Letter to the Editor: Divestment deception, a response to The Lantern’s history project

Ethan Dobres
Fri, 30 May 2025 11:32:21 +0000
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Ohio State students gather together on October 9, 2023 in support of Israeli people and peace in the Middle East. Credit: Ethan Dobres

Ethan Dobres is the co-president of the OSU Hillel Student Board and served as legislative coordinator for Ohio State’s Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Justice and Equity Committee during the 2024-25 school year.

On May 21, a young couple—two Israeli embassy staffers attending a Jewish community event focused on peace and dialogue at Washington, D.C.’s Capital Jewish Museum—were murdered in the deadliest antisemitic attack in the US since 2019. Ten hours later, I walked by the site on the way to my summer internship, pausing to say the Mourner’s Kaddish, the Jewish prayer to honor the deceased.

When I checked my email minutes later, I read an article from The Lantern titled “From then to now: a history of divestment activism at Ohio State.” While I have enjoyed many articles from The Lantern throughout my time at the university, I felt disturbed and disgusted by this piece.

The article opens with side-by-side photos of a protest against South African apartheid on May 3, 1985, and a protest against the war in Gaza on October 7, 2024. The piece makes no mention of the significance of this date, which marked one year since Hamas’s attack on Israel, where concertgoers were raped, entire families were murdered and children were kidnapped. Nor did it mention that the group hosting the rally—Students for Justice in Palestine—praised this attack as heroic and protestors wrote “I Heart Hamas” in front of the Ohio Union, instilling fear in OSU’s Jewish community.

Beyond the callous timing of the article’s publication and its glaring omissions, there are several inaccuracies and misrepresentations that must be addressed. The article falsely equates apartheid-era South Africa to present-day Israel. The Arab community of Israel enjoys the same rights as the Jewish population. Israel’s parliament includes several Arab political parties and an Arab justice serves on Israel’s Supreme Court. This past summer, I visited Israel and saw Arabs and Jews walking side-by-side in the streets of Jerusalem, living in peace. Though Israel—like every modern nation—must do more to eradicate racism in society, the apartheid claim is false and should not have gone unchallenged by The Lantern.

The article also states that “the Undergraduate Student Government has passed multiple resolutions calling for financial transparency and divestment, most recently in 2021 and again in 2024.” The USG archives do not show any resolutions passed in either of these years regarding divestment from Israel. The article fails to cite any documentation of these votes; these assertions are simply false.

The article grossly overstates the support among Ohio State students for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement that seeks to isolate and harm Israel. When put to a vote, the student body rejected BDS—a critical fact the article makes no mention of. In 2017, every undergraduate student at OSU had a chance to say whether or not they supported divestment. Over 80% of students didn’t think it was worth voting on, and the majority of those who did, voted against it. It’s not just politicians who oppose BDS—it’s the Ohio State students themselves. It is concerning that this article did not interview a single one of the thousands of Ohio State students who have opposed divestment from Israel.

Additionally, though the article fails to mention it, BDS is closely tied to antisemitism. This is a real problem at Ohio State, which leads Big Ten schools in hate crimes. Professor Pranav Jani dismisses and oversimplifies this problem when he states, “criticism of Israel is seen as anti-Semitism, which it isn’t.” While criticism of Israel is often not antisemitic, and many Jews share deep concerns about Israeli government policies, much of the rhetoric found in the anti-Israel movement crosses the line into pure antisemitism. It’s no coincidence that the Ohio State Jewish community has experienced several antisemitic incidents since October 2023. As Emory University’s Daniel Diamond reminds, Jewish people should not be told what isn’t antisemitic. Professor Jani is out of his lane when he attempts to do so. “Just as the public recognizes claims of racism from various racial groups,” Diamond writes, “the Jewish community deserves that same acknowledgment and respect.”

This past year, I served as chair of USG’s Justice and Equity Committee in the General Assembly. I was grateful that USG focused not on the divisive issue of BDS, but instead on building a more inclusive and equitable campus for all. I’m also grateful that The Lantern provided strong coverage of these issues throughout the past year. Ohio State students deserve well-researched, balanced and factual journalism from its student newspaper—and I hope future Lantern articles live up to that standard.