At the recent NUS ‘10 Years After Dearing: The Future for Higher Education’ event the issue of Israel and Palestine was raised several times. A number of the speakers were encouraged to comment on the issue, it was the topic of several questions from the floor and NUS Vice President Education, Wes Streeting took the opportunity to speak on the subject for at least five minutes.

The reason for this is that Wes and others in the NUS leadership want to oppose the decision of another union, the UCU, to debate the appropriateness of an academic boycott of Israel as a means of protesting against the illegal occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories.

Whatever views people might have on the boycott tactic, this is a display of complete hypocrisy.

NUS often points proudly to its progressive tradition working with students and others towards international peace and justice. Yet for years NUS has failed to add its voice to those of the UN, the TUC and others calling for the implementation of international law and for Palestinian human rights to be respected.

When Israel built a wall around Al Quds University, leaving only one small entrance controlled by the Israeli military who arbitrarily refuse entry to staff and students, NUS said nothing. When Israel imposed its blanket ban on Palestinians from Gaza traveling to the West Bank to study, NUS said nothing. When Israeli soldiers seized Gazan students already in the West Bank and without reason deported them bringing their education to an abrupt and violent end, NUS said nothing. When Birzeit University has been closed by the Israeli military, often for months on end, disrupting lectures and exams, NUS has never once spoken out.

Even when British student and NUS member Tom Hurndall was murdered by the Israeli army in 2004, attempting to save the lives of Palestinian children under fire, disgracefully NUS did not even utter one word of condolence.

No doubt students will have many different views on the academic boycott being debated by the UCU, but it is disgraceful to try to present this as an issue of academic freedom while staying silent when it comes to the plight of Palestinian students and academics living under illegal occupation.

Israeli academics may or may not have their research disrupted by a potential boycott. But the real victims are the Palestinians whose human rights are denied daily by Israeli occupation.

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