U. of California Student Workers’ Union Calls for Divestment From Israel

A union that represents more than 13,000 teaching assistants and other student workers on nine campuses of the University of California system is calling on the university to divest from companies and institutions that “profit from Israeli apartheid and occupation of Palestinians.”

According to a news release from the union, United Auto Workers Local 2865, more than 65 percent of the 2,100 members who participated in a vote approved the divestment resolution.

More than half of the voters also endorsed an academic boycott of Israel, the union said. The boycott measure calls on union members 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.”