SOAS students vote for full academic boycott of Israel

The campaign aimed at isolating Israel gains traction with British students voting for a full academic boycott of Israel.

More than two thousand students and staff at London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) took part in a poll over the issue.

The boycott motion organized by the students’ union was passed by a margin of 75 percent.

23 year old Bilal Ahmed, who studies Comparative Political Thought at SOAS, is one of the students who was behind the ‘Yes’ campaign.

 ‘Complicity with militarism’

Asked about the motives behind the vote for the academic boycott of Israel, he told Press TV that Israeli universities, including Hebrew University, are “complicit with militarism and activities in both in occupied territories”.

“Well, Hebrew University does have programs that help solidify the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. It is also a wider point about how Israeli universities are complicit with militarism and activities in both in occupied territories and abroad by providing a platform on which military outfits or potential members of intelligence agencies can get requisite training by providing an atmosphere and through which oppressed population can be better understood explicitly for the purpose of better oppressing them,” associate editor at Souciant.com told Press TV’s UK Desk on Tuesday.

The UK students’ union has already been involved in the campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, a global campaign aimed at piling up pressure on Tel Aviv to end the occupation of the Palestinian territories.

BDS gaining momentum

Meanwhile, some reports suggest that the global movement is gaining momentum in the US.

A growing number of American students are joining the BDS movement, a report by the Associated Press said on Saturday.

“Student governments at five of the 10 UC campuses have voted for divestment. Since December, divestment also won the backing of the labor union representing thousands of teaching assistants and other workers for the entire UC system and the University of California Students Association, which represents student government bodies statewide,” AP reported.

BDS movement is based on the campaign against the former Apartheid regime in South Africa. It was launched by pro-Palestinian groups back in 2005.

Israeli officials have been rattled by the movement, describing it as an international campaign aimed at isolating Israel.

Anti-Israeli sentiments have been running high across the world following Tel Aviv’s onslaughts on Gaza Strip during the past several years, which killed thousands of Palestinians, many of them civilians.

HA/HH

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