Say NO to anything pro-Aparteid!

An interesting thing happened today.

It was the General Meeting at the Students' Union, to debate and vote for the following motions:

1. Peace Through Education
2. Putting Free Education Back On Agenda
3. Clearing The Racists Off Our Campuses
4. Environmental Sustainability
5. Save NUS Democracy
6. Real Choice And Reproductive Rights
7. Proposed Wide Ranging Cuts In IT Services
8. Don't Attack Iran

Part of the poster of Right for Abortion campaign

I attended the General Meeting because I was a offended with the Motion no. 1.

To give some light, the Peace Through Education motion is a motion to cancel the twinning with the Al-Najah University in Palestine. From the posters and leaflets circulated around the campus, it alleged that Al-Najah University is associated with terrorism. I was wondering who was behind this campaign because the posters and leaflets were printed in colours and high quality (read: not cheap) papers. Unlike the camp who supporting the twinning program, whose campaign materials were more like students'.

According to UMSU Activist, the first motion is an attempt by the pro-Apartheid, pro-Israeli right at this Union to not only paint all Palestinians as terrorists (a notion racist in itself) but to overturn a progressive policy that seeks to build solidarity and a lasting peace.

And this motion was also condemned by the Students' Union of the Al-Najah University, themselves. In its statement dated 11 November 2007, they highlighted a shocking statistics accumulated since September 2000, which indicates Israel’s flagrant disregard for the law, human life and dignity, and clearly show the high human cost of the Israeli military occupation:

* 4,345 Palestinians killed by Israelis (1,027 Israelis killed by Palestinians)
* 971 Palestinian children killed by Israelis (119 Israeli children killed by Palestinians)
* 31,531 Palestinians injured by Israelis (7,633 Israelis injured by Palestinians)
* 4,170 Palestinian homes demolished (0 Israeli homes demolished)
* 40% Palestinian unemployment (9% Israeli unemployment)
* 223 ‘Jewish-only’ settlements and outposts built on Palestinian land
* 65 UN resolutions issued to Israel, none to OPT.

(Sources: If Americans Knew - www.ifamericansknew.org, B’Tselem, the Israeli Human Rights Information Center - www.btselem.org, Peace Now - www.peacenow.org.il)

At the end of the day, the motion was successfully amended (proposed by John McSweeney and seconded by Amy Pettitt) and accepted by overwhelming votes. In other words, the twinning program stays and the attempt to paint all Palestinians as terrorists had failed.

Alhamdulillah. What a day!