Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Michigan Students Reject Israel Divestment by 25-9 Vote

An Israel divestment resolution was defeated at the University of Michigan while a similar measuer was narrowly passed a second time by the student government of Chicago’s Loyola University.

The Central Student Government of the University of Michigan reversed a decision to postpone indefinitely consideration of a divestment resolution and then voted down the resolution.

The vote, in front of hundreds of students, was 25-9 with five abstentions, the Michigan Daily reported.

More than 2,000 students watched a live-stream of the six hour meeting as well, according to the student newspaper

Loyola United Student Government Association first passed a resolution on March 19 calling on the university evening to remove its holdings from eight companies that provide equipment to Israel for use in the West Bank. The vote on a measure proposed by the Loyola chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine passed 26-0 with two abstentions.

On Tuesday night the resolution was put to a revote. The resolution passed by a vote of 12 to 10 with nine abstentions.

Student government President Pedro Guerrero can still veto the resolution, but the student senate ii be able override the veto with a two-thirds majority vote. If the approval remains in place, the resolution becomes the official position of the student body and is presented to the administration.

The university in a statement issued last week said the resolution is not its position and it has not adopted the proposal.

“As a university, we welcome open dialogue and debate on differing points of view,” the statement said. “Proposals like this one benefit from broader campus discussion.”

Pro-Israel students have been assisted in their efforts to overturn the measure by the Metro Chicago Hillel and the Israel Education Center.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.