Cornell student union pledges solidarity with Palestine and commits to BDS movement

Members of a graduate student union at Cornell University voted overwhelmingly to pass a referendum in support of "the Palestinian liberation struggle”.

Results were announced on Wednesday following a three-day voting period for members of the Cornell Graduate Students United (CGSU-UE Local 300). The voting period ended on Tuesday. 

The union said Cornell University supported human rights abuses against Palestinians through research and ties to the weapons industry, and the decision allows it to "join a larger movement to end the genocide in Palestine".

“Cornell is implicated in the Israeli genocide of Palestinians through research, recruitment, and financial ties with the weapons industry, and endowment investments,” a statement from the union reads.

The union said that the interests of working-class people are linked to speaking out about “the genocide of Palestinians” in order to defeat “the ruling class” that also erodes their rights.

The CGSU-UE Local 300 will now commit to joining the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which aims to hold Israel accountable for human rights abuses against Palestinians. 

The official BDS movement was launched 20 years ago as a means of non-violent action in the face of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and is modelled on the approach that ended Apartheid South Africa. 

The movement calls for companies and individuals to stop doing business with Israel, or at the very least, Israeli firms supporting or perpetuating the occupation of the West Bank and the genocide in Gaza.

'Profiting from dispossession'

The statement says that Cornell’s complicity “perpetuates its history of profiting from dispossession”. It added that the institution built its own endowment from the sale of stolen indigenous land, as its Ithaca campus in the state of New York occupies the traditional homelands of the Cayuga Nation, a Native American tribe. 

“This same endowment contributed to establishing Cornell’s partnership with Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, which developed weaponized bulldozers and drones used to commit war crimes against Palestinians,” the statement said. 

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The statement goes on to say that the US's working class has been financing “Israel’s genocidal project” for decades with at least  $12.5 billion being given in direct military aid to Israel since 2023, all while the federal government reduces social services.

​​In addition to joining the BDS movement, the union will enforce "Funding Transparency" for assistantships and support members who refuse funding tied to Israeli and US militaries and weapons manufacturers.

The union will also pressure Cornell to defend graduate workers who have been discharged or disciplined for pro-Palestinian activism.

Cornell University students participated in pro-Palestine protests amid Israel's war on Gaza. The university was one of 60 institutions of higher education that were under federal pressure to clamp down on pro-Palestinian voices. 

In April, the Trump administration threatened to freeze $1bn of Cornell's research funds. 

As part of a settlement, the university agreed to pay $30m to the Trump administration in addition to investing $30m in research programmes that directly benefit American farmers. The White House announced the deal on 7 November.