SAN DIEGO — The University of California San Diego (UCSD) student government soundly defeated an anti-Israel divestment resolution presented by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) on February 29 by a vote of 20 to 13.  For the past two years, the Associated Student government has debated and tabled divestment resolution, but this year they voted on it.  After seven hours of emotional public testimony, divestment was defeated.

The call for divestment at UCSD is part of the larger organized movement to delegitimize the state of Israel in what is known as BDS–the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. In the past, Israel’s fight for survival took place on conventional battlefields in the Middle East. Today, the war against Israel has expanded into a global campaign to demonize the Jewish state through BDS, most often on college campuses.