The fear on Haytam’s face was evident. I could tell he was processing what he had just heard. Haytam’s job is his livelihood; it is how he supports his wife and children. Without it, he couldn’t imagine what would happen to them. Haytam is Palestinian, and he just learned about efforts to shut down the factory in which we were standing in the Israeli city of Ariel.

The Israeli owners of the company were not the ones trying to shut the factory down. It was not the Israeli government either. The call to action came from the United States, where—for over a decade, on dozens of college campuses every year—anti-Israel students and professors have pressured universities to cease working with companies that operate in Israel. The students and academics driving this effort claim they have been called to action by Palestinian civil society. As I stood there, on the factory floor with Haytam, his eyes wide with shock and fear, I knew that claim was nonsense.

Efforts to economically and culturally isolate the State of Israel haven’t found any success here in the United States. Despite what the Palestine Solidarity Alliance and Students for Justice in Palestine might want you to think, these efforts haven’t taken root on college campuses either. In truth, no university has ever withheld its investments in companies that operate in Israel. Still, here at Hunter College of the City University of New York, our student government is being lobbied to vote for legislation that would demonize Israel on this campus. Passing this type of resolution would make Hunter an unsafe space for anyone who supports Israel and hopes for the day when Palestinians and Israelis can work side by side—not just in a factory in Ariel, but across the region.