The Jewish Student Association debated divestment this week with Students Confronting Apartheid in Israel at an Associated Students of Stanford University Undergraduate Senate session. Pictured at right is JSA President Andrew Ehrich, in a photo taken by Haley Kingsland.
Megan Maass has the story for the Stanford Daily.

Noting that his group does not support full divestment, [SCAI President Omar] Shakir called on the University to divest from companies that “violate international law and abuse human rights” in five specific ways.
He argued that the University should discontinue its support of companies that provide “military support or weaponry to facilitate Israel’s operations in the Occupied Territories in violation of UN Resolution 242.”
SCAI’s proposal also listed as targets for divestment companies that “operate on illegally occupied land, […] facilitate home demolition, land confiscation or other acts of collective punishment as documented by Amnesty International,” and “engage in practices that institutionally discriminate against people of a specific race, religion or ethnicity.”
Ehrich argued that the divestment bill “misrepresented and unfairly portrayed the current conflict,” calling it “intellectually dishonest and offensive.” He said that divestment is “not a path to peace, and that it is one-sided and counterproductive to think so.”
“ASSU support of the bill would alienate a large percentage of Stanford students by unfairly placing all the blame for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Israel,” he added.
Ehrich emphasized alternatives to divestment that he felt would represent a better use of the University’s endowment and would better reflect the broad spectrum of campus opinion on divestment. He suggested that the University support groups like Seeds of Peace, which “seek an equitable two-state solution” to the current conflict.