How to fight BDS on US campuses and win - opinion

• Published date: 21 March 2024
• Author: JEREMY DAVIS
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Earlier this year, The Ohio State University grappled with a BDS referendum, and the outcome proved unprecedented

About a month ago, students in the OSU Undergraduate Student Government (USG) heard that a group of anti-Israel students sought to place BDS on an annual campus-wide general election.

Students from Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), an official student organization, and OSU Divest, an unofficial student organization, launched a concerted effort to petition 1,000 signatures to put BDS on the ballot.

Together with students from the Student Coalition for Accountable, Responsible, and Legitimate Elections Today (SCARLET), I submitted formal complaints to the USG judicial panel, highlighted several by-law infractions, and successfully nullified hundreds of petition signatures to guarantee BDS's removal from the ballot, weeks before the election began.

Sunday night before the election, in a weak, spineless, and corrupt decision-making moment, the Judicial Panel reversed its previous ruling, confirming BDS on the ballot after significant pressure and a (late and, therefore, unlawful) appeal from SJP and OSUDivest. Voting began Monday at noon and was scheduled to end Wednesday at midnight.

The pro-Israel community mobilized and jumped into action. Student leaders rallied the community, crafted a strategy, and built an ongoing "war room" inside OSU Hillel. That same day, anti-BDS students tabled on the main Oval, built a social media campaign, and reached out to critical stakeholders in the community, including university administration and local politicians.

Early Tuesday morning, as the election was ongoing, the university administration pulled the BDS initiative from the ballot and communicated their intention to hold a "special hearing." All parties, including SCARLET and SJP, could aptly present their case for the viability of a "special election" concerning, exclusively, BDS.

On Tuesday evening, SJP pugnaciously disrupted a private weekly USG meeting entirely unrelated to the election drama. Even further, SJP planned to speak at the USG General Assembly of senators during their public forum Wednesday night.

Supporters of Israel refused to idly stand by and allow slanderous attacks unabated, including false accusations of genocide, apartheid, and the new, 21st-century blood libel: colonization. For nearly four hours, SJP and the pro-Israel community exchanged narratives about the election turmoil, campus life, and the impact of the...