CUNY Graduate Center in Manhattan. Photo: wiki commons.

JNS.org – A resolution calling for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions failed Friday in a vote by the Doctoral Students Council (DSC) of the City University of New York (CUNY), garnering 31 out of the 39 votes it needed for passage.

In September, the same resolution was tabled after a vote on the measure had been scheduled for just before the start of Shabbat, leading to the exclusion of a number of pro-Israel individuals who would have otherwise participated in the debate.

The DSC represents more than 4,700 graduate students from across the CUNY system.

“The resolution’s backers claimed they were promoting justice and human rights, that they were seeking sovereignty and freedom for the Palestinian people, that they are trying to end the ‘occupation.’ Nothing could be further from the truth,” wrote Jacob Baime, executive director of the Israel on Campus Coalition, wrote in an op-ed for JNS.org.

“To be part of the solution, we have to bring together people of different backgrounds and beliefs,” he wrote. “We have to engage in meaningful dialogue. We have to empower the campus community to make a meaningful contribution to peace by promoting constructive efforts toward coexistence. The hate-mongers who want CUNY to boycott Israeli universities are part of the problem. They are an obstacle to peace.”