University College London Students Vote 14-4 for BDS
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
The board of the student union at the prestigious University College London passed a nonbinding motion endorsing the anti-Israel boycott movement.
Student union officers on Wednesday passed the motion supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, by a vote of 14-4, The Jewish News of London reported. There were three abstentions.
The measure said: “As students, we have a responsibility towards ensuring that the Palestinians receive and maintain the human rights they are entitled to. We can do this by actively supporting the BDS movement.”
University College, which was No. 7 in the latest QS rankings of the world’s universities, had not put out a statement in response to the vote.
Prior to the voting, the Friends of Palestine society had organized a series of anti-Israel displays, dubbed the “Palestine Experience,” that included setting up checkpoints at the university that were manned by students dressed as Israeli soldiers.
In a tweet, a representative of the group called the passage “a tremendous victory for BDS at our campus.”
Russell Langer, campaigns director for the British Union of Jewish Students, told The Jewish Chronicle that the process through which the vote was taken was “completely undemocratic and unrepresentative.” Instead of the student union, he argued, the issue should have been put to an all-student referendum.
Langer noted the motion came a day after a BDS debate at the university featuring Israel’s ambassador to Britain, Eitan Naeh, arguing against boycotting Israel. In a mock vote afterward, 27 students voted to oppose BDS and 24 voted for it. There were 13 abstentions.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
