The National Union of Students recently voted to support the BDS movement, and a University of Southampton SU motion to condemn it was blocked. Is it really something students should get behind?
The BDS calls itself a “campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel until it complies with International Law and Palestinian rights”.
Extremely disappointed that NUS has voted in favour of BDS. BDS will not, and never will, achieve solidarity
— Josh Battat ()
Southampton Student Union President David Mendoza-Wolfson unsuccessfully attempted to pass a motion condemning the movement at Monday’s Union Council meeting. While his methods of attempting to legislate to this end have , the notion itself is a valid one.
The movement has been heavily criticised by those on both sides of the Israel-Palestine debate. The President of the Palestinian Authority himself, Mahmoud Abbas, has openly criticised it. Mudar Zahran, a Jordanian-Palestinian who is the leader of the Jordanian Opposition Coalition, calls it ‘dangerous’ and ‘reckless.
It does not appear to be a movement of peace. It is widely believed that the only feasible solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict is the creation of a two-state solution, but the BDS movement opposes this. It merely seems to encourage division, tension and conflict.
Antisemitism is like a virus, it mutates and infects everything it touches. It's mutated into BDS and NUS is infected.
— Joe Vinson ()
Some students at KCL were reduced to tears when their union voted to support the movement, feeling demonised by their elected representatives. Samuel Steinbock, a student at KCL, said that endorsing such a movement tells Israeli students that they are ‘not welcome’.
This is precisely the problem. Are all Israeli students, or Jewish students with links to the state of Israel, supposed to feel guilty for the actions of their country’s government? Not all Israelis support the policies of their government (Benjamin Netanyahu’s centre-right Likud party only gained 23% of the public vote at the recent election).
The notion is as ridiculous as asking all Muslim students to apologise for isolated terrorist incidents carried out by IS militants.
The BDS movement has been accused of encouraging anti-semitism on campuses. The Union of Jewish Students said “Those in support of the BDS movement want the public to believe they don’t target individuals. Their actions and language regularly prove themselves as toxic forces on our campuses and in our society”.
Universities UK statement regarding academic boycotts and academic freedom – http://t.co/bDrKpWYWeh
— Universities UK ()
It seems odd that the movement solely targets the Jewish state for not recognising the legal rights of Palestinians, who are subjected to unfair treatment in virtually all Middle-Eastern countries: Jordan bans Palestinians from holding many government jobs despite the fact that they form a majority in the country, Lebanon bans them from over 20 professions.
Add to this the enormous numbers of civilian casualties racked up by Saudi Arabia’s bombing of Yemen and Syria. It is clear that Israel isn’t the only nation at fault. Surely it would be more just and beneficial to place more emphasis on all of these rights abuses, not simply on the actions of Israel.
Student bodies should distance themselves from counterproductive movements such as that of the BDS. Universities should be platforms for reasoned, balanced debates. By enabling a dialogue to be opened between those on the Israeli and Palestinian sides of the conflict, we stand a much better chance of creating a long-term peace than anything a boycott would achieve.
What do you think of the NUS Israel boycott? Let us know in the comments.
Omg stfu bore
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Worked with South Africa…
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What you’re basically saying here is: because other Arab countries don’t treat Palestinians well, why should Israel be held to a different standard? Well maybe it’s because they continue to illegally occupy and build settlements on Palestinian land. The president of the Students Union should not be attempting to pass emergency motions on such a controversial issue that affects each and every student based on personal opinion. The BDS movement is a justified and important manner in which students and others across the world can stand up and support the rights of Palestinians who are treated extremely harshly and discriminated against in Israel. Boycotting Israeli goods is not the same as boycotting “Jewish” goods and to conflate the two and state that BDS is antisemitic is both ignorant and disregards the importance of the impact of challenging Israel to comply with international law.
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Please explain how it’s different from putting economic sanctions in place against Russia or any other state (other than the fact that no one cries Russophobia)
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When will Henry Majin come to understand the difference between anti-semitism and anti-zionism?
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It’s not asking students to apologise you melon. Completely missed the point.
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This is the most active DMW has been all year. As people who were at Union Council on Monday will be aware, the policy went to informal discussion because not many people fully understood the complexities of the issue. But DMW’s reaction to the criticism of installing said policy by one member – to shout, swear and storm off – was completely unprofessional and proved concerns that he was using his platform within the Union to implement his personal political beliefs to be true. This is likely to have played a part in the policy falling.
