UMSU Activist

Yesterday, a great victory was won at the University of Manchester Students’ Union. In attempt to hold to ransom the Palestinian University that we had twinned with, Al Najah in Nablus, the right in the Union put forward the Peace Through Education motion that sought to label Al Najah students as supporting terrorism. Students at Manchester, however, saw through the lies perpetrated by the supporters of Motion 1 and realised that this was a negative motion that sought to break our twinning, demonise Palestinians and to silence any criticism of Israeli atrocities on campus. Amid intimidation, racist abuse and childish insults, Palestinian activists put the case for their Amendment and for Palestine. In the best attended General Meeting since the 1990s, more than 1,100 students turned out to deliver a massive majority in favour of the amendment (634 for, 372 against, 13 abstentions) and subsequently in favour of the Amended Motion (531 for, 210 against, 17 abstentions).

What Wednesday proved was that support for our Twinning Agreement with Al Najah is overwhelming on campus. The campaign to defend it drew many other societies which at first glance would seem uninvolved. It politicised our campus and showed that the sometimes complex arguments about Palestine can become a mass campaign for justice and freedom.

The vote yesterday challenged the prevailing ideas in society at the moment, that Palestinians are suicide bombers, that people who resist imperialism and colonialism are terrorists and that the enemies of US and UK Imperialism and Israeli colonialism are inhuman religious fanatics. Instead, students at Manchester overwhelmingly backed the resistance in Palestine, it saw that the root of the problem was the colonial state of Israel and it recognised that under brutal occupation ordinary people can heroically resist.

Malcolm X said “You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom” and I salute Manchester students for endorsing that statement and for endorsing peace, justice and solidarity in Palestine.

Action Palestine Press Release on the General Meeting:

An Olive Tree for Solidarity

Posted on November 16th, 2007 by Action-Palestine

Manchester Students reaffirm their commitment to the Palestinians’ Right to Education.

Yesterday (Wed 14th) Manchester Student’s Union held it’s General Meeting with attendance of over 1000 students and strengthened their commitment to the Palestinian’s Right to Education and their twinning with An-Najah University with almost a two-thirds majority.

A motion called “Peace through Education” was proposed which aimed at undermining the twinning of Manchester Student’s Union with An Najah. It gave the Palestinian university the ultimatum of signing a statement condemning terrorism within two months or the twinning would be abandoned.

It was a racist motion that caused vast indignation amongst the student population by stereotyping Palestinians as terrorists and accusing An-Najah University of actively supporting terrorism. The writers of the motion cited an unreliable website as a resource which included many inaccuracies and racist quotes.

The movement against the motion involved a very wide layer of groups and societies from different backgrounds and interests, who were unified by the will to defeat the racist motion and support UMSU’s stance on solidarity with Palestinian students under occupation. One student who attended the meeting said, “The motion shows that the racism against the Palestinians is one of the last forms of acceptable racism. If we had been twinned with a black university during apartheid in South Africa and they had been given them the ultimatum asking them to condemn gun crime there would have been international outrage, and rightly so.”

With over 16 500 students enrolled in its 19 faculties and two colleges, An-Najah is one of the largest Universities in Palestine. It is located in the city of Nablus, part of the territories that, according to the United Nations, the state of Israel has been illegally occupying since 1967. On 11th November, members of the Right to Education Campaign at An-Najah University published a response to the motion in question - through it, they stated: “Neither the University nor its Student Council is a terrorist organisation, and the implication that they are is insulting” and further “The motion ‘Peace Through Education’ is defamatory because it repeatedly implies that ANU and it’s Student Council promotes, facilitates or has links with terrorism”.

It is a fact that the Israeli occupation and the apartheid policing tactics that they uphold cause great suffering to the Palestinian people. Moreover, the Palestinian youth’s basic human right to education has been systematically denied by the state of Israel: Universities have been shelled, broken into and forced to close for large periods of time - not to mention the very practical difficulties students must face when trying to pursue their degrees against the backdrop of a military occupation.

The motivation for our Union’s twinning with An-Najah University was based around the ideal of showing solidarity with fellow students enduring acute hardship in Palestine and helping to break the isolation imposed on the Palestinian people. Also it highlights the importance of a right to education globally, and how it should be fought for. These beliefs are something that is part UMSU’s long history of internationalism and it’s excellent commitment to supporting just causes all across the world.

The motion resolved to accept the invitation made by An-Najah University for an olive tree from the university to be planted on campus at Manchester as a gesture of peace and as a symbol of life, and allow for a fortnightly article from An-Najah University students to be printed in Student Direct, the students’ official news paper.

The reaction from An Najah after the new amended motion was passed was very positive. A statement from them included, “we are very pleased that the amended motion was passed. The solidarity from Manchester Students Union is something we are glad to have. We hope that this will help us to get more attention to our right to an education”.

The strengthening of the twinning in Manchester is part of a nationwide movement for solidarity with Palestinians students. Many universities in the UK are now twinned with Palestinian Universities and many others are in the process of finding a twin. A student from Leeds University who was involved with the campaign to get Leeds University twinned with Berzeit University said, “This is an exceptionally significant victory, and can only help other forms of solidarity with Palestinian.”

Action Palestine

For more information and to get involved with the biggest student Palestine Campaign in the country, please visit www.actionpalestine.org

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