MONTREAL — A proposed anti-Israel resolution at Concordia University has its supporters and opponents engaged in vigorous campaigns to win over the school’s more than 35,000 undergraduates.

During the Nov. 25-27 Concordia Student Union (CSU) byelections, undergraduates will, in addition to voting for representatives, have the opportunity to decide on 10 referendum questions on the ballot.

One of them, the only one not related directly to student affairs, reads: “Do you approve of the CSU supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement which calls for the boycott of all academic and consumer ties with any institution or company that aids in Israel’s occupation of Palestine?”

Lauren Luz, one of four students leading the “no” campaign, said the motion was brought to the CSU council by three students late on Oct. 17, a Friday and Simchat Torah, and pro-Israel students weren’t able to mount an objection at the time.

CSU chief electoral officer André-Marcel Baril explained that the BDS referendum proposal was passed by a resolution of the CSU council and, therefore, the proposers (a minimum of three undergraduates are required) did not have to collect the minimum of 500 signatures required for a petition.

The yes and no campaigns were permitted to launch on Nov. 11. Proponents have put up posters, including one that claims 800,000 olive trees have been destroyed on Palestinian land by the Israelis since 1967.

The no campaign has the slogan “Concordians United Against BDS/ We Believe in Diversity, We Believe in Freedom, We Believe in Equality.”

Luz said that approach is being taken because there are only about 1,000 Jewish students at Concordia, and to succeed, her team must appeal to those who have no stake in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The campaign’s Facebook page attracted more than 380 “likes” within a day of its creation.“We believe the [CSU] should not be taking a stance on complex, foreign political issues that have no bearing on our quality of student life at Concordia,” it reads.

“We believe that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one such issue that would be incredibly divisive to the student body for the CSU to take a stance on.”

Opponents also think that a pro-BDS policy by their student government is contrary to its commitment to serving the interests of all students, and would “be alienating to all those who hold different opinions and would prevent those voices being heard.”

The opponents of the BDS referendum argue that not only Jewish, Israeli and other pro-Israel students would feel “uncomfortable and unwelcome,” but also “all students who believe that Concordia should be a place where everyone feels welcome and no group feels marginalized.”

What’s more, they call the resolution “accusatory and one-sided. It fails to acknowledge the responsibility of other regimes for committing abhorrent human rights violations against Israelis (and Palestinians.)”

Luz is a third-year religious studies major, with a minor in Israel studies, and is active with the group Israel on Campus.

In a letter to the campus newspaper The Concordian, Bradley Martin, a fellow of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), wrote that support for BDS would be contrary to the CSU’s claim that it represents the interests of all students, as well as unfair to Israel.

“Israeli students and those who identify with the State of Israel will be demonized for their affiliation,” he wrote.

“If consistency was pursued, then there should be a call for BDS against Syria and those of Syrian descent. However, such actions would be equally as ridiculous as what is being levelled at Israel.”

Aside from its discriminatory nature, Martin points out the impracticality of boycotting Israel. “Intel’s new multi-core processor was completely developed at its facilities in Israel. Will BDS supporters seek to remove such products from Concordia University, since they are developed and manufactured in Israel?”