UAW 2865, a labor union representing more than 13, 000 teaching assistants, tutors, and student-workers at the University of California, has become the first major U.S. labor union to hold a membership vote on a boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, according to a UAW press release issued Wednesday.
The vote passed with the support of 65% of the members, with more than 2, 100 members voting.
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The measure calls on the University of California to divest from companies involved in trading with Israel. It also calls on the UAW International to divest from these same companies. It also calls on the U.S. government to end military aid to Israel.
That last one would probably result in the layoffs of thousands of American workers, who are the biggest recipient of said military aid, which buys almost exclusively American products.
According to the press release, 53% of voting members also pledged not to “take part in any research, conferences, events, exchange programs, or other activities that are sponsored by Israeli universities complicit in the occupation of Palestine and the settler-colonial policies of the state of Israel” as long as these universities don’t end their “complicity with dispossession, occupation, and apartheid.”
In addition, 1, 136 members pledged to observe the academic boycott against Israel.
The press release opens with victorious statements by two Arab UAW members, who had been pushing the measure indefatigably, Kumars Salehi and Loubna Qutami.
The press release conclude with the following, heart warming note:
We are immensely grateful for the tremendous support from numerous individuals and organizations, including letters of support from over 700 supporters from Jewish communities, feminist and queer workers linking the campaign to repression against Palestinian-American feminist activist Rasmea Odeh.
As you may recall, Odeh was convicted in 1970 by an Israeli military court of involvement in terrorist bombings that killed two people, and then, in 2014, was convicted by a U.S. federal jury of immigration fraud.
So now we know where those 700 Jewish supporters of BDS come from.
