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by Dion J. Pierre
The Bridge of Sighs at Oxford University. Photo Credit: Michael D Beckwith/Flickr.
The umbrella organization for British Jewish university students criticized the largest student union in the United Kingdom for featuring anti-Zionist activism at its “Student Strike for Education” protest on Wednesday.
The National Union of Students (NUS) organized the demonstration in January, saying it hoped to win “fully funded, lifelong and democratic” education after UK government officials proposed reforming the tuition fee repayment system.
NUS, which is affiliated with 95% of university student unions in the UK, tweeted on Monday that the event will include a program on “organizing Palestine solidarity on campus,” with a focus on divestment campaigns targeting Israel. “We’ll talk through university investments in companies that support Israeli apartheid” and more, the group wrote.
The session was led by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which promotes the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. Leaders of the international campaign often controversially accuse Israel of implementing “apartheid,” or a system of race-based discrimination, against Palestinians, and reject any Jewish national connection or rights to Israel.
The Union of Jewish Students (UJS), which represents 69 Jewish student societies in the UK and Ireland, called the inclusion of BDS programming in the protest “disappointing.”
“This places [NUS] in a position of division rather than dialogue; isolating and excluding many Jewish students,” UJS spokesperson Shiri Wolff told The Algemeiner. “We see year on year, that these types of events create a hostile environment on campus and further polarize communities, rather than building consensus and cooperation around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
In February, Jewish students slammed NUS for pledging to again support Israeli Apartheid Week, an annual campus event that began in 2005 and has been described by the Anti-Defamation League as “one of the most well-known and virulent anti-Israel programs.” Usually held in March, the campaign seeks to rally students to engage in anti-Zionist activism.
NUS did not respond to The Algemeiner‘s request for comment.
