Tufts Student Senate Passes BDS Motion One Day Before Passover

The Algemeiner reports: Members of Tufts University’s Jewish community told The Algemeiner on Monday they were “hurt and angry,” after the school’s student senate passed a boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) resolution in a landslide vote on Sunday night, just ahead of Passover.

Keren Hendel — affiliated with Tufts American Israel Alliance (TAIA) and Tufts Students for Two States, both part of the campus’s Zionist coalition, which also includes Tufts Friends of Israel (FOI) and J Street U — said it was surprisingly emotionally taxing to sit in the room for five hours as the Tufts Community Union (TCU) student senate discussed and ultimately passed the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)-drafted resolution by a vote of 17 to 6, with 8 abstentions.

“I’m more upset by the process than the outcome [of the vote],” Hendel noted. “I felt silenced, as there was no real debate taking place about the complicated issues, with our side denied the opportunity to fully respond to the talking points being made by SJP. It was frustrating.”