‘Utter disgrace’: UJS condemns university union’s call for a ‘mass uprising’ against Israeli citizens

The Union of Jewish Students has strongly condemned the trade union for the second largest university in the UK for passing a motion for a “mass uprising” against Israeli civilians.

University College London (UCL) University and College Union (UCU), voted for “Intifada until victory” on Friday 27th October. The union has more than 122,000 members.

Guy Dabby-Joory, head of campaigns at UJS, which represents nearly 9,000 Jewish students at 76 Jewish societies across the UK and Ireland, tells Jewish News: “It is an utter disgrace for UCL’s UCU branch to call for an “intifada until victory” and a “mass uprising” against Israeli civilians. This is explicit support for indiscriminate violence and terror against Israeli men, women, and children, echoing Hamas’ brutal massacre on 7th October.

“It is shameful that academics have so starkly failed in their duty of care towards Jewish students at UCL, many of whom have had family killed in the intifadas or in Hamas’ attack.

“We are pleased that UCL has condemned this incitement of violence, and we call for them to match this condemnation with urgent action against the academics responsible for the passage of this grotesque motion.”

Following the vote, UCL issued a statement calling the motions “incoherent and disturbing.”

It adds: “While they ‘condemn all forms of violence’ and note that the ‘deliberate killing of civilians is always an atrocity’, they also use language that clearly incites indiscriminate violence.

“We wholly condemn this incitement to violence, have called on the local branch to withdraw the statement, and have written to Dr Jo Grady, the General Secretary of the national UCU to take action against the local branch.  Language such as this has no place on a university campus.”

Writing for the ConservativeHome website, Gillian Keegan, education secretary, and MP for Chichester called UCL UCU’s actions “irresponsible and deeply wrong, ” adding that “the promotion of conflict and glorification of terrorism will never be tolerated. UCL has rightly condemned their incitement of violence and called on the UCU to withdraw their statements. It is dangerous, extreme and puts Jewish students and staff at risk of genuine harm.”

A similar debate by the Cambridge Student Union calling for an ‘emergency motion for solidarity with Palestine’ has been delayed for two weeks.

As reported by Jewish News on 23rd October, Jewish students at UCL expressed concern about a pro-Palestinian demonstration which took place close to UCL’s campus.