BDS Resolution Passed, Then Vetoed, at the University of California-Davis

By Lauren Weiner

A boycott, disinvestment, and sanctions (BDS) resolution lasted only 24 hours at the University of California-Davis last week. The anti-Israel resolution, charging that the school was “a complicit third party” in “human rights violations against the Palestinian people,” was passed on the night of June 4 by the student senate but vetoed on June 5 by the head of the student body.

Kyle Krueger, president of the Associated Students of the University of California, Davis, vetoed the resolution, saying Jewish students had not had any input on its composition. As a 20-year-old undergraduate “who is not from Palestine or of Jewish descent,” he said in his veto message, he did not consider himself qualified to single-handedly ratify this measure concerning “one of the most complex international conflicts in the world.”

At the senate hearing on the resolution, Jewish students rose to speak against it. Later, Krueger spoke with a large number of Jewish students who expressed to him their staunch opposition. “The resolution has been widely condemned by Jewish students of many different sects/beliefs who feel marginalized by ASUSD and its actions,” he said.

“As an ally of the Jewish community, ASUSD has failed,” said Krueger, citing “a history of anti-Semitism” at the university. The most recent incident was in September, when the neo-Nazi organization The Daily Stormer placed anti-Semitic fliers throughout the campus. In the fall of 2018, during the U.S. Senate hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the group put up flyers depicting the nominee surrounded by his senatorial opponents, with the opponents carrying a Jewish star on their foreheads, and the slogan: “Every Time Some Anti-White, Anti-Freedom, Anti-American Event Takes Place, You Look at It, and It’s Jews Behind It.”

The Daily Stormer has been active at UC-Davis since 2016, according to The California Aggie, a student newspaper.

“We must and can do better to make sure Jewish students feel safe and respected on this campus,” said Krueger. He added that Palestinian students at UC-Davis need and deserve the same things “but our respect for the Palestinian community cannot come at the expense of the respect for the Jewish community.”