As mentioned last night, and as expected, there was a protest by student groups seeking divestment from companies doing business in Israel in reaction to last week’s 15-8-1 decision of the Cornell Student Assembly to table indefinitely the proposed divestment resolution.
About 75 protestors attended the Student Assembly meeting. I heard one of them refer to hundreds, but it was not that many, and many drifted out after a while.
Here’s a video of the pro-divestment students walking from their gathering area to Willard Straight Hall, where the Assembly meets. You can see there just weren’t that many, certainly not hundreds. A disappointing turnout considering the priority the anti-Israel groups place on the protest.
The Assembly then voted to suspend the rules and its session, in what appeared to be a preplanned maneuver, according to multiple people who were in the room at the start. I arrived later, because I had class.
Effectively, the Assembly went out of session, and then let the anti-Israel students spend almost two hours giving speeches, in what the protesters termed an alternative assembly. There also were other unrelated topics, such as free bus passes, that consumed some of the protest discussion.
Here’s the Alternative Agenda:
The only interesting part was that David Skorton, President of Cornell, previously was scheduled to appear before the Assembly, and kept that appointment. So the President was present during part of this alternative assembly, but not because of the protest.
There were some minor theatrics as protestors vented a little, but nothing major. Skorton gave a short speech about improving the process, and left:
All in all, it was not very eventful.
I’ll post a picture or two and maybe a short video a little later. (added, above)
As it stands now, the anti-Israel divestment Resolution remains tabled indefinitely. But I would not expect this to be the end.
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