The AMS has released a statement expressing solidarity with Palestinian students and condemning the Israeli State for its “system of apartheid and its occupation of Palestine.”
Council voted in favour of the AMS releasing the statement at its March 23 meeting, after a three-hour discussion among councillors and students-at-large.
The statement referenced reports from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B’tselem — the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories — which all conclude that the Israeli state is committing apartheid against Palestinians.
The statement also condemned the actions of the Israeli state in several territories.
“The AMS denounces all systems of apartheid and oppression, and as such we condemn the Israeli State’s system of apartheid and its occupation of Palestine in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and the Syrian Golan Heights,” the statement read.
The March 23 motion was criticized by some students as having the potential to worsen antisemitism on campus. Others said the statement was necessary to support Palestinian students and that criticism of Israel is not condemnation of Israeli and Jewish students.
“The AMS stands with Palestinian students at UBCV, and the AMS condemns all systems of oppression, including but not limited to, apartheid, patriarchy, white supremacy, racism, Islamophobia, and antisemitism,” the statement read. “Our work for justice and equality is inclusive of all.”
The motion passed on March 23 also said the AMS will ask UBC and the Board of Governors to direct the UBC Endowment Fund to divest from nine companies involved in or implicit in human rights violations against Palestinians, most of which appear in the UN database for businesses involved in activities that were deemed to be “human rights violations concerns.”
However, in a statement published on April 12, President Santa Ono wrote that UBC could not support the motion due to UBC’s values of academic freedom and equity, diversity and inclusion.
The AMS said in April that it would continue the work outlined in the motion.
AMS President Eshana Bhangu declined to speak further on the AMS’s statement or advocacy to the university on this issue.
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