Editor’s Note: This updated article includes action that occurred after the newspaper deadline Tuesday night.

After nearly two hours of presentations and debate, members of University of Toledo's student senate threw out a resolution calling for the university's divestment from companies connected to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

The nine-member student judicial council, the judicial branch of student government, voted 5-4 late Tuesday that the resolution was unconstitutional. Student government President Clayton Notestine, who is not a member of the council, said the justices felt the resolution's wording was discriminating toward a particular group of students on campus, the university's Jewish population.

The resolution cannot be brought before senate again unless it is "drastically different," Mr. Notestine said. It can still be debated in a public forum through a university referendum, which would put a vote to the entire student body.

Representatives from Students for Justice in Palestine in support of the resolution and Toledo Hillel in opposition to it each were allowed five representatives and 10 minutes to speak.

Shahrazad Hamdah, of SJP, urged the student government to consider the matter as a human rights issue and ignore arguments that the measure was religiously based.

"This is not a religious issue," she said. “The representation of UT Divest as being of a religious nature is a gravely inaccurate mistake, but it is a blatant attempt to shift the conversation away the original purpose, which is to address divestment from companies complicit, proven to be complicit in human rights violations."

Jessica Moses, of Hillel, warned the measure would provoke anti-Semitism on UT’s campus.

"I speak as a proud UT, pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian, pro-peace student activist. As a Jew, I have no problem walking around campus comfortable who I am. As we've seen on other campuses, when resolutions like this are passed or even introduced, we see a rise in intimidation toward Jews," she said. "We strongly urge you to spend time researching and better understanding the conflict. Until you truly understand and feel informed enough to take a position on this, you should vote no."

The resolution was sponsored by Nadine Sarsour and Saleh Aburaad, who are also members of SJP. The resolution called for the university to divest from companies that "provide direct support for and directly profit from Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian territories and violations of international human rights law." The resolution named Cemex, General Electric Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble, and Rolls-Royce, which are included in the University’s 16 investment portfolios.

Members of the student body not speaking were relegated to two overflow rooms elsewhere in the student union, where a live stream of the meeting was projected on large screens. The meeting was also available for live streaming on UT's YouTube page. The rooms were designated for supporters of SJP and Hillel, with no visible overlap between the two rooms. About 200 students and members of the community watched in the overflow rooms.

As early as 7 p.m., SJP members gathered outside the room where the senate meets, wearing blue and yellow T-shirts with the phrase “#UTDivest,” the social media hashtag adopted by supporters. Shortly after, Supporters of Hillel, arrived with small Israeli flags and yellow T-shirts that read “Say Yes to Peace, Say No to Divestment.”

Sara Federman, a graduate student at UT and member of Hillel, said the group was concerned about the manner in which the resolution was presented.

“We support a more educated, open, and peaceful discussion, and this resolution is not going to allow that to happen, it’s going to create more divisions on campus,” she said. “Student government is not the place where we should be arguing about this debate.”

Before the meeting Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Notestine said he had "full faith" that students would be able to engage in substantive dialogue. He said the decision to create the overflow rooms was because of space issues.

“This is first time we are aware, no one has been able to show precedence, where there has been a student government meeting that has been closed,” said Derek Ide, a member of the SJP steering committee. “We have rejected that from the very beginning, and we fought it tooth and nail. We at SJP believe in an open, transparent, democratic debate.”

Regardless of the outcome, Mr. Ide said SJP had decided the next step would be to propose a referendum to the student body on the issue of divestment.

Contact Lauren Lindstrom at llindstrom@theblade.com, 419-724-6154, or on Twitter @lelindstrom.

First Published February 18, 2015, 5:33 a.m.