Stanford University's Anti-Israel Divestment Bill Fails

Summary of Article: A group of students at Standford University proposed a divestment bill to the Stanford Student Senate. The bill called on Stanford's Board of Trustee's to divest from certain companies that do business in Israel, claiming those companies abused human rights. The bill's writing was part of the BDS (Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions) movement, which calls for the destruction of the state of Israel. Last night, after intense lobbying, the bill failed. Seven student senators voted against, five abstained and one voted in favor. When asked why they voted against, the senators said they did not want to vote on a contentious issue that would divide the campus.

Discussion with Kids:

• There are many countries in the world that do good things and some that do bad things. No country is perfect. When countries do particularly bad things, the American government advises everyone not to travel to those countries or do business with them. For instance, in the land of Sudan, almost all blacks are held as slaves and there are terrible wars. Many American companies will not do business in Sudan until they stop doing these bad things.
• Some people who want to hurt Israel want to try to get companies to treat Israel as if it is like Sudan, which it is not.  This week at Stanford, some students tried to convince the school to stop doing business with Israel, claiming Israel was like Sudan.
• If you were at Stanford, what would you do to try to stop these students? 
• Pro-Israel students on campus fought back by telling everyone how it wasn't right to do this to Israel and about what a good place Israel is.
• After a big vote and lots of discussions, the school agreed. 
• Moral of story: the importance of being aware of what's going on around you and of being an activist on issues you care about.