The Law Students for Justice in Palestine (LSJP) presented a bill calling for disclosure and divestment from “companies complicit in the violence against Palestinians” twice this year, most recently to the Case Western Reserve University Law Student Bar Association (SBA) in September. Any student in the CWRU School of Law was eligible to vote from Sept. 25-29. Results released the following day showed 198 out of 629 students in the law student body (31.5%) participated in the election. The bill passed with 68% (135 votes) in favor and 32% (63) not in favor.
The passage of this bill was not without roadblocks—LSJP had proposed the bill to SBA in February, after which the SBA Executive Board blocked the bill from Senate floor discussion. LSJP stated, “We discovered that the university’s general counsel had informed SBA executives that the bill violated Ohio’s anti-boycott law. We disagree and would note that our members have routinely witnessed the Office of General Counsel’s bias for Zionist causes and overt surveillance of the anti-Zionist movement on campus.” The fall semester’s new SBA Executive Board agreed to present the bill and facilitate a full student body vote in September.
During the voting period, LSJP had a meeting with the Office of Student Conduct that presented many restrictions regarding the language they could use on social media. In particular, part of the summary email they received from the Office of Student Conduct said, “‘From the river to the sea’ has been determined by the University to be intimidating and/or threatening, and is therefore not permitted in any form.” They specified that this includes “electronic, verbal, or written communications of any format,” and their reasoning was based on “receiving concerns from members of the University community.”
LSJP views the banning of the usage of this phrase during the voting period to be a “one of the most explicit and unconstitutional attempts by the university to restrict students’ freedom of speech.” By banning the usage of this “critical mobilizing and unifying phrase,” they claim that this “reveals how vehemently anti-Palestinian this administration has become and how committed it is to use word bans to intimidate and chill Palestinian advocacy and speech on campus.”
Professor Raymond Ku of the School of Law commented on the banning of this phrase. He said, “The University’s absolute prohibition fails to distinguish between true threats directed at an audience to instill fear in the targeted audience as opposed to speech directed more generally or even to different audiences that make some members of the community uncomfortable and/or afraid.”
In the past, LSJP had also presented this resolution to the Graduate Student Council (GSC). This also passed over a Zoom General Assembly in May, moved from its previously scheduled location in Adelbert Hall. The resolution passed by simple majority, with 28 “yays,” two “nays,” four “abstains” and 11 “no votes.” “This Resolution is in agreement and solidarity with Resolution 31-15, CWRU Undergraduate Student Government’s divestment resolution, passed in November of 2022,” the GSC Executive Board stated in their newsletter.
The SBA resolution was passed through a direct referendum by the student body, while the GSC and Undergraduate Student Government resolutions were voted on by the elected student representatives. This distinction is significant because a direct referendum involves the entire student body in the decision-making process, and their opinions are thus more directly reflected.
Per university comment, the university has no plans to respond to the resolution passed by the SBA. Dean Paul Rose of the School of Law also had no response.