Students in Chile university back BDS

Students at one of Latin America’s top-ranked universities have voted to back the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanction, the Electronic Intifada reported yesterday.

The decision at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile was passed by 37-2 with 20 abstentions.

The motion, put forward by the Organisation of Solidarity with Palestine, calls for the university to end two cooperation agreements with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israel Institute of Technology – Technion because of their complicity with Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinian rights.

“After weeks of campaigning, awareness raising and debates it is with great joy and honor that we announce that the motion [supporting BDS] was approved,” the group said. “We are very proud of having been the motor for such an important effort for Palestine and humanity at large.”

The student federation said its next step would be to urge the university’s higher council to act on the motion.

Earlier this month, Palestinian academics called on students and faculty at the Pontifical Catholic University to support efforts “to end the university’s institutional links with Israeli universities due to their deep involvement in Israel’s system of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid.”