The University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) passed a motion in May condemning Israeli apartheid and urging Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the “settler colonial apartheid state”.
Then, the University of Melbourne condemned the motion as “antisemitic” and later the UMSU rescinded it under threat of pro-Zionist legal action. However, a second motion, similar to the first, was passed overwhelmingly by the UMSU on August 15.
The second motion reiterated opposition to the “1948 ethnic cleansing of more than 350 Palestinian villages and towns”, Zionist apartheid which means that “Palestinians live on less than 16% of their historical land” and again called for support for the BDS movement “to pressure Israel into complying with international law”.
The UMSU had said in May that it would bring an amended version back to be discussed and voted on. The August motion was debated and passed 16 to three, with one abstention.
UMSU president Sophie Nguyen said the union did this after having “engaged an independent agency to facilitate consultation with relevant stakeholders”, including pro-Palestinian and Jewish bodies on campus.
Nguyen said this consultation was conducted “to help inform the Students’ Council about student perspectives” and that it was not done “for the purpose of preparing a motion”.
She said the UMSU was moving the motion to maintain “a 130-year tradition of students standing up for human rights issues, including those relating to international affairs”.
Read the article by Gideon Polya in Green Left.