California Senate president pro tem Darrell Steinberg, Assembly budget chair Bob Blumenfield and 34 other members of the state legislature have signed onto a letter congratulating U.C. Regents on their “resolute stance against those at U.C. campuses pushing for divestment from both Israel and from companies doing business with Israel.”
The push to draft and send the letter, signed on June 7, was in part organized by JPAC, the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California. When the group held its annual Advocacy Day in Sacramento last month, it discussed the divestment/U.C. issue with legislators.
“These legislators share JPAC’s concern that the BDS [boycott, divest and sanctions] movement on U.C. campuses is a divisive and harmful tactic to antagonize and alienate Jewish students on campus, and serves to create further divisiveness rather than a solution that benefits both sides,” JPAC said in a press release.
In recent months, resolutions urging U.C. to divest from companies that allegedly help Israel maintain its occupation in the West Bank have been debated and voted on by student senates at U.C. schools in Berkeley, Irvine and San Diego (passed) and Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Davis and Riverside (failed or overturned).
Because the resolutions are non-binding, the university administration is not obligated to make financial decisions based on their recommendations. In addition, the U.C. Board of Regents has an explicit policy against divestment. In the cases in which divestment resolutions succeeded, the university’s chancellor issued a statement reiterating the university’s anti-BDS stance and the U.C. system’s policy against BDS.