Cornell University’s graduate student union has added support for Palestinian armed resistance “by any means necessary” to a resolution calling for a boycott of Israel that the union will discuss on Thursday.
The union, Cornell Graduate Students United — UE Local 300, in October issued a draft of the resolution to members, titled “International solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle.”
The resolution said Cornell was rooted in “US settler-colonialism and an imperial project of white supremacy bent on profiting from the erasure of the Palestinian people.”
The document framed the Gaza conflict as the focal point in a global struggle for “international worker solidarity” and blamed “Zionist interests” for pressure on unions.
The resolution endorsed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign targeting Israel; demanded that Cornell disclose its finances, land holdings and academic partnerships; and divest from entities tied to “morally reprehensible activities.”
The updated resolution up for discussion on Thursday takes a more hardline tone, according to a copy of the document posted online that was shared with The Times of Israel.
The updated resolution, bearing the same title as the initial proposal, says “solidarity with Palestine” is the “most effective means of defending Cornell graduate workers.”
“The ruling class that invests in the genocide of Palestinians also profits from the erosion of our rights,” it says.
The document says the union commits to a boycott, financial disclosure, the defense of free expression with no discipline for pro-Palestinian activism, and to hold political education about the “Palestinian struggle for liberation” and its connection to Cornell.
The resolution derides “weaponizing false allegations of antisemitism against unions” and says Israel has killed at least 680,000 people in Gaza — vastly more deaths than reported by Hamas — and that Cornell is implicated.
“Standing with the strength of Palestinians resisting a genocide, and their unequivocal UN-backed human rights to resist oppression by any means necessary, including armed resistance, workers around the world are building power through the belief that we free Palestine, and Palestine frees us,” the resolution says.
Resistance “by any means necessary” is viewed as a call for violence against Israelis. Anti-Zionist activist groups embraced the slogan in the immediate aftermath of the October 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel.
Israelis are protected as a national origin group under federal civil rights law.
The new resolution was voted on by union members earlier this month, will be discussed at a town hall meeting on Thursday, and will be voted on in the coming week, the document says.
The resolution brushed off antisemitism allegations, saying that “autocrats are weaponizing antisemitism charges against unions in higher education” and that criticism of the unions was done “under the guise of antisemitism.”
The union has the exclusive power to represent graduate student workers at Cornell in collective bargaining.
Membership in the union, including paying dues, is required of graduate student workers, with limited carve-outs.
A Jewish graduate student, David Rubinstein, told Congress in September that the union had stonewalled student requests for religious exemptions.
He also said that the union had purged Jewish members from its email list. Without updates from the union, Jews are denied access to its processes and the ability to weigh in.
Cornell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
