Joining a growing list of high-profile institutions, unions and citizen’s groups that have chosen to divest from Israel, the Student Union at the prestigious London School of Economics voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to demand that the University divest.Divestment is a non-violent strategy that was utilized worldwide during the anti-apartheid campaigns against the white South African apartheid regime during the 1980s. In recent years, peace activists and human rights advocates worldwide have used the same technique to challenge what has been called Israel’s apartheid system against the Palestinians.
The Student Union called on a divestment from any companies that provide military and commercial
support for the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, and condemned the decades of human rights abuses carried out against the Palestinian people by the Israeli occupying authorities, according to student leaders.
The motion was brought to the Union’s weekly meeting of 400 students by the London School of Economics’ Palestine Society. The Union resolved to lobby both their own University’s Administration and the National Union of Students in the United Kingdom to commit to similar divestment measures.
The Union voted by a six to one measure to support the aim of targeted divestment until the companies in question pull out of Israel, or until Israel ends its systematic human rights abuses and illegal occupation of Palestinian land.
