UK students condemn anti-Palestinian policy

According to the decision taken at the college on 18 April, running for the Student Union’s top post is made conditional on having served at least two years in the Israeli military, aiming to exclude Palestinian students studying at Israeli colleges and universities from standing in elections as they are not required to complete National Service in the Israeli military.

Calling for the racist policy to be revoked and for “Palestinian students to be granted the same opportunities to represent, and be represented, as their fellow students,” British student representatives condemned the decision as one which “clearly targets Palestinian citizens of Israel”.

“We, the undersigned, condemn the policy recently adopted by Zefat Academic College which requires that any individual who wishes to obtain candidacy in the Students’ Union president elections must have completed national service in the Israeli military. This requirement automatically excludes most Palestinian citizens of Israel,” states the letter, which has 130 signatures.

Liam Burns and Dannie Grufferty, President and Vice-President of the National Union of Students (NUS) respectively, NUS committee member Rachel Wenstone and NUS Scotland President Robin Parker are among the signatories of the statement.

Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel constitute around 60 percent of Zefat Academic College’s student body(Press TV).