Oxford In Uproar Over Union Motion To Boycott Israel

[Purveyor]

Conal Urquhart
The Observer, Saturday 23 February 2013

Students at Oxford University will this week vote on a controversial motion to boycott Israel, after a tumultuous week that has seen hate mail, accusations of racism and a furious exit from a debate by MP George Galloway .

The Oxford University Students' Union (OUSU) meets on Wednesday to decide finally on a motion backing the boycott of Israel, its companies and institutions. The motion, which would be tabled at the National Union of Students conference in Sheffield in April, calls on the student body to join the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, in protest at Israel's treatment of Palestinians and its hindrance of attempts to create a Palestinian state.

Both the proposer and the seconder of the motion have received threatening emails: the seconder has withdrawn his support and the proposer has requested that her name not be publicised.

Last Wednesday, Galloway, MP for Bradford West, walked out of a debate at Christ Church College. Galloway arrived 90 minutes late, delivered a speech condemning Israel and then interrupted a reply being made by Eylon Aslan-Levy, a student at Brasenose College.

MORE...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2013/feb/23/oxford-union-boycott-israel

[kelliekat44]

1. Wow!!! No freedom of speech or thought when it comes to Israel. It wasn't this bad with S. Africa

anti-apartheid movement. What ever the feelings are about Israel, why not let people vote their own conscience? Everyone decries "political correctness" but only when it applied to certain entities. There was a time when universities welcomed free expression and diverse opinions.

[Mosby]

2. an academic boycott is the antithesis of free speech

Should be interesting to see whether the students want free speech or not.

[malaise]

4. Amazing isn't it

A new day is dawning - political correctness is over.

[intaglio]

9. Errr, so having a discussion about a boycott is against free speech

Whereas stopping discussion of a boycott is pro-free speech?

Do you regard similar discussions and boycotts against South Africa when it was still an apartheid nation as being a restriction on freedom? And before you protest too much, yes there is a parallel.

[dipsydoodle]

3. You may find the key issue to be

that its a Union and that most of our Trade Unions are already supportive of the BDS Movement.

[dballance]

5. Just FYI, The OUSU is Not a Labor/Trade Union. It's More Analogous to a Student Government Assoc.

Just one of those silly differences between word meanings in the UK vs. the US.

[dipsydoodle]

7. I didn't say it was

and I indicated separation alluding only to a bringing together and meeting of minds on a common subject.

Being English I'm well aware of what our NUS is.

[dballance]

8. Umm, Yes. You Did Say It is a Trade Union.

Your post says:

"You may find the key issue to be that its a Union and that most of our Trade Unions are already supportive of the BDS Movement."

This single sentence clearly groups the OUSU along with trade unions as if it were a trade union. I really can't see another way to read that statement and not conclude you believe the OUSU is a trade union.

Where, in that post, you "indicated separation alluding only to a bringing together and meeting of minds on a common subject" is quite unclear to me. The only reasonable reading of your post would lead one to believe that "Oxford" is in an uproar over the OUSU's position on Israel more fervently because it's a trade union and most trade unions support BDS." I'd have to ask you "separation" of what and "bringing together" whom for a meeting of the minds? I don't see it in your post.

[dipsydoodle]

11. OK - its not what I meant even if it read as that.

The NUS and the TUC often campaign together. Its the NUS conference which is important on the subject of the OP : Oxford will subsequently do as it told.

[backscatter712]

6. Didn't you know, if you dared criticize Israel's treatment of Palestinians, you're ANTI-SEMITIC!!!

You don't want a swastika slapped on your forehead, do you?

[Nye Bevan]

10. Galloway: "I don't recognise Israel and I don't debate with Israelis".

What a racist coward.