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Israel is an Apartheid state let by a democratically elected government. The people of Israel voted in favour of Apartheid and in doing so, voted for the consequences that come with it.
Calling it anti-semitic is ignorant at best and a pitiful attempt to play the race card at worst. Israel get away with actions 100x worse than Apartheid South Africa ever did, but the sanctions and boycotts levelled against South Africa were far swifter and more devastating. If any other country on earth behaved like Israel, we’d be smacking them upside the head with sanction after sanction (if not military action) – for an example, see sanctions against Russia following their annexation of Ukrainian territory and that is nothing compared to what the Palestinians have been put through.
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You are an actual idiot with an incredible amount of historical shortsightedness if you actually believe Israel’s actions are actually worse than apartheid South Africa’s…lol
Like sorry to burst your bubble or whatever but there are actually other countries (many very close to Israel) getting away with actions far far worse. Your comment only shows your breathtaking ignorance.
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Don’t call someone an idiot and then finish the sentence with ‘…lol’. It makes you sound like a Solent student.
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I assume you have no other issues to take with my comment then
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“The ANC Chairperson, Baleka Mbete, strongly responded saying that she has been to Palestine herself and that the Israeli regime is not only comparable but “far worse than Apartheid South Africa.” from http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/anc-confirms-support-for-israel-boycott-1.1414226
So the official position of the party of Nelson Mandela is that Israel is worse than Apartheid South Africa.
Your move.
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Now you are really showing ignorance if you think the ANC is a party whose positions should be supported. A chronically corrupt party, which acts in a dangerously autocratic way, extremely racist to white South Africans, and overall responsible for turning South Africa into an economic powerhouse into a languishing laughing stock.
I’m not talking about their policies, but I think that when the ANC point at the Palestinians and say “Wow, we had it good by comparison”, it should make you think.
mate pls
There are many more. The use of the word ‘apartheid’ in regards to any other situation than pre-1994 South Africa is cultural and historical appropriation. It exaggerates the situation in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank and devalues the experiences of POCs in South Africa.
“exagerrates the situation in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank”
Jog on.
“Universities should be a platforms for reasonable, balanced debates.” You published an article in march calling for the shutdown of the conference on Israel’s legitimacy to be held at the university of Southampton, a conference which had planned to host speakers from a wide range of different views.
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Because questioning the legitimacy of the only Jewish state in the world without questioning the legitimacy of any other states ISN’T balanced.
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You make two claims here without backing them up at all. Earlier in the piece you give two references for Palestinians or their supporters opposing the BDS movement, but when it comes to you claiming that the movement opposes a two state solution and that it can be linked to anti-Semitic activity, you don’t provide any sources or quotes (except from the Union of Jewish Students who just make the same unsubstantiated claims). This shows either laziness on your part or an inability to find supporting sources, neither of which help your point.
You do make an excellent point however, that asking Israeli students to share blame for their government’s actions is as ridiculous as targeting Muslim students after IS attacks. As one of the other commenters noted, nobody would say that government sanctions against Russia means that Russian students have to share guilt there.
Finally, your claim that it is odd that the movement does not equally criticise other Middle Eastern countries for their legal exclusion of Palestinians is a willingly ignorant look at the movement and history. The reason that the BDS movement focuses on Israel is that is Israel that is building illegal settlements on Palestinians land, constructing barrier walls to keep the two populations apart and conducting military operations that result in 45% to 70% civilian casualties, the former figure coming from Israeli security forces (http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/Data/articles/Art_20753/E_200_14_172393803.pdf).
I hope that Soton Tab will reconsider signing off on such inflammatory posts in future.
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Knee jerk reductionism at it’s finest. People like the author using the anti-semite card at every drop of the hat is a barrier to true discussion of the Israeli states actions and prevents condemnation when it is needed and verified by bodies such as the UN or the ICC. Also the very insinuation that there is a problem in this country or this institution with antisemitism is ridiculous especially when compared with the vitriol that Muslims are with treated in some areas of the press and by a significant minority of the population. This author has once before campaigned to stop the conference discussing the validity and crimes of the state of Israel and now continues his crusade to stifle free speech with regards to this subject. Maybe the Soton tab is too high brow for him, probably the Daily Mail would be better.
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Do people not realise that the habit of branding any and all criticism of Israel as antisemitic ultimately renders the word meaningless?
You all read the Boy Who Cried Wolf as kids, yes?
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More like the boy who cried “Wolfson”…
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#BURN
Judging by how even the people who agree with him think hes a prick, has he just killed off any chance of reelection?
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#OhSnap
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