutal, violent regime.
Countless student groups have joined the coalition, including Asian Students Union, Dissenters at UVa, DivestUVa, Minority Rights Coalition (MRC), Muslim Students Association, Muslims United, and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), to name a few. When I spoke to the coalition’s organizers, they had a message to share with students ahead of voting. Here’s what they told me about the campaign:
“The University is an institution with outsized impact on matters of geopolitics through its billions of dollars of investments, extensive connections to policymaking institutions and activities, and status as a leading flagship university. UVa has a duty to hear its students’ justified objections to atrocities and human rights abuses, especially given its unique commitment to student self-governance and civil discourse. Palestinian students and their families have suffered immensely and this university has failed to adequately acknowledge or support them, let alone admit the well-documented institutional and financial connections to companies complicity in Israel’s apartheid. UVAAD demands better of this institution; we refuse to have our tuition dollars support the atrocities committed by Israel and call on the University to change its policies to reflect the values and will of its student body.”
Don’t forget to read the referendum carefully, and don’t forget to vote before polls close this Wednesday! Find the full text of the referendum below along with a link to vote!
This referendum calls for the University of Virginia to submit itself to an auditing process to determine the extent to which University endowment funds are invested in companies engaging in or profiting from the State of Israel’s apartheid regime and acute violence against Palestinians and to immediately divest all funds so identified. Moreover, a yes vote would call for acknowledgment and enhanced support of Palestinian students on Grounds.
Vote Here: https://studentelections.virginia.edu/form/uva-apartheid-divest-2024
The opinions expressed within this piece represent the views of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Jefferson Independent.
Wahoo74 says
Israel has defended itself against both neighboring Muslim country invasions and ongoing assaults from terrorist organizations – PLO, Fstah, Hamas, and Hezbollah – for 7+ decades. On October 7 Hamas invaded Gaza and murdered, raped, tortured Israeli men, women and babies. The IDF struck back.
Hamas continues to surround its military sites with Palestinian civilians, knowing IDF military responses will unfortunately injure or kill those civilians. That is not Israel’s fault. It is a conscious decision on the part of Hamas to make Israel’s totally justifiable and necessary military response appear to be overt murder of civilians. They’re not.
This is not genocide by Israel, much less war crimes. Israel is fighting for its survival amidst hostile terrorist forces whose Hamas Charter explicitly calls for the destruction of Israel and eradication of Jews worldwide. Keep in mind the Palestinian people voted in Hamas as their ruling body in 2006; Fatah came in #2. This means Palestinians voted for terrorists who despise Jews and want them wiped off the face of the earth. Those are the facts.
The referendum was a disgrace and a stain on UVA’s reputation. I’m on Team Israel. 🇮🇱
Ann H.McLEAN, Ph.D. says
I agree with Wahoo 74 above— and stand with the people who do NOT use
Their own as human shields, as the Palestinians in Gaza have done. Sick!
Morgan Meyer, you may want to review the 10 Commandments, given to
Civilized people by Moses, a Jew. You owe so much to the Jewish people withput
Even knowing it, and those Israelis have inhabited Gaza since 5000 BC… but facts
Do not matter to those schooled on lies. Integrity used to be a hallmark of UVA students. No more. Such a shame.
Wahoo75 says
What is missing from the discussion and from the referendum is the incontrovertible fact that Hamas in writing and verbally states that its non-negotiable goal is to eradicate Jews. a goal that is so fundamentally immoral that no nuance, no circumstance, no context can justify it. Logically, those supporting the referendum are either ignorant of Hamas’ non-negotiable goal of eradicating Jews, or they support the non-negotiable goal of eradicating Jews. The residents of Gaza have demonstrated over and over by word, deed, and vote that they overwhelmingly support Hamas. Is there any course at UVA that teaches the truth about Hamas? Will the University Lecture Series address and expose Hamas’ non-negotiable goal of eradicating the Jews? Does not the Administration’s actions/non-actions demonstrate that it, too, is either ignorant of Hamas’ non-negotiable goal of eradicating Jews or it simply looking the other way and/or supporting Hamas? I challenge you Morgan Meyer to investigate why so many students and the Administration are either ignorant of or refuse to consider Hamas’ absolute immoral and evil non-negotiable goal of eradicating Jews. You might start with those at the University who claim moral philosophy to be an academic interest. And, ask yourself what would happen if a student group proclaimed its non-negotiable goal to be eradicating Blacks. And ask yourself why the University Community so clearly rejected the Neo-Nazis who invaded the Grounds with their anti-Jewish chants while so many appear to support Hamas.