(video report published 28-02-2013)
Oxford University Student Union voted against a motion calling for support of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS), the campaign for the boycott of Israel, at the termly meeting on Wednesday.
The motion asked OUSU to advocate for the BDS campaign at the annual conference of the UK National Union of Students in April. It was defeated, with 69 votes against, 15 abstentions, and 10 for.
The BDS movement was started in 2005. Its official website calls for boycotts against “products and companies that profit from the violation of Palestinian rights, as well as Israeli sporting, cultural and academic institutions” until Israel complies with international law. The motion proposed that the NUS further “conduct research into Higher Education institutions’ contacts, relations, investments and commercial relationships that may be implicated in violating Palestinian human rights as stated by the BDS movement.”
It was initially proposed at an OUSU council meeting two weeks ago, but an amendment was passed to postpone the final vote in order to give JCRs more time to debate the issue.
James Newton, Keble JCR President, proposed the amendment to delay the motion. He told Cherwell, “I feel that it was a far more complicated issue than it looked at first glance and am therefore very glad that I got the chance to consult with the JCR before being expected to vote on the issue.”
Several colleges, including Worcester, Corpus Christi, and Balliol, split their multiple votes in order to reflect the sentiment in their JCRs more accurately.
The original proposers of the motion, Emily Cousens and Sarah Pine, did not attend the meeting and were unavailable for comment.
OUSU President David J Townsend was equivocal when commenting on the proceedings, saying, “There have been strong emotions on either side of this issue. A fulsome debate was had, there were ample opportunity for colleges’ student bodies to decide how to mandate their delegates, and a decisive resolution was achieved by the vote of those delegates today.”
Questions were raised at the debate two weeks ago about how an academic and cultural boycott would be implemented in practice. Some students expressed concern that it could result in the boycotting of student societies and academic research.
Benjamin Crome, President of the Oxford University Israel Society, said, “I am very pleased with this evening’s result, which shows quite clearly that Oxford students reject the exclusionary values of the BDS movement. As befits students of a university which has held a mutually beneficial relationship with Israeli academia for many years, JCRs and MCRs have decided that to conflate of the actions of Israeli civil society with the policies of the Israeli government is fundamentally flawed.”
He added that “Israeli academics have played a leading and influential role in criticising the static nature of the peace process at present.”
Similarly, Sarah Chaplin, a second-year PPEist at LMH, said, “I am proud of the result that was reached tonight. Oxford students have shown that prejudice against individuals of any nationality is wrong regardless of feelings towards their government.”
Speaking on the matter of implementation, a spokesperson for the Palestinian BDS national committee said that the BDS movement calls for “an institutional boycott of Israel, not a blanket boycott of individual Israelis. We do not condone boycott of individuals based on their identity, no matter what. Rather, we focus on Israel’s academic and cultural institutions, all of which are complicit, to varying degrees, in protecting and maintaining Israel’s occupation and apartheid. Consequently, BDS does not call for boycotting a book or a film just because its author or director is Israeli! We look for institutional connections to see whether any cultural product, say, is funded by the state of Israel or its lobby groups for re-branding purposes.”
Supporters of the BDS movement have viewed the motion in a different light. Hind Awwad, a graduate student in Political Theory at St Edmund’s Hall, said, “What we’ve seen in our MCRs and JCRs is that BDS has brought people together to discuss this issue and has started a real debate on Israel’s violations… the debate on BDS has resulted in some of the most well-attended common room meetings, vibrant debates and interest in Palestinian rights.”
Despite OUSU voting against the motion, Awwad argued that “the discussion of BDS at the University of Oxford is in itself a significant achievement, and an important stepping stone for Palestine solidarity activists in the University.”
