Courtesy of Sumud Coalition

The Yale College Council divestment referendum — which enters its third day of voting today — has made waves across campus. Students across campus have been engaging with the referendum on all sides; the past two days have seen tabling events, widespread social media and texting campaigns and a Sumud Coalition banner drop out of Humanities Quadrangle on Wednesday.

The pro-Palestine Sumud Coalition wrote the referendum ballot which includes three questions. The first two ask whether Yale should disclose and divest from its holdings in military weapons manufacturers, “including those arming Israel,” and the third asks whether Yale should “act on its commitment to education by investing in Palestinian scholars and students.” The referendum received enough support among the student body to trigger a college-wide vote under YCC constitution rules. 

For the referendum to pass, 50 percent or more of respondents must vote “yes,” and the total number of respondents who vote “yes” must amount to at least one third of the undergraduate student body or around 2,250 students. If the referendum passes, the YCC will send an official letter to University President Maurie McInnis “expressing the sentiments of the student body” and requesting a formal response. 

The YCC has said that they plan to release the referendum results on Sunday afternoon. 

Referendum language “misleading,” some students say

When the referendum was presented at a YCC senate meeting on Nov. 17, several senators shared concerns about its language, specifically the phrase “including those arming Israel” in the first two questions.

Alex Schapiro ’26, a YCC senator from Saybrook College who shared his concerns at the meeting, wrote that this language “feels dishonest” as divestment from “all military weapons manufacturers” would also include companies that sell arms to Ukraine, Taiwan and United Nations peacekeepers. If the language of the referendum questions included reference to these countries and entities, students would be less likely to vote for divestment, he said.

“This resolution seems to want to play on people’s emotions regarding the current war in Gaza without actually addressing it, and without focusing on whether divesting from defense companies is a good idea for our own country and democracies across the globe,” Schapiro wrote to the News. 

In spring 2024, Yale held shares of two exchange-traded funds — or ETFs — that showed money invested in companies such as Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Bharat Electronics, among others. As of June, Yale no longer holds shares in one of these ETFs, Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets. Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel — countries frequently mentioned by those opposing divestment — all use weapons produced by Boeing, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.

Several students interviewed by the News echoed Schapiro’s concerns about the language of question two of the referendum and emphasized that students should be aware of the full impact of divestment from military weapons manufacturers. 

“When they talk about divestment, they focus only on Israel and Hamas, they don’t talk about Ukraine, they don’t talk about the other wars that the United States and Yale is involved in and are investing in,” said Hadi Mahdeyan ’27, who co-authored an op-ed in the News against the referendum in November.

In their statement “for” the referendum, the Sumud Coalition argued that companies providing “bombs and fighter jets to ‘good states,’” do not outweigh those selling to “states violating international law.” 

A spokesperson for the Sumud Coalition further emphasized that military weapons manufacturers make no ethical considerations in their sales, enabling human rights abuses across the globe.

“Military weapons manufacturers have shown over and over that they’ll sell to any government willing to pay — democratic or authoritarian, genocidal or not,” the Sumud spokesperson wrote to the News. “Given the sector’s long standing pattern of selling bombs to states committing gross human rights violations, Yale must divest.”

Sumud launches social media, tabling campaigns

On Wednesday, the Sumud Coalition dropped a series of vertical banners with the words “Vote Books Not Bombs” from the Swensen tower of the Humanities Quadrangle. 

Sumud’s statement urging students to vote in favor of the referendum was widely circulated on Instagram on Wednesday. The coalition has also organized text banking and many supporters have texted large group chats of student organizations and clubs urging their peers to vote in favor of the referendum. 

“Our demands are incredibly popular. We have had hundreds of students attend training to get involved with the movement, and we’re seeing that reflected in thousands of social media engagements and an overwhelmingly positive response to our text banking,” wrote Diego Loustaunau ’27, an organizer for Sumud. “The energy and enthusiasm among the student body to support Palestinian education and end Yale’s complicity in death and destruction is indescribable.” 

Loustaunau added that while the YCC constitution allows groups petitioning for a referendum two months to collect signatures from 10 percent of the student body, Sumud hit that number the day of their public launch and reached 20 percent the next week. 

The referendum has been endorsed by 55 student organizations across campus, per Sumud’s organizers. These groups include progressive political clubs, such as the Progressive Party and the Yale Young Democratic Socialists of America, as well as clubs tangentially, or not at all, related to political activism, like the Engineering Society and the Yale Dungeons and Dragons club.

Caroline Huber ’26, a student organizer with Sumud and Jews for Ceasefire, explained that she sees a connection between the first question of the referendum, which asks about disclosure, and Yale’s motto “Lux et Veritas.”

“I support disclosure because I believe there must be more transparency between Yale and the student body,” Huber wrote. “Disclosure has precedent at Yale, which has previously disclosed about fossil fuels. I believe new disclosures would guide future student action. A University proclaiming lux et veritas, light and truth, should not be leaving its students in the dark.”

Passing the referendum: A chance to rally the pro-divestment movement? 

Throughout last year, following the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, students rallied in support of Palestine. Protests culminated in April when students set up two encampments, first on Beinecke Plaza and later on Cross Campus. When clearing the first encampments, police arrested 48 protesters for trespassing.

This semester, the campus political climate surrounding the war in Gaza has settled even as the war continues. Pro-Palestine protesters have continued to organize, but rallies have been less disruptive to everyday campus life. 

Several students speculated that the successful referendum passage could rekindle the protest movement at Yale. 

“I think the referendum is an attempt by the former organizers of last year’s encampment to reignite the issue of Israel-Palestine on campus this year. And the way they’re doing that is by shriding their former activism in misleading statements,” said Josh Danzinger ’28 in reference to the referendum questions. “In their three points, they single out Israel and those arming Israel, which is really telling of their true intentions.”

Slifka Center Executive Director Uri Cohen addressed the upcoming referendum and its possible effects in the November “Friends of the Slifka Center newsletter.” Cohen wrote that the Center was “monitoring the impact this referendum could have on the campus climate” and “working with the administration to be prepared for any untoward developments.” 

In their Instagram statement against the referendum, Yale Friends of Israel speculated that its passage would “lead to more loud and active protests.”

YFI posted this statement in collaboration with the Israel on Campus Coalition and Stand with Us Campus, two national groups dedicated to supporting Israel and combating antisemitism at American universities. The Yale referendum has garnered attention from other national pro-Israel organizations as well, including a petition by Israel War Room calling on the University administration to intervene and stop the referendum. These national organizations contend that the referendum will reignite extreme protests at Yale and instigate antisemitism.

“The fact that the referendum singles out Israel, when many countries benefit from U.S. weapons manufacturing, automatically shifts the focus of this referendum away from weapons as a whole and toward Israel,” said YFI board member Sophie Schonberger ’26. “While I can not predict the future, an overwhelming show of support for Sumud — as shown through support for the referendum — has the potential to embolden further and more extreme action on campus.”

A spokesperson for the Sumud Coalition wrote that the referendum has “already grown the movement for Palestine at Yale and demonstrated its strength.” 

She explained though that if the referendum passes “the ball will be in the trustees’ court.”

“Students and community members have long criticized the trustees’ lack of accountability to popular demands — this referendum will give the trustees an opportunity to reverse their pattern of undemocratic governance by following the demands of an overwhelming majority of Yale’s community: disclose, divest, reinvest,” she wrote.

Voting for the divestment referendum will close on Sunday at 9 a.m.