Thursday 14th June saw UJS host our 10th annual student awards. The evening was a celebration of the hundreds of student leaders and volunteers who have dedicated tens of thousands of hours to leading, defending and enriching Jewish life on campus.

We are saddened, yet unsurprised, that the National Executive Council of NUS have passed BDS policy at their meeting today. BDS is a tired campaign that has little to no impact on the reality of the situation in Israel and Palestine as well as being highly divisive, dampens progressive voices and often leads to victimisation of Jewish and Israeli students. This motion has been passed through the backdoor, with only 30 members voting, rather than up to 1,000 delegates at National Conference, which has never passed BDS policy.

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UJS is deeply disappointed that students at the University of Sussex voted to renew the Student Union’s BDS policy; a view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is narrow, harmful and one-sided. However, the students who ran the positive counter-campaign should be incredibly proud of the work they have done in portraying an alternative view of the conflict to students. We are working closely with the Jewish Society to ensure the insidious consequences of BDS that we have seen on too many campuses following similar results do not occur in Sussex.

UJS welcomes Minister Gyimah’s clarification on the role of the Office For Students. When we met with the Minister last month, we shared our position in support of free speech on campus, and also drew attention to the need for clearer guidance on the issue of free speech and incitement.

Enjoy the video below and our introductions to the talented team working with and for you this year. 

When our community rallied behind our communal leadership and exclaimed ‘enough is enough’ outside parliament, as when we joined the JLC’s meeting at Number 10 in September, we reiterated our faith and confidence in the BoD and JLC to represent our community, and we are certain of their ability to convey the important issues our community faces within the Labour Party succinctly and appropriately. As such, UJS will not be attending the roundtable with the leader of the opposition following the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council’s meeting on 24^th April. 

DAY ONE

UJS Stall: As in previous years, UJS ran a stall in the exhibition part of the conference. As well showcasing our work to support J-Socs and Jewish students around the country, delegates who visited the stall were also able to register their interest in the Poland trips that we run for sabbatical officers in partnership with the Holocaust Educational Trust. These trips are part of a wider programme combatting campus antisemitism supported by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

After a hard fought campaign, Izzy Lenga was sadly not re-elected as NUS Vice President (Welfare). Next year’s NUS Vice President (Welfare) will be Eva Crossan-Jory, current president at Goldsmiths Students’ Union.

We can categorically state that BDS has never received backing from 700 NUS elected leaders, let alone the 7 million students NUS represents.