The largest educational system in the United States -the California Community College System- has said no to BDS.

During their semi-annual meeting on May 3rd, the General Assembly of the Student Senate of California Community Colleges (GASSCCC) voted against divestment with a final vote of 25 in favor, 44 opposed, and six abstentions.

Over 2.1 million students are represented by the General Assembly of the Student Senate of California Community Colleges.

The California Community colleges join the University of Toledo, the University of Texas at Austin, University of Michigan, UC Santa Barbara, Princeton, Bowdoin and the University of New Mexico- all of whom have defeated anti-Israel resolutions in the past few weeks.

Bowdoin College Student Government held an unprecedented all-student referendum, sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine, for a full academic and cultural boycott of Israel (not just “divestment” from certain companies).

Bowdoin is one of the most elite Liberal Arts colleges, ranked 5th by U.S. News & World Report.

The referendum was held after SJP managed to get 20% of the student body to sign a Petition calling for a boycott. Our prior posts have the full background:

In order to pass, one-third of the 1915 students needed to participate in the vote, and two-thirds of those voting needed to vote in favor.

The results have just been officially released in an email from the student government president:

Dear Students,

The voting for the student referendum has now closed. The number of voters reached the necessary quorum of 1/3 of the student body but only 14% voted in favor of the referendum, therefore it does not pass. The results are as follows:

In favor: 228 votes, 14%

Opposed: 1,144 votes, 71%

Abstaining: 247 votes, 15%

Total Votes: 1,619 votes, 85% of the student body

Thank you to everyone who voted.

This is a particularly crushing blow to the boycott movement, with 150 fewer students voting in favor than signed the Petition. This reflects that many students were pressured into signing the Petition and also were misled as to the nature of the boycott.

That 85% of student body participated reflects that the student body spontaneously rose up against this threat to academic freedom.

Normally, these sorts of votes count on apathy and poor student engagement. But the student body was so outraged by the blatant anti-Semitism, bias and one-sided resolution that we had 85% turnout

The tide is turning in California. I realized that when the block the boat protests at the Los Angeles docks failed to get more than a dozen protesters