King’s College London’s student union voted Tuesday to endorse the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) movement. KCL is one of the United Kingdom’s leading academic institutions.
The vote took place at the union’s Student General Meeting. The motion stated, “BDS is an effective tactic, which educates society about these issues, economically pressures companies/institutions to change their practices, and politically pressures the global community.” The union vowed to examine the college’s investments, partnerships and contracted companies “that may be implicated in violating Palestinian human rights.”
Additionally, the union committed to hanging plaques in all its student centers, reading, “KCLSU officially endorses the 2005 Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions of Israel until it abides by international law and ends it illegal occupation of Palestine. KCLSU is proud to follow the example of a similar call in the 1980’s, which successfully led to the end of apartheid in South Africa.”
KCL’s Israel Society responded to the decision in a letter. It called the motion discriminatory.
“A motion to boycott Israel effectively tells Israeli students and faculty that they are not welcome at KCL, simply because of their nationality. It creates a poisonous and divisive atmosphere, which can make Jewish students in particular feel very uncomfortable,” the Israel Society wrote.
Expressing concern the move might prejudice the rights of Israeli students and faculty at the college, the letter went on to say boycotts “constitute systematic attempts to shut down constructive dialogue.
“We are greatly disturbed by the thought that our university – let alone any university – dedicated to the pursuit of truth and knowledge, could be called on to ban cooperation with the universities and cultural groups of any other country.
“We regard this as an outrageous assault on intellectual and academic freedom – which all student unions should zealously protect.”
The Israeli Society accused the BDS campaign of seeking to harm the state of Israel.
“The BDS campaign, draped as it is in the language of human rights, is a seemingly-innocuous façade for a campaign to delegitimize and ultimately dismantle the state of Israel,” they wrote.
“Peace is not achieved by making Israel a pariah state – or destroying the Jewish state altogether,” the Israel Society noted in their letter. “Peace is reached through bilateral negotiations, economic co-operation, academic collaboration, commercial relationships, healthy diplomatic ties, stands against racism of all kinds (whether it be Islamophobia or anti-Semitism), and of course, ‘mutual recognition.'”
This is not the first time the specter of boycotting Israel raised its ugly head on KCL’s campus. However, in 2006, the school’s principal, Richard Trainor, rejected the proposal, saying, “University institutions such as King’s College London depend on freedom of speech and freedom of enquiry, which are fundamental to both teaching and research. As knowledge is worldwide, no restrictions should be placed on the location of the individuals or the institutions with which UK universities and their academics may wish to associate.”
