De Anza College. Photo: deanza.edu

The student government at a Cupertino, California college passed a resolution last week demanding the school divest from companies profiting from Israel’s “human rights violations,” in an effort to keep the campus “neutral” on the Palestinian issue, student paper La Voz News reported Tuesday.

The De Anza Associated Student Body (DASB) Senate motion called on the college to cut ties with firms supposedly benefiting from Israeli “apartheid,” including Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Motorola Solutions and security services company G4S, according to the report.

One of the chairs of the group behind the motion, Students for Justice, told the paper, “By asking De Anza to divest, you are asking them to no longer take a side in this conflict that undermines a two-state solution.”

“Please don’t force Palestinian students on this campus to fund the bombing of children back home, and don’t force them to fund the bulldozing of their homes and occupation of their people,” a student said in support of the motion at the senate meeting.

Those opposing the resolution were reportedly not given an opportunity to present their case.

According to La Voz, the resolution passed 12-1, with four abstentions. It was based on a similar 2015 resolution passed by San Jose State University’s student government.

The vote on the boycott motion came as an “apartheid wall” was erected on the De Anza campus by the school’s chapter of the Muslims Students Association (MSA), on which passers-by were invited to paste pictures of “resistance” fists.