George Washington University students are set to vote on a divestment resolution targeting Israel next week, after a debate on the resolution was unexpectedly cancelled on Monday over security concerns.

The Student Association Senate initially called off a hearing on divestment some ten minutes before it was set to begin, citing the university police department’s refusal to station officers in the meeting hall.

The senate’s executive vice president, Sydney Nelson, told The Hatchet student newspaper that the SA requests the presence of security personnel at any meeting that is expected to attract a high turnout. She said both students who support and oppose the resolution have raised safety concerns in the days preceding the meeting.

Some 30 supporters of the resolution staged a sit-in at the SA’s office following the cancellation, according to the paper. Divest This Time, the coalition that spearheaded the protest, announced on Tuesday that the SA has rescheduled the meeting for next Monday.

The divestment proposal in question — similar to one narrowly rejected on campus last spring — calls on GWU to divest from companies “profiting from” alleged violations of international law affecting Palestinians, and approvingly cites advances made by the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign in the United States.

Divest This Time described the measure as a reaction to Israel’s “apartheid” policies against Palestinians, and showcased supportive testimonies from students on its Facebook page. The campaign — whose logo depicts Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip as a single territory — also shared a personalized solidarity video filmed by BDS activists at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, alongside a quote falsely attributed to late South African President Nelson Mandela. The clip concluded with the message, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — a reference to the establishment of a Palestinian state in the territory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, in place of Israel.

The campaign has drawn opposition from leading Jewish and Zionist groups on campus, including GW for Israel, which has launched a petition expressing opposition to the “one-sided” divestment resolution, while affirming “unyielding support for Palestinian rights.” It was also criticized by Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, a former GW president and current professor of public service, who argued that its “simplistic” and “discriminatory” narrative is both inaccurate and a clear extension of the BDS movement.

Read More: Algemeiner