The National Executive Council (NEC) of the National Union of Students (NUS) has voted in favour of a motion to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
Members of the NEC debated and passed the motion with 23 votes for, 18 against and one abstention.
The BDS movement attempts to exert economic and political pressure on Israel until it ‘complies with international law and Palestinian rights’.
“NUS NEC have passed a policy that will only divide student groups, undermine interfaith relations, and suffocate progressive voices for peace on both sides”.
The vote in favour of supporting BDS was passed as an amendment to a broader motion ‘to condemn the collective punishment and killing in Gaza’.
The amendment to the motion called upon students and affiliated students’ unions to boycott corporations ‘complicit in the financing of the Israeli military’.
The final motion also demanded ‘an internal audit of NUS products, services and departments to ensure they do not, as far as is practical, employ or work with companies identified as facilitating Israel’s military capacity, human rights abuses or illegal settlement activity, and actively work to cut ties with those that do’.
“The decision to back the BDS campaign has to be commended and was the right thing to do, given the atrocities we’ve seen in Gaza. I am actually proud of NUS for once”.
Reacting to the decision, the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), said in a statement: “The passing of this motion is a failure of NUS to maintain its duty of care to the variety of student groups it must endeavour to represent, particularly with the International Students Officer voting for BDS”.
“NUS NEC have passed a policy that will only divide student groups, undermine interfaith relations, and suffocate progressive voices for peace on both sides”.
The NEC also passed motions to invite to a Palestinian and an Israeli student to speak at next years’s national conference and to reaffirm NUS’ support for a two state solution.
A second year Politics student, who requested anonymity, told Impact: “The decision to back the BDS campaign has to be commended and was the right thing to do, given the atrocities we’ve seen in Gaza. I am actually proud of NUS for once”.
The NEC also passed motions to invite a Palestinian and an Israeli student to speak at next years’s National Conference and to reaffirm NUS’ support for a two state solution.
NUS NEC is comprised of elected representatives from the Union, as well as fifteen individually elected members, known collectively as the ‘Block of 15’, and the National President.
The NEC serves as NUS’ decision making body between each year’s National Conference.
It is understood that the NEC had only an hour to debate and vote on fourteen motions because of the time taken to composite various motions relating to Israel and Palestine.
As a result, several motions were left undiscussed and unresolved.
Jacob Bentley
Image: Aaron Kiely
