The UK Government has decided to give £1m in funding to the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) in order to deliver antisemitism training to universities. UJS is the parent organisation of the University of Edinburgh’s Jewish Society (JSoc) and proudly touts itself as “the voice of Jewish students.”
You might think, there are a lot of Jewish students, how can an organisation feasibly represent all of them? The answer is that it doesn’t, it claims to in an attempt to equate Judaism with Zionism, with its goal of making Jewish students form an “enduring commitment to […] Israel” and “engagement with Israel” being key objects in its constitution.
A cursory glance at its website shows this deep ideological commitment to Zionism, with UJS bragging that in the 1970s it was at the forefront “in the fight against those who attempt to demonise and delegitimise the State of Israel” as well as an “under construction” digital Israel portal that holds non-functioning links to organisations such as We Believe in Israel, a Zionist lobby group.
The UJS is part of the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS) which is partnered with the Israeli foreign ministry, and the World Zionist Organisation which funds the construction of illegal settlements. Not only that, in 2017 Al Jazeera revealed in a documentary that the UJS has received funding from the Israeli embassy. The ties to Israel and other pro-Israel organisations are undeniable.
Zionism is a racist ideology, the UJS is a proudly Zionist organisation, ergo, the UJS is a racist organisation, that supports a genocidal apartheid state (and comparing Israel to South Africa is doing it a service). We shouldn’t be questioning just why the government sees fit to provide funds to an organisation funded by a genocidal foreign government to lecture our staff, but why this organisation is allowed on our university campus at all.
The motives from UJS for this antisemitism training is clear; a video on their YouTube channel uses an image of Pro-Palestinian demonstrations as an example of antisemitism in universities. The UJS is also an adherent of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism.
Conflating the popular student protests for Palestine with antisemitism not only cheapens the label of antisemitism, it is a threat to freedom of speech and student safety.
Image by Michael Lake for The Student
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We Don’t Need a Pro-Israel Group Lecturing our Staff on Antisemitism
The UK Government has decided to give £1m in funding to the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) in order to deliver antisemitism training to universities. UJS is the parent organisation of the University of Edinburgh’s Jewish Society (JSoc) and proudly touts itself as “the voice of Jewish students.”
You might think, there are a lot of Jewish students, how can an organisation feasibly represent all of them? The answer is that it doesn’t, it claims to in an attempt to equate Judaism with Zionism, with its goal of making Jewish students form an “enduring commitment to […] Israel” and “engagement with Israel” being key objects in its constitution.
A cursory glance at its website shows this deep ideological commitment to Zionism, with UJS bragging that in the 1970s it was at the forefront “in the fight against those who attempt to demonise and delegitimise the State of Israel” as well as an “under construction” digital Israel portal that holds non-functioning links to organisations such as We Believe in Israel, a Zionist lobby group.
The UJS is part of the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS) which is partnered with the Israeli foreign ministry, and the World Zionist Organisation which funds the construction of illegal settlements. Not only that, in 2017 Al Jazeera revealed in a documentary that the UJS has received funding from the Israeli embassy. The ties to Israel and other pro-Israel organisations are undeniable.
Zionism is a racist ideology, the UJS is a proudly Zionist organisation, ergo, the UJS is a racist organisation, that supports a genocidal apartheid state (and comparing Israel to South Africa is doing it a service). We shouldn’t be questioning just why the government sees fit to provide funds to an organisation funded by a genocidal foreign government to lecture our staff, but why this organisation is allowed on our university campus at all.
The motives from UJS for this antisemitism training is clear; a video on their YouTube channel uses an image of Pro-Palestinian demonstrations as an example of antisemitism in universities. The UJS is also an adherent of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism.
Conflating the popular student protests for Palestine with antisemitism not only cheapens the label of antisemitism, it is a threat to freedom of speech and student safety.
Image by Michael Lake for The Student
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