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| Another campus has seen the light |
A student referendum at the University of British Columbia on boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel failed to pass last week after the yes side didn’t get the required percentage of votes.
Among students who chose to vote on whether they want their student union to support the BDS campaign against Israel, 3,493 voted “yes” and 2,223 voted “no.” The referendum required a quorum of 4,130 “yes” votes, or about eight per cent of UBC’s 48,000 students, in order to pass.
“We are proud to announce that after a long and rough campaign period, we have succeeded in keeping BDS off of our campus!” the group UBC Students Against BDS said in a statement. “This is a great day for peace and dialogue at UBC.”The number of votes cast against the resolution, 2,223, a great number of opposers to BS rubbish. On this matter, Rabbi Phillip Bergman, director of Hillel UBC, commented: “What was truly a surprise was that the pro-BDS group failed to get at least 4,130 votes. And what absolutely shocked me was the number that voted no or abstained--almost 2,700.That number is the largest number of anti-BDS votes ever cast in Canada, and I believe possibly in all of North America.” Way to go, UBC!
