In February 2009, Hampshire College became the first university in the US to divest from companies that profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestine. A two-year campaign by the college's Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) encouraged the Board of Trustees to withdraw its funds from six particular companies in a move which the SJP called a “...groundbreaking decision follow[ing] in Hampshire’s history of being the first college in the country to divest from apartheid South Africa 32 years ago.”

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and world-renowned South African apartheid opponent, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, lauded the decision as a "...monumental and historic step in the struggle for Palestinian equality, self-determination and peace in the Holy Land by non-violent means. I see what these students have accomplished as a replica of the support of their college of our struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Hampshire College’s decision to divest should be a guiding example to all institutions of higher learning.”

Amidst much public and international attention, in late April of this year the University of California Berkley's Student Association failed to pass a bill which would divest its funds from companies which provide the Israeli military with arms and technology. The Student Senate initially passed bill SB118A,which would withdraw investment in United Technologies and General Electric, which produce Apache Helicopters and F-16 jets and sell them to the Israeli army. However, the Association's president vetoed the motion and subsequently the Senate came a single vote short of being able to overturn the veto of the decision, leaving the bill dead in the water.

The message from the student body was that this bill was not a political, anti-Israel sentiment, but a removal of student funds from corporations which facilitate and profit from war-crimes. The student body further intimated that the same action would be undertaken concerning any other country connected to illegal acts, such as the killing of civilians and denial of fundamental human rights, as Israeli military actions have been labeled by the United Nation’s Goldstone Report.

Now, while one may be inclined to dismiss student politics as inconsequential nurseries for aspiring young men and women lacking any real knowledge beyond the textbooks of their ivory towers, the actual power and awareness of these groups should not be underestimated. In 1986, the very same UC Berkley helped spearhead a coalition of universities calling for a withdrawal of investments in businesses operating within apartheid South Africa.

The Berkley student association has control over a $1.7 million budget, which goes some way to explaining the attention the bill received from outside the campus, including from numerous Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. Again, Archbishop Desmond Tutu praised students, commending Berkley's "pioneering role in advocating equality in South Africa and promoting corporate ethical and social responsibility to end complicity in Apartheid", in an open-letter of support to the campaign.

The most alarming anti-divestment support came from external bodies such as Jonathan Kessler of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), who ominously declared at the organisation's policy conference that “...to beat back the anti-Israel divestment resolution at Berkeley[.] We’re going to make sure that pro-Israel students take over the student government and reverse the vote…This is how AIPAC operates in our nation’s capital. This is how AIPAC must operate on our nation’s campuses...” Kessler’s statement arguably throws light on the true potential of student politics if it can gather such powerful foes.

Across the Atlantic in the UK there has been always been stronger support within universities for the Palestinian cause; following Operation Cast Lead one newspaper described the occupation of 34 universities by students as “the biggest student revolt for 20 years.”

In October 2009, Sussex Students’ Union became the first in the UK to execute a comprehensive boycott of Israeli goods, withdrawing produce from campus restaurants and shop shelves. The motion was passed through a student referendum which saw a turnout of over a thousand students, the largest in its history, indicating wide support for the boycott movement rather than the actions of a politically active minority. Manchester, Essex, Goldsmith and SOAS, to name a few, have all utilised the power of student politics to make BDS resolutions within their institutions.

More recently, on 30 May, a day before the attack on the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla prompted international criticism, the University and College Union (UCU), the largest academic union in the UK which includes both staff and students, voted by an overwhelming majority to "sever all relations with the Histadrut" and investigate relations with the Ariel University Center, located in the West Bank. This move was described by the British Committee for Universities for Palestine (BRICUP) as "an indicator of the consolidation of world opinion in favour of BDS." In the same vein, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) described the move as "courageous" in that the Histadrut has a long standing partnership in the Israeli state’s colonization, ethnic cleansing and racial discrimination against the Palestinian people.

What these events exemplify is the importance of academic institutions as a social and political base for international politics and fighting for social justice. Rahul Patel, a Student Senator from UC Berkley, reflected how "student government can be a space to mobilize and make decisions that have a significant impact on the international community." Student developments should not be overlooked. Just as Archbishop Tutu commented that with South Africa "students played a leading role in that struggle," concerning Palestine and Israel this voice may become just as important.