The University of Maryland Student Government Association voted 29-0-1 on the evening of Yom Kippur to pass a boycott, divestment and sanctions resolution that urges the university and the University of Maryland College Park Foundation to implement BDS policies against “complicit institutions in the oppression of Palestinians.”
The vote drew swift condemnation from Jewish organizations at the university, both for the content of the resolution and the timing of the vote that left many Jewish students unable to participate and have their voices heard on the issue.
“Holding a vote that seeks to demonize the Jewish homeland on a day when Jewish students will not be able to participate is exclusionary, biased and flat-out wrong,” Rabbi Ari Israel, executive director of UMD Hillel, wrote in a statement on the Instagram page Campus for All before the vote.
Hillel International ranks UMD as having the fourth-largest Jewish student population of public universities, with around 19% of the student population being Jewish.
This vote is not the first time there has been controversy over BDS resolutions in the student government association, as there was another vote on the topic scheduled earlier in the semester during Rosh Hashanah. The timing of that vote would have also restricted many Jewish students from participating. The bill was ultimately not introduced and voted on during the session on Rosh Hashanah.
But on Sept. 18, the SGA passed an emergency resolution calling for the university to acknowledge Israel’s military action in Gaza as a genocide and call for a cease-fire, according to reporting from the university’s student newspaper, The Diamondback.
The emergency status led to the resolution being voted on without public comment or debate.
On that same day, UMD Hillel and 17 other Jewish organizations on campus said in a joint statement that they would no longer attend any student government meetings on the issue “since we will not legitimize the efforts of any SGA members’ one-sided, anti-Israel, and antisemitic agenda,” the group wrote.
The university administration has stated that SGA resolutions will have no bearing on the university’s polices or practices.
The resolution’s passing also drew the attention of the Maryland Legislative Jewish Caucus in Annapolis, which wrote a statement denouncing the SGA’s scheduling decisions and added that the impact of the decision leaves Jewish students feeling unwelcome and unheard.
“This appears to be no accident. Initially scheduling the vote on Rosh Hashanah to moving it to Yom Kippur reflects disregard for Jewish students on campus and hostility to an open debate. While the SGA has its First Amendment rights as an independent organization to make any statement – which the MLJC strongly disagrees with – the timing of the vote was not only offensive, but anti-democratic,” the caucus wrote.
Multiple members of the student government wanted to table the vote on the bill for a week in order to give Jewish students the chance to share their opinions. One member pointed out that UMD’s deadline to submit their financials isn’t until Oct. 15, meaning that there would still be time to delay the vote by a week and have the resolution passed before then. Others said that it was urgent to pass the resolution immediately due to the deteriorating situation in Gaza, which a U.N. commission declared a genocide on Sept. 16, and the actions of Israel supporters to try to silence members. One legislator said that the news of the Global Sumud Flotilla being intercepted by the Israel Defense Forces as it attempted to deliver aid to Gaza and the “moral responsibility” to do something for the people suffering made the vote urgent.
Several legislators called out the “doxxing” of their fellow SGA members on social media in the days leading up to the vote.
The social media page StopAntisemitism posted names and photos of four student government leaders on Sept. 30 to its 343,700 followers on X, saying that these students made the vote on Yom Kippur possible and telling future employers to “take note.”
“This is the bare minimum that we stand up to the Zionists here and now,” one SGA member said during debate on the motion to table the bill for one week. “This connects directly to the f—ing doxxing they did against our sisters in the SGA. This is unacceptable, and this is something that, unless we actually don’t let them f—ing silence us, will only get worse.”
A different SGA member said they understood the points being raised and pledged to support the bill, but felt that tabling it for a week would send a better message and show that the SGA didn’t do what the bill’s opponents said the SGA would do by holding this vote during a Jewish holiday.
The motion to table failed, as only two SGA legislators voted in favor.
The bill drew condemnation from Jewish student leaders on campus, including Einav Tsach, a UMD student and co-chair of Hillel International’s Student Cabinet.
“I am deeply disappointed that SGA decided to hold a BDS vote on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people,” Tsach wrote in an Instagram post on the Campus for All page. “This strategy underscores the true intention of the BDS campaign: to divide our campus community and exclude Jewish students from a vote that is biased and wrong.”
