Boycott referendum rerun is rescheduled
January 28, 2010 by Helena Williams · 2 Comments
Members of the “Ban EVERYTHING from Sussex Campus” Facebook group and Friends of Palestine gathered to argue whether or not Union Council should postpone the re-running of the Israeli goods boycott until autumn of 2010. Council voted in favour of postponement.
Sussex boycotts Israeli goods
November 4, 2009 by Hannah Pini · 22 Comments
Last Thursday 29th October, Sussex students voted in favour of a Student Union boycott of Israeli goods. Turn out at the referendum totalled 1038 students; 526 votes were cast for a boycott, 450 against. 26 votes were deemed invalid.
Simon Englert, a member of Friends of Palestine (PalSoc), beamed: “This is a historical victory for Sussex. Today we have become the first British university to boycott Israel.”
Looking for peace? I don’t think so
May 11, 2009 by Rebecca Newman · Leave a Comment
Judging from the debate at recent event “Looking for Peace in the Israel/Palestine conflict”, I think it’s safe to say we’ll be searching for a long while yet.
The event seemed to be aimed at providing an impartial look at the crisis, with both a Palestinian journalist, Adwan Adwan and an Israeli academic Yossi Mekelberg among the panel of speakers. Interestingly, however, it was Mekelberg who attracted most attention from the audience, facing both the strongest criticism and, it seemed, the widest support.
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“Books not Bombs”
March 16, 2009 by Lily Holman-Brant · Leave a Comment
Cardiff University’s ‘Students Against War’ group recently occupied the University’s main lecture theatre in protest against the university’s investment in the arms trade and the war in Gaza. The students’ demands, that the university disinvest all shares from weapons companies, were met shortly after the third day of the occupation, which spanned from the 24th to the 26th of February.
Who’s the Orientalist?
March 16, 2009 by Christakis Georgiou · 2 Comments
The extent of some people’s arrogance, ignorance and shamelessness can indeed be revolting sometimes. That’s what I thought when I read the recent Badger article entitled ‘Balance it out!’. I would like to think that its author is simply naïve; only on that basis would I be prepared to excuse the things that were so erroneously alleged in that article.
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Anti-Semitism at Manchester University?
March 16, 2009 by Sam Waterman · Leave a Comment
Protests against the recent actions of the Israel military towards Gaza sparked alleged cases of anti-Semitic discrimination at the University of Manchester. Both the Students’ Union General Secretary, Rob Pinfold and UMSU Anti-Racism Secretary, Oliver Worth, claimed to have been victims of anti-Jewish discrimination from fellow students on campus. Read more
Balance it out!
As an anti-war campaign, it would not make sense to support Hamas. Hamas of course believe a military resistance to be the only solution. As you know, for Hamas a state of war is a state of victory and every dead child a martyr.
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Freedom to criticise, or racism?
March 2, 2009 by Christakis Georgiou · 47 Comments
It seems that – one way or another – some people on this campus are intent on launching a sometimes overt, sometimes covert campaign against the Muslim members of our community. That is what I see in common between the attempt to ban Azzam Tamimi from speaking on campus after he was invited to do so by the Stop the War Coalition and the Palestine Society, the article in The Badger from four weeks ago telling us how Hamas is a horrible terrorist organisation and last week’s article in The Badger entitled ‘Freedom for criticism’.
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To answer your question: I would say freedom fighters
February 16, 2009 by Christakis Georgiou · 3 Comments
It is with a lot of pleasure that I read the Badger dated 2 February 2009. The front page run an article on the occupation of A2 in support of the people of Gaza and the comment pages were dominated by debate over issues raised by our action. What we (the students of the occupation) did during a week had clearly had an impact across the student community. Not only did we get 1200 signatures for a petition featuring the occupation’s demands, but we also triggered debate. In this spirit I welcome whatever criticisms have appeared in the pages of The Badger.
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Occupation update
February 9, 2009 by Matthew Parker · Leave a Comment
A week after the occupation of the Arts A2 lecture theatre came to an end, representatives from the Palestine Society at Sussex have said they cannot afford to be complacent about their victory. The cautious stance comes as the group now focuses on making sure the University remains compliant with their resolution. “We all have a great sense of victory,” says a representative who was closely involved in the occupation, “But now we are committed to seeing that the university carries our demands through.”
