FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
StandWithUs Applauds UCSD Graduate Student Government for Choosing Cooperation Over BDS
(San Diego, CA – June 8, 2021) – StandWithUs commends the Graduate & Professional Student Association (GPSA) of the University of California San Diego (UCSD) for rejecting a destructive and one-sided resolution calling for an academic boycott against Israel on Monday, June 7, 2021. GPSA representatives instead voted to form a committee that will include Israeli, Jewish, and Palestinian students who will work together to develop an unbiased resolution that supports both Israeli and Palestinian student communities.
“We are so proud of the Jewish and Israeli students who spoke out against this malicious resolution and succeeded. Because of their efforts, the GPSA chose cooperation, dialogue, and academic freedom over harmful and discriminatory boycotts,” said Rena Nasar First, Executive Director of Campus Affairs.
This BDS resolution called for an academic boycott, aiming to sever UCSD’s ties with the University of Haifa. This included cutting off a joint marine archeology research project focused on studying, “how humans have adapted to climate and environmental change over the past 11,000 years.” It also included numerous examples of misleading and hateful rhetoric, contradicting a previous GPSA resolution "Acknowledging, Defining, and Condemning Anti-Semitism." We are thankful to members of the GPSA for listening to their constituents and recognizing that an academic boycott would harm UCSD, while doing nothing to advance justice and peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
StandWithUs congratulates Jewish and pro-Israel students for standing up to this campaign of hate and educating their peers. We will continue to work with our partners at the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), Hillel International, and Hillel San Diego to empower students going forward.
About StandWithUs
StandWithUs (SWU) is an international, non-profit and non-partisan Israel education organization that works to inspire and educate people of all ages about Israel, as well as challenge misinformation and fight against antisemitism.
Through university fellowships, high school internships, middle school curricula, conferences, materials, social media, educational films and missions to Israel, StandWithUs supports people around the world who want to educate their schools and communities about Israel.
Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Los Angeles, the organization has chapters and programs on 5 continents, including the U.S., Israel, UK, Canada, South Africa and Brazil.
For the last 8 years, SWU has consistently received the highest possible ratings from Charity Navigator (4 stars) and Guidestar (Platinum).
