University of California Bans Student Government Boycotts of Israel in Blow to BDS

In a stinging blow to the BDS campaign’s international drive to economically isolate Israel, University of California (UC) President Michael Drake said Wednesday in a letter to university chancellors across the entire UC system that student governments operating on UC campuses may not enact boycotts of companies “based on their association with a particular country.”

Noting that university polices “require that financial and business decisions be grounded in sound business practices including competitive bidding,” Drake stressed that the same principle applies to student governments within the UC system, one of the largest public university systems in the country.

“Actions by University entities to implement boycotts of companies based on their association with a particular country would not align with these sound business practices,” Drake wrote.

“The right of individuals and groups to express their views on public matters is distinct from the responsibility of University entities to conduct their financial affairs in a manner consistent with University policy and applicable law,” Drake continued. “This letter reaffirms both: the rights of students, faculty, and staff to express their views, and the university’s obligation to ensure that its units do not engage in financial boycotts of companies associated with a particular country.”

UC student governments have endorsed the BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement against Israel before, blurring distinctions in the public mind separating the stances of particular anti-Israel activists from official institutional policy. Such ambiguity is now fraught with risk for any university whose budget is supplemented by taxpayer funds awarded by the federal government in the form of research grants and contracts. Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has ordered the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other entities to freeze funding to universities participating in a boycott of Israel, as well as those operating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs which practice racial discrimination.

Launched in 2005, the BDS campaign opposes Zionism — a movement supporting the Jewish people’s right to self-determination — and supports political demands that threaten Israel’s survival as as a Jewish state. It seeks to isolate the country internationally with economic, political, and cultural boycotts. Official guidelines issued for the campaign say that “projects with all Israeli academic institutions should come to an end” and delineate specific restrictions that its adherents should abide by, for instance denying letters of recommendation to students who seek to study in Israel.

In Feb. 2024, UCLA’s student government passed a resolution endorsing the BDS movement, as well as false accusation that Israel is committing a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

“The Israeli government has carried out a genocidal bombing campaign and ground invasion against Palestinians in Gaza — intentionally targeting hospitals universities, schools, shelters, churches, mosques, homes, neighborhoods, refugee camps, ambulances, medical personnel, [United Nations] workers, journalists and more,” claimed the resolution, passed 10-3 by the UCLA Undergraduate Student Association Council (USAC). “Let it be resolved that the Undergraduate Student Association of UCLA formally call upon the UC Regents to withdraw investments in securities, endowments, mutual funds, and other monetary instruments … providing material assistance to the commission or maintenance of flagrant violations of international law.”

Only days earlier, the UC Davis student government passed legislation adopting BDS.

“This bill prohibits the purchase of products from corporations identified as profiting from the genocide and occupation of the Palestinian people by the BDS National Committee,” reads the measure, titled Senate Bill (SB) #52. “This bill seeks to address the human rights violations of the nation-state and government of Israel and establish a guideline of ethical spending.”

Such policies would be guided by a “BDS List” of targeted companies curated by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a list which includes Puma, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Airbnb, Disney and Sabra. The language of the legislation afforded the UC Davis student association the authority to add more.

Powers enumerated in the bill include veto power over all vendor contracts, which SJP specifically applied to “purchase orders for custom t-shirts,” a provision with implications for pro-Israel groups on campus.

“No ASUCD funds shall be committed to the purchases of products or services of any corporation identified by the BDS List as being complicit in the violation of the human rights guaranteed to Palestinian civilians,” read the bill.

Responding to the resolutions two months later, in April 2024, the UC System said in a statement that it has always opposed “calls for boycott against and divestment from” the state of Israel.

“While the University affirms the right of our community members to express diverse viewpoints, a boycott of this sort impinges on the academic freedom of our students and faculty and the unfettered exchanges of ideas on our campuses,” the statement declared. “Through careful management of the university’s retirement and endowment funds, UC investment provides a stable and growing revenue stream that benefits current and retired employees and supports the university’s education, research, and public service mission.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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