After the Student Association Congress voted to rescind last semester’s Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions resolution, six pieces of legislation were presented to the body during its meeting Tuesday night. With large majorities, five passed and one was tabled.

At the start of the two-hour meeting, Saul Hakim, an off-campus representative and a senior advisor for the Binghamton University Zionist Organization double-majoring in Judaic Studies and political science, motioned to amend the agenda. He made two main motions, the first of which was to amend a resolution from 2021 to recognize the right of Jewish self-determination and classify any attempts to undermine that right as antisemitic, including BDS.

The second motion was to rescind the BDS resolution passed last April. The six resolutions were also added.

“Tonight what we did was give a voice to those whose voices were taken from them and powerfully showed them that we are here for them and that the Student Association is not just a force that will ignore all of their voices,” Hakim told Pipe Dream after the meeting had concluded. “There are 4,000 Jewish students on this campus, if not more, and tonight we showed them that we are here for them.”

The SA’s E-Board told Pipe Dream that resolutions must be sent three days before the agenda is disseminated to allow for a review period, completed by the speaker and parliamentarian, which varies depending on the academic calendar and the number of resolutions being added. Hakim said he submitted his resolutions “well in advance” of the Tuesday night meeting.

A little over 20 minutes into the meeting, at the start of its new business portion, Hakim presented his motion to amend the 2021 legislation, which passed. The Congress then considered his motion to rescind the BDS resolution, which succeeded with 22 votes in favor, three votes against and three abstentions.

A group of protesters arrived at the meeting, held in Lecture Hall 9, followed by several campus police officers. As the room reached capacity, the officers told several individuals to leave.

After the two main motions passed, the first piece of legislation was passed with 25 in favor, two against and one abstention. It would allow student groups to have 50 percent of privately incurred security costs for on-campus events subsidized from the Financial Committee’s discretionary fund.

The second resolution, “Commemoration of the October 7th Hamas Terrorist Attacks in Israel and Condemnation of Hamas,” condemned Hamas as a terrorist organization, recognized Oct. 7 as a day of remembrance and called on the SA to work with student organizations to promote related programming. It passed with 26 in favor, one against and two abstentions.

Hakim then introduced his third resolution, which advocated for the prohibition of “hoods, masks, and other facial coverings to conceal identity during lawful and unlawful assemblies or riots,” except for medical or religious cases, echoing a bill in the New York State Legislature. The resolution called for related changes in the SUNY and BU Codes of Conduct with the intention of “reinforcing the importance of public safety, accountability, and transparency in public assemblies.”

The issue was discussed, with those in opposition emphasizing the right of activists to protect themselves from harassment and for the immunocompromised to be safe at gatherings. Lotus Taylor, the SUNY Student Assembly’s secretary and a junior majoring in sociology, addressed the body during the discussion period.

“I think, quite frankly, the notion that someone who is demonstrating should not have the ability to shield their face or hide their identity due to the notion of they are avoiding accountability, rather than they are protecting their own safety, is quite disappointing,” Taylor said. “I think that students and people in general should be able to prioritize their own safety while also standing up for something they believe in, and we have seen historically across the country, particularly in regards to this issue, when it comes to the the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, where students are being doxxed.”

Afterward, Hakim proposed an amendment that would condemn doxxing and harassment. Tyler Brechner, a sophomore majoring in philosophy, politics and law and one of the authors of the rescinded BDS resolution, said procedure dictated it needed to first be discussed, brought forward and voted on. The motion to amend was then withdrawn, and the resolution passed with 19 in favor, six against and three abstaining.

On Wednesday morning, the Students for Justice in Palestine posted a call to action on their Instagram urging their community to wear masks to demonstrate that the resolution does not represent the values of the entire student body.

Hakim then proposed a resolution restricting co-sponsors for SA legislation to only chartered student groups. During the open discussion period, Batia Rabin, the SA’s executive vice president and a senior double-majoring in philosophy, politics and law and women, gender and sexuality studies, said they were concerned this resolution would prevent members of outside entities like local nonprofits or administrative officials from sponsoring legislation. After some deliberation, the resolution was tabled for the next meeting.

