University of California Bans Boycotts of Israel, After Trump Pressure

The University of California system has announced that boycotts of Israel will be banned, thanks to pressure from President Donald Trump and his administration, including the new university antisemitism task force.

Several campuses enacted various kinds of boycotts over the past two years, as antisemitism raged and so-called “encampments” were set up in the aftermath of Hamas’s terror attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The Trump administration announced earlier this year that its new antisemitism task force, led by civil rights attorney Leo Terrell, would investigate ten universities, including two in the UC system. Last week, Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) civil rights division, said that her office had opened an investigation into the entire UC system.

UC is already responding in an attempt to preserve its federal funding — which the Trump administration has shown, in an ongoing confrontation with Harvard, that it is willing to withdraw from recalcitrant campuses.

The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday:

The University of California on Wednesday said student governments and all other “university entities” are banned from boycotting Israel, a direct response to a Trump administration directive that institutions engaging in such boycotts would not qualify for federal medical and science research grants.
In a letter to chancellors, UC President Michael Drake told campus leaders that “boycotts of companies based on their association with a particular country” were a violation of university policy. While UC does not have an anti-boycott rule on the books, Drake said that existing policies require competitive bidding for university contracts. Also, campus student governments must engage in “sound business practices” that abide by UC legal requirements, which he said make clear that boycotts of nations are not allowed.

…

The anti-boycott letter does not apply to student clubs, which are given wider autonomy in their political positions and financial decisions because they do not represent campuses as a whole. They also have smaller budgets. But the letter could affect certain professional school governments, such as at law schools, which are formally recognized by chancellors as “authorized student governments.”

It was not clear why UC had to make a policy change; boycotts of Israel are already illegal under state law.