U. Of Maryland Student Government Won’t Change BDS Vote Scheduled For Passover

Jewish students from Hillel at the University of Maryland, College Park. Image by Maryland Hillel

By Josefin Dolsten April 24, 2019

(JTA) — The University of Maryland “regrets” that a student government vote on an Israel divestment resolution will be held on Passover — but the student government said the date could not be changed.

On Wednesday, the Student Government Association is set to vote on a bill that calls on the university to divest from companies doing business in Israel that “are contributing to and/or exacerbating egregious human rights violations in occupied Palestine.”

The student government told Fox News that it was not possible to move the vote since Wednesday is the last day of the association’s legislative session when bills are heard.

A university representative told The Jewish Journal that it “regrets” the date of the vote because “[i]t limits the full participation by all students in voting on the measure — itself inconsistent with the free exchange of ideas.” The representative also said that it “respects our students’ right to debate and act on the question of Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) of the nation of Israel.”

Elan Burman, capital campaign director at the university’s Hillel, criticized the vote’s scheduling in an email to the community, according to the Algemeiner.

“The timing of this resolution is particularly insensitive given that many Jewish students will be away from campus this weekend for Passover, and will be celebrating the intermediary days of the holiday when the vote takes place,” Burman wrote.

In 2017, the university’s student government scrapped a BDS bill before it came to a vote.

Josefin Dolsten is a New York-based writer who has reported for the Forward, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Times of Israel and other Jewish publications. She currently works as an account director at Fenton Communications, supporting organizations that work to advance racial justice, LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive rights and more. Dolsten earned her B.A. in government from Cornell University and her M.A. in comparative religion and Jewish studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

A message from our CEO & publisher 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.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO