Students at the prestigious Oxford University this week overwhelmingly rejected a motion which called for support of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS), the campaign for the boycott of Israel.
The Oxford University Students Union (OUSU) Council voted last Wednesday with 69 votes against, 10 for and 15 abstentions. They also rejected advocating for a boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against the country in the National Union of Students (NUS).
The motion asked OUSU to advocate for the BDS campaign at the annual conference of NUS in Sheffield in April.
The issue was initially debated on 13 February, but a vote was put back until Wednesday evening to allow the various colleges' individual 'common rooms' to consider the issues of a boycott in detail.
The motion proposed by a student read: "We the OUSU and the NUS have a moral responsibility to fight injustice.” It demanded that Israel “end its occupation of all Arab lands”.
The extremist BDS movement was started in 2005. Its official website calls for boycotts against “products and companies that profit from the violation of Palestinian rights, as well as Israeli sporting, cultural and academic institutions until Israel complies with international law. »
The proposed motion stated that the NUS further “conduct research into Higher Education institutions’ contacts, relations, investments and commercial relationships that may be implicated in violating Palestinian human rights as stated by the BDS movement.”
Benjamin Crome, President of the Oxford University Israel Society, declared : “I am very pleased with this evening’s result, which shows quite clearly that Oxford students reject the exclusionary values of the BDS movement.»
“Israeli academics have played a leading and influential role in criticising the static nature of the peace process at present,” he said.
“It's encouraging to see that this vote reflects a student body who are willing to discuss the complexities that exist within Israel and do not see boycotting it as a viable option or avenue to discuss the conflict," said Judith Flacks, the Union of Jewish Students' director.