Loading ...London’s students divided over Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Protests against the ongoing conflict in Gaza have spread throughout University of London colleges over the past few weeks.
The protests condemn Israel’s siege on Gaza, which has claimed the lives of over 1000 Palestinians and 13 Israeli’s with more than 5000 other Palestinians injured, at the time of going to print.
Jen Jones, Goldsmiths SU head of campaigns and communications, said: “students who are so privileged to study without fear of bombings at their Universities, who don’t have to travel through check-points to get to classes and can have access to education without harassment from the military, have a responsibility to stand up for and support those suffering in Gaza. The student movement must act when we see horrific acts of violence.”
University of London students were out in full force to protest at London’s march on the Israeli Embassy in South Kensington last Saturday. The march, organised by Stop The War coalition, called for an “immediate ceasefire”.
Further demonstrations were held outside the Israeli embassy every night last week with many students from SOAS, Goldsmiths and UCL attending along with other students from other colleges.
John Cooper, a postgraduate student at KCL, said that the: “determination of the march shows the level of anger that many people feel about Israel’s attack on Gaza.”
KCL will have a planning meeting on Thursday 22nd January to discuss further action to support the peace process.
The “big turn out” from Goldsmiths at the march was accompanied by protests which have been held on campus to raise money for aid in Gaza. A music night, advertised as ‘Audio Intifada’, took place last Thursday and a trip to Palestine is also being planned for students.
There was also a notable student presence at the: “End Hamas Terror! Peace for the People of Israel and Gaza” rally on Sunday the 11th January, organised by the Zionist federation.
Head of UCL Jewish Society Gabrielle Nejad was at a pro-Israel rally last Wednesday. She said: “The protest was great, it was great to hear so many people wanting to voice peace. It was to protest against terror, to advocate peace not terrorism, and to show Jewish members of society against the backlash in the media that there is a voice which is pro-Israel and pro-peace.”
At UCL a motion condemning Israel and showing solidarity with Palestine is expected at the union AGM on the 3rd of February.
Jo Casserly, president of UCL Stop the War society, said: “There is quite a lot of support for the Palestinians and we have been working with the Friends of Palestine and Islamic Society to organise future events on the issue to increase awareness amongst students at UCL.”
LSE students paid their respects to the victims of the conflict by lighting candles on campus last Monday. The candles were laid out to spell the word ‘GAZA’.
Howard Davies, LSE Director, has agreed to waive the application fee for Palestinian students applying to the university. However, he has refused to issue a public statement condemning the Israeli attacks on the grounds that it was not the place of the school to take a political stance on issues that it was not directly affected by.
In response, last Thursday students staged a ‘sit-in’, occupying one of the main lecture theatres on campus overnight, demanding that the school issue a statement in support of Palestine.
The occupation followed the heated debate at that afternoon’s UGM. The only motion presented at the hour long, weekly meeting was entitled: “Defend Gaza, condemn the Israeli Massacre.” The motion passed by 219 votes to 154.
Controversy surrounded the motion because it was proposed by the LSESU Anti-Racism officer, Joseph Brown. The opposition speaker to the motion said in his speech: “It saddens me terribly that my anti racism officer asks you to alienate me, because I relate myself with Israel.”
An attendee of the UGM also commented: “If he is proposing this against Israel, what happens if there is any anti-Semitism on campus – they’re not going to want to talk to him about it.”
Further opposition was voiced against the motion on the grounds that it did not account for the atrocities committed by “Hamas Rockets.”
In contrast, a statement issued by Wes Streeting, NUS President, called for: “An immediate ceasefire – an end to both Israel’s military operation and to Hamas rocket attacks.”
Streeting added: “We stand in solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian students in calling for an immediate ceasefire – an end to Hamas rocket attacks and the Israeli military operation and a fair, just and lasting peace between the Israeli and Palestinian people.”
What Israel has done is nothing short of Disgraceful. What’s even worse is the fact they pathetically try to defend their actions.
The Zionist government has done nothiing except exist as a thorn in the Middle East and exist as a Stain on Jewish people
The Israeli embassy is not in South Kensington. It’s in Kensington, the eastern end of Kensington High Street. Check your facts out before you publish!
How on earth are students “divided” on this issue???
WHat a disgraceful head line!
Just because one groupd (Zionist fed) are protesting, you think the opinions are divided??!
Get real.
War Crimes, that was what went on. The vast majority opposed them the tiny minority supported them. Just as peopel in the UK couldn’t be described as ’split’ over supporting/opposing the BNP, we’re not ’split’ over opposing war crimes.
Oh please, Jennifer f***ing Jones is a loud mouthed bunt, Goldsmiths students on the whole don’t care about Palestine and the constant “activism” that Goldsmiths apparently has consists of around a dozen or so freaks who bother, with the rest of this “overwhelming activism” being carried out by hard left Islamic groups who as we know like nothing better than to run riot.
Dear ‘GoldStuBlah’
Why so anonymous? Please tell us your name if your’re so representative of the students of Goldsmiths. A few things – I believe Jennifer is an elected representative and was elected by the students of Goldsmiths on issues such as Freedom for Palestine, no? Seems to me like students clearly do care about Palestine, depite your apathy (verging on inhumanity). What makes the activism at Goldsmiths the domain of ‘freaks’ exactly? Is it freakish to give a f*ck about the world in your just-stepped-out-of-Mean-Girls universe? I find your comments about Islamic groups ‘liking nothing better than to run riot’, well, how shall i put this,…basically RACIST. Please leave the good people of the world alone to do things while you sit and b*tch. ps. what is a bunt exactly? hmmm?
Whoop dee do, was there a 50% turnout no? 40% maybe? no? 30%??? oh dear it’s getting dangerous now isn’t it!
