Sussex university students vote to boycott Israeli goods

The boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel is gaining momentum as students from one more British university join the movement.

Students at the University of Sussex voted overwhelmingly in support of their student union being part of the BDS movement. In a referendum held across the campus, 806 students voted in favor of BDS compared to just 373 votes against.

The students vowed to boycott Israeli products at on campus shops. Sussex students had followed the policy since 2009.

"Of course one student decision won’t make a big difference but this is just the latest in a whole series of such decision by students and students are often like a vanguard, they recognize sooner and react more strongly and the rest of the population are likely to follow on", Jonathan Rosenhead, a University Professor and Commentator told Press TV.

The latest referendum will allow the student union to step up its campaigning against the contract between the University of Sussex and a French multinational company involved in Israeli settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.

 “Students at Sussex were horrified at Israel’s massacre of Palestinians in Gaza last summer,” Kareem, a Palestinian student involved in the BDS campaign said.

He said that the BDS movement is one of the most effective ways they can take effective action in solidarity with Palestinian students and young people.

‘Anti-Israel tide’

The BDS movement has spread in universities across Europe, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

More than 100 student activists from across the UK met in Sheffield in last October to plan for an academic year of BDS successes.

University College London and Essex University recently voted for their student unions to terminate cash-collection contract with G4S a British company that helps Israel run prisons in which Palestinian political prisoners are held without trial and are subjected to torture. That after a similar move by student unions at Kent, Dundee and Edinburgh.

"Israel’s position is totally undermined in the upcoming generation in Britain and it reflects that the shift is also happening in the general public that Israel with its latest attack on Gaza in summer and now its extraordinary behavior by the prime minister and the election, Israel has lost all the credibility and I think we’re going to see much more pressure from civil society and not just students on Israel" Rosenhead said.

Recent years have seen universities including Kings College London, Southampton and Sheffield drop contracts with companies like G4S and Veolia as a result of student campaigns.

Malia Bouattia, the president of the National Union of Students Black Students Campaign, which also endorses BDS, and a member of the NUS executive committee, told me that solidarity with Palestine is now mainstream among UK students.

“There’s now a clear consensus among UK students in support of the Palestinian struggle against Israeli colonialism and apartheid. More than 25 UK student unions have voted to approve BDS resolutions in recent years,” Malia Bouattia, the president of the National Union of Students Black Students Campaign says.

‘Lobbying against BDS’

Doug Lamborn and Ron DeSantis, two US Republican congressmen have recently introduced a bill to combat the BDS.

According to “the Boycott Our Enemies Not Israel Act”, prospective contractors with the U-S government will have to certify that they are not participating in any Israeli boycott. The bill also includes penalties for false certification, including permanently banning a company from doing business with the U-S government. This is the third such attempt by US lawmakers in the wake of a global campaign to boycott Israel over its settlement expansion and atrocities against Palestinians.

Meanwhile, a debate on the Israeli occupation of Palestine at Southampton University, in the UK, appears to be hanging in the balance as pro-Israeli lobby has been pressing for cancellation of the event.  The three-day conference, which features anti-Zionist academics, expected to challenge Israel’s legitimacy, is due to start on April 17. 

"The Zionist lobby is trying to close down debate. It’s trying to close down criticism of Israel. It’s trying to do so by first of all claiming that such criticism is anti-Semitic so there’s been big attempts here in Britain by the pro-Israel lobby to for example attack theaters which take and anti-Israeli stance", Rosenhead concluded .

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