The writ of referenda was finally dropped at the March 9 Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) council meeting.
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) submitted a referendum question that was approved for the ballot at the Feb. 5 Constitution and Policy Meeting (C&P). Any and all undergraduate students were allowed to attend and vote on proposed referendum questions at the C&P meeting, and many did.
However, against the will of students, CUSA councillor Yaelle Gang proposed an amendment March 9 that stripped SAIA’s referendum of its purpose and substance.
The question as submitted: Do you support Carleton University adopting a binding socially responsible investment policy that would require it to divest from companies complicit in illegal military occupations and other violations of international law, including but not limited to: BAE Systems, Motorola, Northrop-Grumman, and Tesco Supermarkets?
The question as amended: Do you support Carleton University adopting a binding socially responsible investment policy?
Specifically, Gang’s amendment removed the filter from which socially responsible investment (SRI) would be defined: that is, international law.
SRI cannot merely be used as a platitude; it must be anchored in substance. SAIA’s referendum question would have provided that anchor — divesting from companies that profit from violations of international law and illegal occupation, wherever it occurs.
Not wanting a referendum question void of the spirit and purpose with which it was drafted to go forward, SAIA successfully petitioned for its removal. SRI without definition is meaningless.
Certain council members claimed that the proposed referendum question “delegitimizes the state of Israel and Jews everywhere.” The proposed referendum question mentioned neither. Violations of international law and illegal occupation are intolerable anywhere.Furthermore, a monolithic characterization of Jewish people erases their diversity and is the very definition of anti-Semitism. Lastly, equating advocacy for Palestinian rights with anti-Semitism not only makes light of actual anti-Semitism, it also silences the voices of oppressed Palestinians by suggesting their struggle is illegitimate.
Would students have voted in favour of Carleton University adopting a binding SRI policy that would require it to divest from companies complicit in violations of international law? We don’t know. In the name of democracy, fairness, and neutrality, we weren’t permitted to ask.
As the CUSA council meeting concluded, an Israeli attack on a besieged Gaza commenced with the use of Apache helicopters and F-16 fighter planes, according to Eva Bartlett’s article “No pretense of an excuse for continued Israeli attacks on Gaza” on rabble.ca. BAE Systems, which Carleton invests in through their pension plan, produces components of F-16 fighter planes, according to the BAE Systems website. Northrop-Grumman (which Carleton also invests in ) produces parts of Apache helicopters, according to its website. Since that evening, 26 have died in Gaza. More than 85 are critically wounded, Bartlett stated.
In response to these attacks, Nader K, author of the Sleepless in Gaza blog, wrote a love letter to Gaza: “In Gaza, Israeli F-16s substitute birds. In Gaza, we sleep on the continuous buzzing coming from the ever-existent drones. We wake up to find that there’s no electricity. In Gaza, explosions are the sunshine and the smell of ash is the scent of the city.”
By ignoring Carleton’s complicity in this conflict, we are far from “neutral.” We have sided with the oppressor.
To the several councillors who supported our referendum question in its unaltered form: thank you.
Carleton students’ fight for divestment is hardly impeded by CUSA’s inaction and is far from over. The truths of justice, equality and international law will prevail. Let us hope democracy in CUSA, via the students’ direct voice, will prevail someday too.
— Angel Nsenga on behalf of SAIA,
second-year transnational law and human rights
