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Cornell Student Government Rejects BDS Resolution, Signaling Major Defeat for Anti-Israel Movement
Cornell University history professor Russell Rickford speaking at a rally in which he said Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack on Israeli civilians ‘exhilarated’ him. Photo: Screenshot
In a shocking defeat for the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) Movement Cornell University’s Student Assembly, an undergraduate governing body, rejected a resolution accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza and demanding that school officials “divest” from companies it deems as “complicit” in the country’s policies, according to a report by The Cornell Daily Sun.
“Cornell University holds portfolio and direct investments in corporations that profit from Israel in corporations that profit from Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, thereby making Cornell complicit in human rights abuses and violations of international law,” said the resolution, proposed by the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter. “Cornell University, as a result of these institutional and financial ties, does not currently take a neutral position on the occupation of Palestinian Territories, which as a result, has harmed affected students, faculty, and staff.”
The Student Assembly overwhelmingly rejected the resolution, 16-4, The Cornell Daily Sun said. The paper added that the session in which the vote took place featured dueling demonstrations between the campus’ pro-Israel and pro-Hamas supporters, with pro-Hamas supporters showing up clad in keffiyeh — a symbol of Palestinian terrorist violence and antisemitism since the 1930s — and pro-Israel students sporting kippah and handing out information on the hostages who remain in Gaza after being kidnapped by Hamas during the terrorist group’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7.
One day before the vote, Cornell Hillel called on Jewish students to show up to the Student Assembly and oppose the resolution, noting that it marked an attempt by SJP to bring the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement to Cornell during “a time of rising antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment” on college campuses.
“The resolution does not address the hurt felt by students at Cornell over the last four months nor does it do anything to bring the campus together,” Cornell Hillel said in a statement posted on its social media. “Boycott, divestment, and sanctions resolutions have historically deepened a climate of marginalization and intimidation of Jewish students on campus, which is our primary concern.”
US colleges and universities have experienced an alarming spike in antisemitic incidents — including demonstrations calling for Israel’s destruction and the intimidation and harassment of Jewish students — since Oct. 7, 2023. In a two month span, ADL recorded 470 antisemitic incidents on college campuses alone. During that same period, antisemitic incidents across the US skyrocketed by 323 percent compared to the prior year.
America’s most prestigious schools have been the site of numerous and unprecedented antisemitic outrages, with students and faculty spreading disinformation accusing Israel “apartheid” and “genocide” while defending Hamas’ murdering and raping on Oct. 7 as social justice “by any means necessary.”
At Cornell, antisemitic hatred mushroomed into threats of more slaughter and sexual violence in several posts published on a popular social media forum used by students.
“The genocidal fascist zionist [sic] regime will be destroyed,” said one of the posts. Another said, “if I see a pig male jew i will stab you and slit your throat. if i see another pig female jew i will drag you away and rape you and throw you off a cliff. if i see another pig baby jew i will behead you in front of your parents [sic].”
In addition to threatening the lives of Cornell’s 3,500 Jewish students, who are 22 percent of the school’s student population, the posts called for an attack on a campus kosher dining hall — named 104West — affiliated with the Steven K. And Winifred A. Grinspoon Hillel Center.
Cornell has also seen extreme rhetoric uttered by its faculty. Earlier this month, history professor Russell Rickford called the Hamas terror group’s invasion of Israel “exhilarating” and “energizing” at a pro-Palestinian rally.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Cornell Student Government Rejects BDS Resolution, Signaling Major Defeat for Anti-Israel Movement first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Houthi Terrorists Raid UN Premises in Yemen, Detain At Least 11 People
Houthi policemen ride on the back of a patrol pick-up truck during the funeral of Houthi terrorists killed by recent US-led strikes, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
Yemen‘s Iran-backed Houthi rebels raided United Nations offices in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Sunday and detained at least 11 UN personnel, the body said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the Houthis, an internationally designated terrorist group, forcibly entered World Food Program premises, seized UN property, and attempted to enter other UN offices in the capital.
The raid followed an Israeli strike on Sanaa on Thursday that killed the prime minister of Yemen‘s Houthi-run government and several other ministers.
UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said in a separate statement that the 11 staff were detained in both Sanaa and the port city of Hodeidah.
