The boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel suffered a significant defeat at the University of Winnipeg (UW) student union vote that occurred on October 25.
In order to secure a victory a two-thirds majority in the vote was needed. As Arielle Branitsky, Hillel director and outreach consultant for the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg indicated to the Winnipeg Jewish Review, the pro-Israel side received votes from both Jewish and non-Jewish students out of the approximately 45-50 students in total who appeared at the meeting.
"Approximately 36 students, many of whom were Jewish, attended the meeting to vote against the motion. Many of those students also served as a proxy for other students, Jewish and non-Jewish, who could not attend the meeting. Therefore, those 36 students represented approximately 70 votes," Branitsky said
According to Branitsky, " there were non-Jewish students involved in every aspect of defeating the motion. They signed proxies, came in person, and spoke against the motion as part of the debate."
When asked about the strategy to defeat the motion and about how many students actively worked on defeating the motion, Branitsky explained that " Hillel helped to identify five student leaders, who actively took on the role of recruiting students to attend the meeting or submit proxy forms to allow others to vote on their behalf. The success of these students’ work to rally their peers, lead to the turnout necessary to defeat the motion. With more than 2/3 of the votes, between those present and proxies, against the motion, the students were able to vote on this motion, assured the results would be in their favour."
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