An aerial view of the Northwestern University campus. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – The student government at Northwestern University in the Chicago area narrowly passed a resolution to divest from companies that do business in Israel.

The Associated Student Government Senate passed the resolution in a 24-22 vote with three abstentions, the Daily Northwestern reported. The measure—which is a recommendation to Northwestern school officials and not a change in university policy—calls on the school to divest from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Hewlett-Packard, G4S, Caterpillar, and Elbit Systems. Divestment proponents say those companies’ products are used by Israel “in human rights violations in Palestine.”

The vote at Northwestern comes on the heels of a similar vote by the Stanford University student senate, which on Feb. 17 approved an Israel divestment resolution that was defeated in an initial vote a week earlier. But an Israel divestment measure that passed at University of California, Davis last month was overturned by a student court Feb. 19 on the grounds that it was not sufficiently related to student welfare.