UNICEF, the UN Development Program and the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees are among other UN agencies with offices in one or both of the two cities.
Grundberg said the detentions were in addition to 23 other UN staff previously detained, some since 2021, and one who died in detention this year.
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Israel Moves EU Approval for Diaspora Bond to Luxembourg From Ireland Amid Hostility Over Gaza
Anti-Israel protesters demonstrate in front of the Central Bank of Ireland against the sale of Israeli bonds throughout the EU, in Dublin, Ireland, May 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne
Israel has moved the process of securing EU approval for its diaspora bond prospectus to Luxembourg from Ireland amid increasing opposition in Dublin to its central bank’s role in approving the program on behalf of the European Union.
Irish lawmakers and anti-Israel campaign groups have called on the central bank to stop facilitating the sale of the bonds over the last year due to Israel‘s near two-year military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
Israel‘s diaspora bonds are relatively small and sold mainly in Jewish communities around the world to help supplement the state’s bond sales that finance its budget deficit that has risen due to the war. Israel launched a diaspora bond campaign in October 2023 to raise money amid the conflict.
Non-EU countries must choose one EU member state to apply to for approval of a prospectus where securities are traded in the EU and Ireland‘s central bank had been asked to approve Israel‘s diaspora bond program each year since 2021.
A joint committee of Irish lawmakers recommended in August that the government seek to amend EU regulations so as to allow each individual European central bank to refuse to act as the competent authority for such bond prospectuses.
Protesters have also demonstrated outside the central bank’s offices.
Ireland has been one of the fiercest critics of Israel on the international stage since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza, leading the Jewish state to shutter its embassy in Dublin.
Last year, Ireland officially recognized a Palestinian state, a decision that Israel described as a “reward for terrorism.” This year, the Irish government is drafting legislation to ban trade with territories under Israeli administration, including the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. The measure seeks to prohibit the import of goods and services originating from what the legislation refers to as “occupied Palestinian territories,” including Israeli communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The Irish central bank had consistently said it is legally obliged to approve any prospectus once the relevant conditions are met.
In a letter to a lawmaker published by the central bank, Governor Gabriel Makhlouf said the approval for Israel‘s program would be transferred to Luxembourg upon the expiry of the prior year’s prospectus on Monday.
The new prospectus published on the website of Israel Bonds, the country’s borrowing vehicle for diaspora bonds, said its program for the next year had been approved by Luxembourg.
Israel‘s finance ministry did not immediately comment on the reasons for moving its EU bond prospectus approval.
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China, Russia Join Iran in Rejecting European Move to Restore Sanctions on Tehran
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, Sept. 1, 2025. Photo: Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
UN Security Council permanent members China and Russia backed Iran on Monday in rejecting a move by European countries to reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran loosened a decade ago under a nuclear agreement.
A letter signed by the Chinese, Russian, and Iranian foreign ministers said a move by Britain, France, and Germany to automatically restore the sanctions under a so-called “snapback mechanism” was “legally and procedurally flawed.”
China and Russia were signatories to Iran‘s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, along with the three European countries, known as the E3. US President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement in his first term in 2018.
The Europeans launched the “snapback mechanism” last week, accusing Iran of violating the deal, which had provided relief from international financial sanctions in return for curbs to Iran‘s nuclear program.
The letter published by Iran‘s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in a post on X on Monday said that the course taken by Britain, France, and Germany “abuses the authority and functions of the UN Security Council.”
Iran has long since broken through the limits on uranium production set under the 2015 deal, arguing that it is justified in doing so as a consequence of Washington having pulled out of the agreement. The deal expires in October this year, and the snapback mechanism would allow sanctions that were lifted under it to take effect again.
Iran and the E3 held talks aimed at a new nuclear agreement after Israel and the US bombed Iran‘s nuclear installations in mid-June. But the E3 deemed that talks in Geneva last week did not yield sufficient signals of readiness for a new deal from Iran.
“Our joint letter with my colleagues, the foreign ministers of China and Russia, signed in Tianjin, reflects the firm position that the European attempt to invoke snapback is legally baseless and politically destructive,” Iran‘s foreign minister said in his post on X.