Cornell University’s student assembly voted Thursday to support cutting ties with Israel’s Technion and condemned the university for hosting former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni, in a move reflecting intensifying anti-Israel activism on U.S. campuses.
The undergraduate body approved a resolution calling on the university to “terminate its institutional partnership” with the Technion, one of Israel’s leading universities, citing what it described as “serious ethical concerns” and alleged “complicity in genocide.”
Protests supporting Hezbollah and Iran in Times Square, Manhattan
(Video: FNTV)
The measure passed with 17 votes in favor and five opposed.
Cornell operates the Cornell Tech campus in New York City in partnership with the Technion. The project, located on Roosevelt Island, has previously received significant backing from the city and has launched roughly 130 technology startups worth about $830 million, according to the university.
Supporters of the resolution argued that the Technion’s cooperation with the Israeli military violates international law. The text claims that “partnership with an institution involved in developing military technologies and surveillance infrastructure is incompatible with Cornell’s stated values.”
International crimes such as genocide have strict legal definitions and have not been proven against Israel in international courts. Still, such accusations are frequently used by activists opposing Israel.
A second resolution condemned Cornell’s “use of programming to platform individuals implicated in war crimes,” referring to Livni’s participation in a campus event as part of the university’s Pathways to Peace program.
Livni, a former Knesset member and minister who has criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and supports a two-state solution, previously led Israeli peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
The Cornell resolution said Livni’s participation created “a hostile and coercive academic environment for students” and exposed them to what it described as “state propaganda.” The measure passed with 19 votes in favor, two against and three abstentions.
In 2009, a British court issued a warrant related to alleged war crimes during the Gaza conflict the previous year, prompting Livni to cancel a planned trip to the United Kingdom. A summons issued by British police in 2016 was later dropped.
Resolutions passed by the student assembly are forwarded to Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff, who has the authority to decide whether to implement or reject them.
The vote came after a tense meeting in which students in the audience interrupted Kotlikoff, shouting accusations about “genocide” and booing him until he left the hall.
Campus activist groups had encouraged supporters to “pack the student assembly” in order to push the resolutions through.
The move is part of a broader campaign by activist groups at US universities to sever institutional ties with Israel. Jewish student organizations and federal authorities have warned that some campus activism has crossed into antisemitism.
Last year, Cornell’s graduate student union adopted a boycott resolution targeting Israel that backed Palestinian resistance “by any means necessary,” a slogan critics say endorses violence. The university later distanced itself from the union and condemned antisemitism.
Elsewhere this week, the graduate student union at Columbia University approved a labor strike intended to advance demands by anti-Israel activists on campus.
According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a free speech advocacy group, Cornell ranked 227 out of 257 US universities in its latest free speech rankings.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people gathered near Times Square in Manhattan for a rally billed as a show of solidarity with Palestinians and Iran.
The demonstration was part of the annual Quds Day, observed in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and held on the final Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to express opposition to Israel and its control of Jerusalem.
Participants, backed by local left-wing organizations and members of the ultra-Orthodox anti-Zionist group Neturei Karta, chanted “Death to America,” waved flags of Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and voiced support for Iran.
One speaker praised the October 7 attack carried out by terrorist organizations in Gaza, calling it a “strategic earthquake,” and asked the crowd to honor what he described as “our martyrs,” including Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
The crowd responded with cheers and chants of “Allahu Akbar.”
Verbal confrontations later broke out between rally participants and a small group of pro-Israel demonstrators across the street.