Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

(JNS) — The student senate at Florida State University rejected a series of resolutions that supported the anti-Israel BDS movement and rejected the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition on anti-Semitism.

The resolutions were authored by former Student Senate President Ahmad Daraldik, who repeatedly used his position to promote antisemitism in 2020. After being removed and later reinstated as a senator, he introduced three resolutions that were harmful to the Jewish community. Two of them attacked the IHRA Definition, which FSU Jewish students overwhelmingly support and was adopted by the university in August, 2020. The other was a discriminatory BDS resolution promoting divestment from companies doing business with Israel. Jewish students and their allies firmly advocated against these unacceptable attacks against the Jewish community, and defeated all of them in committee before they could reach the Student Senate floor. The BDS resolution failed unanimously. One of the anti-IHRA resolutions failed with a vote of 0-7-3, while the other was unanimously amended to remove all anti-IHRA language that was harmful to the Jewish community. 

According to StandwithUs, the BDS resolution and anti-IHRA resolutions were defeated in committee before they could reach the senate floor. The BDS resolution failed unanimously.

One of the anti-IHRA resolutions failed with a vote of 0-7-3, while the other was unanimously amended to remove all anti-IHRA language that was harmful to the Jewish community.

“I am so proud of Jewish and pro-Israel students at Florida State University for their tireless work. They did not rest until they made sure that their community was represented, supported and protected,” said Talia Lerner, StandWithUs Senior Southern Campus coordinator. “They told their stories bravely and did an outstanding job educating their peers about Israel, the Jewish people and anti-Semitism.”

These reprehensible resolutions followed a tumultuous summer, which saw Jewish students spend months fighting the former Senate President’s anti-Semitism. Due to their efforts, the Student Senate passed a resolution in support of Jewish representation and protections, including an endorsement of the IHRA Definition.  

StandWithUs applauds Florida State University students, Jewish Student Union, Noles for Israel, CUFI, and Mishelanu for standing up for Jewish students and for defeating hateful and misleading Student Senate resolutions, which supported BDS and attacked the “IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism.”