Issues@Hand

AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs

July 2018 – Barnard College, a liberal arts women’s college in New York City, boasts an undergraduate enrollment of more than 2,500 students. In a recent student government poll, 64% of 1,153 participating students supported a decade-old, pro-Palestinian movement called Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions. The students’ two-page referendum demanded that Barnard leaders divest from eight companies including Caterpillar, Boeing, Hyundai, and Hewlett Packard since they are supposedly tied to Israel Defense Forces.

One-third of the Barnard students are Jewish. In response to the referendum, some 3,000 Jewish Barnard alumnae quickly stepped up to protest the BDS referendum with a petition to Barnard criticizing the BDS poll. Alumnae also objected to the manner in which the student ballot was worded, alleging a predisposed bias against both the targeted companies and against Israel.

Barnard president Sian Leah Bullock stated that the college would not be divesting its endowment investment funds from any of the targeted companies.

onenewsnow.com, 4/24/18; jewishweek.com, 4/25/18