[Next semester, more BDS resolutions are likely to surface on American college campuses. Pro-Israel students may be called upon to speak out against them. I encourage any student facing BDS at his or her university to read this speech at any divestment hearing.]

Good morning/afternoon/evening. I would like to take just a few minutes to speak to you about the divestment resolution at __________ and what it represents. By the end of it, I hope to have shown you using facts and logic why you should oppose this resolution.

This resolution has been presented to you by followers of the BDS movement. “BDS” stands for boycott, divestment, and sanctions, all of which are directed at the state of Israel and any person or company that works with it. Other people here have talked about the questionable morality of targeting everyone who comes from a particular country, as well as the wisdom of a student government making political statements. I’m not here to talk about this political situation. I am here to talk about BDS, which this divestment resolution is just one small part of.

What does the global BDS movement actually want? In answering that question, its followers in this room will use all of the flowery language you’ve heard already today, that they want “human rights,” “justice,” and “equality.” But the actual movement, the one only seen within anti-Israel circles, is quite different. Its entire purpose is to deprive Jews of their basic human rights, specifically their right of self-determination. I will prove it.

Lara Kiswani, a BDS activist just like the ones in this very room, recently stated that “the end-all of BDS is to weaken Israel, to isolate Israel, and give the global community a role in the liberation of Palestine…all of occupied Palestine, from Haifa, to Jerusalem, to Ramallah” Another BDS supporter, As’ad AbuKhali, wrote in an op ed for Al-Akhbar that “the real aim of BDS is to bring down the state of Israel…That should be stated as an unambiguous goal.” The founder of BDS, Omar Barghouti, has clearly stated that “we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine.”

When BDS leaders are speaking to only their supporters, they don’t even bother to pretend that their movement is about human rights. Here are some more testimonies. Ahmed Moor, a pro-BDS author, wrote, ““Ending the occupation doesn’t mean anything if it doesn’t mean upending the Jewish state itself…BDS does mean the end of the Jewish state.” David Litwin, another BDS activist, wrote that “A ‘Jewish state’ is irreconcilable with the justice advocated for BDS.” Ronnie Kasrils wrote in Palestine Chronicle that “BDS represents three words that will bring about the defeat of Zionist Israel and victory for Palestine.”No BDS group, either globally or locally, has publicly disavowed these statements. The evidence piles up and up and cannot be denied.

I’m sure divestment supporters are now preparing what they are going to say next, to try to deny the facts I just reported. Here’s what the divestment supporters are probably going to say once I’m off this podium: that they are “unaffiliated” with the global BDS organization and all the other SJPs out there. They really do want human rights and justice, honest!, and they just don’t like some Israeli policies. Many times before and on many other campuses BDS advocates have said whatever they have had to say in order to convince student governments to vote for their resolutions. Yet the moment their resolution passes, they take to Twitter with the hashtag BDSWin and the global BDS movement applauds and declares yet another school, your school, has joined them in their fight to wipe Israel off the map. But hey, maybe this time will be different. But I wouldn’t count on it.

I haven’t come before you today to tell you how to vote. I’m only here to tell you the facts about BDS, this resolution, and what this debate is really all about. Now everyone in this room knows the truth about BDS. The only question now is what you’re going to do with this toxic resolution in front of you. Maybe boycotting these companies would be the right thing to do, maybe not, but you should be boycotting them for the right reason. If you vote for this resolution, you will be perceived (and spun by the BDS movement) as aligning yourselves and your school with BDS whether you mean to or not. So if you agree with BDS, the real BDS, the one that wants war with Israel and seeks to deny the Jewish people their rights, then I encourage you to vote in favor of this resolution. But if you think it’s not your place to decide whether or not Jews are entitled to the same rights as everyone else, or you’re not inclined to sign your university up to fight Palestine’s war, then vote against this resolution. It’s entirely up to you. Thank you.