{"id":229384,"date":"2026-07-30T15:32:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/229384\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T15:32:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T15:32:19","slug":"student-union-at-columbia-university-drops-israel-divestment-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/229384\/","title":{"rendered":"Student union at Columbia University drops Israel divestment demand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The student worker union at Columbia University on Tuesday gave up on its demand that the university divest from Israel, in a defeat for the protest movement that rocked the Ivy League campus after the start of the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Student Workers of Columbia-United Auto Workers has been negotiating a contract with the university since last year.<\/p>\n<p>The union had included sweeping demands, including that the university divest from companies in violation of \u201cinternational law,\u201d a measure targeted at Israel.<\/p>\n<p>The demands led to a stalemate with the university and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefp.com\/p\/columbia-grad-students-get-a-reality\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">pressure on the student union<\/a> from its parent organization, the United Auto Workers, to rein in its activist activity.<\/p>\n<p>The student union dropped a contract article that had demanded divestment on Tuesday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.columbiaspectator.com\/news\/2026\/07\/29\/columbia-student-workers-union-drops-israel-divestment-demand-amid-contract-negotiations\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Columbia Spectator reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel&#8217;s Daily Edition<br \/>\n\t\t\tby email and never miss our top stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">terms<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The move marked a major concession from the union, which had made anti-Israel activism a priority \u2014 as have other student unions and student governments in the US.<\/p>\n<p>A union leader confirmed the dropped demand to The Columbia Spectator, acknowledging that the group had to \u201cface the realities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The union says it represents more than 3,000 undergraduate and graduate student workers at Columbia.<\/p>\n<p>The student union had previously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.columbiaspectator.com\/news\/2024\/07\/01\/swc-uaw-passes-resolution-supporting-bds-commits-to-strike-should-circumstances-justify\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">endorsed<\/a> the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, a Columbia investment committee <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/columbia-university-investment-committee-rejects-demands-to-divest-from-israel\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">rejected student protester demands<\/a> that the university divest from Israel, saying some of the demands were too vague, that there was no consensus on campus, and that it was not financially viable.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tWe can&#8217;t do this work alone.\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-4-200x200.jpg\" class=\"attachment-square size-square wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident \u2013 ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded \u2013 I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.<\/p>\n<p>There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.<\/p>\n<p>As a Times of Israel reporter, I\u2019m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit\u2019s. But my colleagues and I can&#8217;t do this alone. If you value work like this, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. 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Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The student worker union at Columbia University on Tuesday gave up on its demand that the university divest&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[28323,65130,15723,44969,37],"class_list":["post-229384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-anti-israel-activity-on-campus","tag-campus-activism","tag-columbia-university","tag-divestment","tag-israel"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117009655598711251","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}