I don’t care about Palestine issue no, the student “representatives” don’t represent me, and the nutters, as they are, can screech and warbble as much as they want. Ooh and pitty that I’m not white otherwise that “racist comment” may have hurt, ah racism the charge of the left wing nut to silence people with conflicting views, ho ho ho, bet your white amirite!
Anyway, doesn’t really matter, you can all live in your tiny little world of self indulgent left wing Marxist extremism I and the vast majority of students who don’t agree or even care about you Union idiots will just use you all for our entertainment as you march around with your “I’m self important” anal sticks so far up your arses the world keep tasting like shit.
“The protests condemn Israel’s siege on Gaza, which has claimed the lives of over 1000 Palestinians and 13 Israeli’s with more than 5000 other Palestinians injured, at the time of going to print”
The ratio of Palestinians: Israelis , speaks for itself.
The ratio of numbers killed does not speak for itself. No facts ’speak for themselves’. Facts are usually selected, decontextualised and used in highly emotive ways. Israel is invested in protecting and defending its citizens to the extent that all Israeli buildings are built with bomb shelters. Many Israelis have been holed up in these bunkers for three years while they’ve been hit by Hamas rockets on a daily basis. They haven’t been killed in huge numbers but they’ve been severely traumatised and their lives have been greatly restricted in ways that are inconceivable to those privileged to be living in the UK.
Israel is so violently defensive because its neighbours have expelled the Jews from their countries and continually reiterate that they don’t want Jews in the Middle East. Iran is close to having nuclear weapons, is training and arming Hamas on Israel’s doorstep and is threatening to wipe Israel off the map. Jews have lived in Palestine and throughout the Middle East since before Mohammed. Of course killing and wounding all those Gazans isn’t going to help anything; it will only make it worse. But these sorts of actions will only stop when Israel feels secure.
If the number of Israelis killed was equal to the number of Gazans, it wouldn’t make Israel any less culpable for what it’s done. The killing should be condemned and the existence of Israel should be supported. These angry protests only confirm to Jews that they are despised and need to defend themselves to the extent that they must attack others. Only when the we acknowledge that Jews as well as Palestinians need a homeland will there be peace, justice and healing for both peoples. Most of the Jews at London universities that I have spoken with utterly condemn Israel’s actions, but feel completely traumatised and silenced by the racism and hatred for Israel that consumes our universities. T
Why does nobody condemn Hamas? People seem to forget that it was Hamas who chose to break the ceasefire by firing rockets at Israeli civilians. It was Hamas that chose to continue firing rockets at Israeli civilians despite Israeli warnings. It was Hamas who chose to store their weapons in civilian areas, and use civilians as human shields. It was Hamas that refused to negotiate with Israel, and even to negotiate with Fatah if Fatah negotiate with Israel.
The Israeli government has a duty to defend its citizens. If Hamas would rather let thousands of their own people die than allow Israeli civilians live in peace, it’s quite clear where the condemnation should lie.
This is just another case of students jumping on the protest bandwagon for an issue that they do not understand. Perhaps they should listen to the news reports, rather than just looking at the pictures…
You guys really need to stop believing the BBC and SKY news, you need to do your own research and i’m not talking about the first thing you find on the net.. All of you are university students i think, so put as much time researching this conflict as you do on most of your useless courseworks…
The problem is not between Palestinians and Jews, its between Palestinians with support of the clued up world against ZIONISM and the brain washed minds who fall victim to their lies..
What we’re trying to do for Gaza.
Come say hi
Any feedback appreciated
GoldStuBlah- want a job?!
opinions are NOT DIVIDED… most people know who is oppressed and who is the oppressor !!!
enough with this nonsense, being anti-Zionist is not equal to antisemitism. you would be stupid to think so. ZIONIST are those people who have displaced, killed and oppressed Palestinian people. Its funny how this person is trying to come across as ‘good Jew’ when she is clearly supporting Israel actions in occupied territories ! TIME BRITIAN STOOD FOR WHAT IT BELIEVES, HUMAN RIGHTS and jews are not exempt from it …
“ONCE OPPRESSED…. NOW THE OPPRESSORS” case of a holocaust victim
Of course opinions are divided. They are certainly not uniform, or even approaching it.
The biggest group though probably consists of those people who think it is ridiculous that these all to often self-rightous pompous student politicos take up so much committee/meeting time obsessing about their adopted cause (whichever side their on). Time to get real: the student unions of the various University of London colleges are not the general assembly of the UN. Take up a cause actually related to student-life, like tuition top-up fees.
Apathy certainly reins supreme in student politics, look at election turn-outs. These days UCL has to compel some people to come to its various union meetings in order to ensure any change of them being quorate. In such circumstances, any single-issue group that can get a big enough gang of people together can influence policy in a massively unrepresentative way. It’s easy to hijack a meeting. We’ve seen that on this issue, on the banning of the military on campus and on numerous others. Essentially, student politics smells even worse than real world national politics. Quite impressive. But given it’s where so many of our real world politicians started, it’s hardly surprising that so many of them are such complete ****ers.
Excuse the promotion, but I think this might genuinely be of interest you some of you.
I’m hosting a talk with Prof. Manuel Hassassian,
Ambassador for the Palestinian General Delegation
On the topic ” The current situation in Palestine”
It will take place at International Students House, 229 Great Portland Street, London, W1W 5PN at 7pm on Tuesday 26 January.
It’s a very intimate and informal talk, but should be pretty lively!
There is also a free drinks reception to follow and an opportunity to speak to Professor Hassassian directly.
Please email me on a.menace@ish.org.uk to RSVP or find out any other details.
Thank you