Late last month, the University of Toledo hosted a debate that’s occurring with growing frequency on American college campuses. For two hours, UT student senators discussed — and ultimately rejected — a resolution backed by the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine that would have called on the university to divest from businesses linked to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.

SJP members spoke passionately in favor of divestment, citing the indignities suffered by Palestinians under an occupation regime that is illegal under international law. Opponents, backed by Toledo Hillel and the Jewish Federation of Greater Toledo, countered that the resolution would alienate Jewish students and favor one narrative of the thorny Israeli-Palestinian conflict over another.

I felt alienated after attending the debate at UT — not by SJP’s resolution, but by institutions that claimed to speak on behalf of the local Jewish community while silencing debate on Israel. For me and other progressive Jews who are invested in Israel’s future, occupation and settlement building aren’t Jewish values.

To be sure, those who consider the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement — which calls for broad boycotts of Israeli companies and institutions — an existential threat to Israel and to the Jewish people aren’t off base. In some pro-Palestinian circles, divestment from institutions involved in occupation is seen as the first step in a campaign to wipe out the state of Israel.

They make no distinction between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign to carve out Jewish settlements on Palestinian land, which ought to be denounced by all who seek a just and durable two-state solution in the Middle East, and Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.

In one such case, the American Studies Association, an academic organization that represents scholars of American history and culture, voted in 2013 to boycott Israeli universities — a policy that excludes all Israeli scholarship and restricted the participation of Israeli academics at a conference last year. This sort of discriminatory approach must be condemned.

But UT’s campaign doesn’t call for anything resembling a blanket boycott of Israel. The few companies that UT SJP proposed for divestment — including Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble, and General Electric — aren’t Israeli, but North American and European firms that do business with settlements in occupied territories or enable settler violence against Palestinians.

One of SJP’s targeted companies, Cemex, a Mexican building materials supplier, extracts natural resources from Israeli-controlled quarries in the West Bank for Israel’s gain. That practice is illegal under international law.

It’s difficult to look honestly at the scope of the SJP campaign and call it radical, dogmatic, or a veiled attempt to suffocate Israel economically. It would target only Israel’s unlawful tactics in the West Bank, which have been sharply criticized by the international community, including the United States.

Members of UT SJP I spoke with are frustrated that their campaign is portrayed as anti-Jewish. SJP member Derek Ide said the campaign has drawn strong support from Jews across the country, and that refusing to enable an illegal occupation should be common sense for Jews and non-Jews across the political spectrum.

“Regardless of what you think the political outcome [in the Middle East] should be, you can get behind this,” he said. “It’s a human rights-based approach. It’s not our place to prescribe the political solution.”

UT SJP, a chapter of National Students for Justice in Palestine, endorses the larger BDS movement. But we should be willing to support reasonable proposals that could put pressure on Israel to change course, such as the UT resolution, even if we don’t share all of the same ideological ends as their sponsors.

Leading Jewish institutions could play a formative role in pushing Israel toward a peaceful future, if they choose to. But American Jewish organizations too often have shirked the hard work of thinking critically about their relationship with Israel and building alliances with pro-Palestinian groups, turning instead to mistrust and tribalism. Nothing could be more harmful to building a fair and lasting peace in the region.

Many American Jews, including myself, find religious fulfillment and a second home in Israel. We understandably don’t relish criticizing Israeli policy. But a silent majority of young, progressive Jews has grown weary of Israel’s unlawful occupation of Palestinian land, which threatens the security of Israelis and Palestinians alike and undermines the chance for a two-state peace.

American Jews must demand better of their leaders. For a community committed to liberal values and universal rights, justice starts at home.

Marina Bolotnikova is an editorial writer and columnist for The Blade.

Contact her at: mbolotnikova@theblade.com or at 419-724-6522 or on Twitter @mbolotnikova.

First Published March 1, 2015, 5:00 a.m.