Like so many other people, I watched with mounting horror and dismay at the images broadcast from the Middle East in the wake of escalating violence between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Already hundreds have died and thousands more have fled their homes: the latest sorry chapter in a long and bloody conflict that has brought catastrophe after catastrophe for the people in the region.

I think Oxfam had it about right when it said “the time for kid glove diplomacy has gone” and called for an “immediate and lasting ceasefire”. But the conflict shows no signs of ending as rockets continue to be fired into Israeli towns and the Israeli government continues its raids and an increasing military build up along the border with the Gaza strip.

So what should the response of the National Union of Students be?

I’ve put a statement on the NUS website condemning the violence and its impact on innocent people in the region. I know there are many students who wish us to go further. I know there are many students who would rather we didn’t. If we’re honest, I would hazard a guess that the majority of our members would rather we said nothing at all about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

People talk of student apathy, but a cursory glance at my Facebook account over the past week or two has provided me with a glimpse at the views and voices of thousands of students who are anything but. The web is alive with protest groups, events, debate and discourse.

The bottom line for me is that we should express solidarity with Israeli and Palestinian students who strive for peace, not least some of our members are from Israel and Palestine and will have been directly affected by recent events. Some may want NUS to put out a more partisan line, but NUS is supposed to be a union for all students and no international issue arouses as much passion and division amongst students as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Students will – and should be able to – make their own views and voices heard about the conflict in the Middle East, but we shouldn’t pretend that NUS can speak with one voice on the complexities of this conflict.

Like other national unions across the world, I have put a statement on the website that I hope can unite our members in condemning the violence, calling for an immediate ceasefire and expressing solidarity with Palestinian and Israeli students with the hope of a fair, just and lasting peace for all the people of Israel and Palestine.

The NEC will be meeting on the 14th January and I have no doubt that individual NEC members will be submitting motions on the issue. I would welcome members’ views.

wes.streeting@nus.org.uk

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