The fifth resolution condemned the rhetoric of community groups Binghamton Solidarity for Palestine and SUNY BDS. It prohibited the organizations from petitioning for recognition or an SA charter and prevented recognized student groups from collaborating with them. Twenty representatives voted for the resolution with three against and five abstaining.

“These organizations have consistently endorsed messages that go beyond legitimate criticism and veer into dangerous territory,” Hakim wrote to Pipe Dream. “For example, their ‘12 principles’ on Instagram explicitly state that they ‘do not condemn the resistance,’ which includes armed groups like Hamas and their violent actions on October 7th.”

He added that these organizations’ use of slogans like “from the river to the sea by any means necessary” promote the dismantling of Israel through violence, and their rhetoric has invoked damaging stereotypes about Jewish control by suggesting support for Israel is manipulated by the media, lobbyists and American capitalist interests. “Such rhetoric fosters hostility on campus and has no place in a community that values safety and respect for all students,” Hakim wrote.

SJP “wholeheartedly [objected]” to this resolution in a written statement, further explaining that it sets a “dangerous precedent” given that many political and multicultural organizations began unchartered.

Binghamton Solidarity for Palestine, one of the censured groups, expressed disapproval of the legislation, describing their organization as a nonviolent campaign.

“BSP is the organization of Binghamton students and community organizers who resolutely oppose the zionist project, defending the right of the colonized Palestinian people and their resistance allies to self defense,” they wrote to Pipe Dream. “Today, Israel is militarily occupying three Arab nations. These resolutions are meant to intimidate student organizations and confine their stances against zionism — a form of colonialism and American imperialism — however, they will only undermine the legitimacy of the SA [Congress], and unify the broad student, faculty, and community support for Palestinian liberation.”

The last resolution presented called for the SA to condemn divestment from Israel and the BDS movement. It mandated a formal statement be posted and pinned to the @bing.sa Instagram feed until the start of the spring semester and that no future legislation advocating divestment can be considered by the SA for the rest of the academic year.

“While some may argue that BDS is a peaceful protest, its foundation is built on targeting Israel in a way that often fuels hostility toward Jewish communities,” Hakim wrote. “The movement’s rhetoric frequently crosses the line into antisemitism, rather than encouraging meaningful dialogue or peaceful resolution. Activism that isolates and discriminates, rather than fostering constructive discussion, cannot be seen as a genuine pathway to peace.”

Separate clauses say that any future legislation, after the prohibition ends, advocating for divestment must include a “comprehensive legal and academic review to ensure that such proposals do not violate principles of academic freedom, inclusivity, or nondiscrimination.” It also mandates an independent impact assessment must be performed to highlight any adverse effects the legislation may have on Jewish or pro-Israel students for any future BDS resolutions to be accepted onto the agenda. It passed with 20 votes in favor, three against and six abstaining.

“The SA Congress’ decision to repeal the BDS resolution and block the reintroduction of a similar resolution for the rest of the academic year is profoundly disappointing,” SJP wrote to Pipe Dream, then mentioning the coalition that worked to pass it. “We stand by our belief that the war machine has no place on college campuses, and Binghamton University has no right to invest our tuition dollars in companies that bomb innocent civilians, especially while students here continue to face food insecurity and struggle to access housing and healthcare.”

The organization added that rescinding the BDS resolution ignored the views of students from marginalized communities and that “the inability to reintroduce a BDS resolution this year limits one of our formal avenues for advocating for change on campus, an endeavor that has already been made increasingly difficult by the University administration.”

Leaders of the largest Jewish organizations on campus released a joint Instagram statement Wednesday night commending the vote on BDS and said it was a “crucial rectification of a measure that should have never been passed nor considered.”

The SA’s Judicial Board, which declined a request to comment, will review the legislation in the next 10 semester days to determine its constitutionality.

Editor’s Note: Tyler Brechner, who spoke at the SA Congress meeting, is a Pipe Dream News writer. He had no part in the writing or editing of this article.