Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof (Justice Justice You Shall Pursue), read a sign that Cornell’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace hung over Goldwin Smith Hall the evening before last year’s Jewish Unity Rally, when hundreds of Jewish students, staff, faculty and community members gathered to unite against the plague of antisemitism that swept through campus in the aftermath of the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. For those who have supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement on campus since last year, these words from Sefer Devarim (Deuteronomy in English) have been a favorite way to exploit Jewish values to dodge accusations of antisemitism.

On the surface, it’s easy to say that using the Torah’s words as an argument to divest from weapons is a genuine pursuit of justice. But what is the context behind the Torah’s words and those of JVP? In their apparent bid to provide divine justification for BDS, JVP conveniently left out an equally important part of this line from Deuteronomy 16:20:

Tzedek tzedek tirdof l’maan tichye v’yarashta et ha’aretz asher-Ha’Shem Elokeykha noten lakh. (Justice Justice you shall pursue, that you........

© Cornell Daily Sun