As Israel's overwhelming military attack on the people of Gaza continues with devastating consequences, NUS should do all it can to support those working to end the military onslaught.
Unfortunately, at an NUS National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Wednesday, a majority of NEC members refused to clearly oppose Israel's overwhelming acts of military aggression and commit NUS to taking action to bring an end to the violence in Gaza.
Instead NUS NEC has adopted a policy that fails entirely to acknowledge the disproportionate, brutal slaughter of the people of Gaza, the fact that over 1000 Palestinians, including at least 322 children, have died since the conflict began, and the humanitarian crisis that has developed in Gaza with its borders sealed imprisoning the population and reducing supplies of essential medicines, fuel and food to far below the minimum necessary.
The NES NEC has also failed to support any of the protests called in opposition to the war in Gaza, failing to represent the views of the great majority of British students who are horrified by the carnage they see every day on TV.
Bellavia Ribeiro-Addy, NUS Black Students' Officer said: "The position of the NUS NEC is in stark contrast to the views expressed by United Nations officials, British MPs, the British trade union movement, the International Committee of the Red Cross, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UNICEF and numerous aid agencies.
On Wednesday the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, Richard Falk, stated that "There is a well-grounded view that both the initial attacks on Gaza and the tactics being used by Israel are serious violations of the UN charter, the Geneva conventions, international law and international humanitarian law."
Over 100 MPs have signed a motion which "expresses outrage at Israel's overwhelmingly disproportionate use of force in Gaza which continues to inflict massive civilian casualties, particularly amongst children and which has involved strikes on aid convoys, United Nations schools and medical personnel." MPs have called for meaningful action to be taken – including calling for an arms embargo, and for the EU to demonstrate that its trade agreement with Israel is conditional on Israel respecting human rights.
The European Union has also taken action, suspending further negotiations on upgrading its relations with Israel, as the head of the European Commission delegation to Israel suggested it was "not appropriate" to continue discussions while Israel was "using its war means in a very dramatic, in a powerful way in Gaza."
Over 570 Jewish signatories have placed an advert in The Times, calling for action, including an immediate ceasefire, end to the blockade, investigation into possible war crimes, the suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement and an arms embargo to Israel.
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