"University of Sussex students vote to boycott Israeli goods"
By Elham Asaad Buaras
The Muslim News
November 27, 2009
On the Web at:
http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/paper/index.php?article=4378
In a campus-wide referendum, 56% of students voted in favour of the boycott.
The referendum was held by the University of Sussex Students’ Union (USSU), which represents the institution’s 11,000 students.
Goods from Israel will no longer be stocked in USSU shops on the university campus, and USSU will be lobbying the University administration to observe the boycott.
USSU President, Tom Wills, told The Muslim News, “Israel has broken more UN resolutions than any other state. No other Western-backed democracy has committed such egregious violations of international law, but the international community has failed to hold Israel to account.
“Sussex was one of the first universities to boycott South Africa during apartheid, and we hope that this will help kickstart an international movement on a similar scale to put pressure on Israel to end its oppression of the Palestinian people.
“We call on students at other universities to table boycott motions in their own unions.”
Earlier this year, the Israeli attack on Gaza triggered resurgence in student activism when hundreds of students in 30 universities occupied theatre rooms across the country in January and February (see The Muslim News issue 238).
The student boycott comes after the Trades Union Congress (TUC) backed a boycott of Israeli settlement goods in September.
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