MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY:
Palestine Human Rights Motion

A diary of events is presented below, the words are not ours, the snippets are sourced from various places (MPAC, IRNA, Guardian, TotallyJewish and IHRC)

THE MOTION:

Students at Manchester University have tabled a motion at the Students Union to condemn the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in their own homeland, by the racist 'Israeli' apartheid regime. The motion will be discussed and voted on in a general meeting next Wednesday the 27th of Feb. We urge all student in Manchester to please attend, remember to bring your library cards for voting.

Its vital that this motion is passed, according to Union of Jewish Students this is the "biggest threat" zionists on university campuses have faced in "5 years". All the big zionist organisations are calling for a nationwide zionist mobilisation against this motion . The Muslims at Manchester University are under immense pressure and intimidation from the zionists, please help them in what ever way you can. Here is an extract from a message from the Emir of Manchester University Islamic Society:

Let us make no mistake brothers and sisters, we are in a fight here. We know that the opposition will use the tactics of deceit and spin, and lies, to get their ends. According to the UJS it is the biggest threat the students have faced in 5 years. So it will be a major victory if we win.

However no fewer then 4 National Jewish Websites are organising a Nationwide Zionist mobilisation.The situation is getting bigger and bigger day by day. today the oppostion came out with their banners, full of lies and deceit. they claim that we wish to close down the jewish society, even though the J-Soc isn't mentioned in the motion. They will go to any lenghts to get there ends. A quick look at the Union of Jewish Students website will show that they are mobilising people from around the country to come and help them in Manchester. Further we can look to the Jewish Chronicle website, or the Totally Jewish webite for evidence of this. So far not one Muslim website has done the same for us.

We in Manchester need to act in a similar manner. The situation here needs the assisatnce of muslim from around the country. No doubt, you are able to help, in the same way that the opposition can mobilise help form around the country. Only when we all act together can we acheive our ends. This motion is massive brothers and sisters, that is why they are so determined to stop it. We know we are in the right by their actions. It cannot be acheived without the help of all of you. This is only the beginning - we need to start the ball rolling somewhere, and plz help us to start it rolling in Manchester.

If you want to help us, please please do one of the following :

1) Send us leaflets on Palestine, so we can give them to Non Muslims who will vote on the day, the Zionists have colour leaflets and big banners, we cant afford these, if anyone has access to these please send them to us.

2)The Zionist websites are getting a giant nationwide mobilisation for Wednesday, they are organising coaches to come down, they will have hundreds of Jews leafleting students and talking to them, we only have 10 of us. We need help, can anyone please please come and help us.

3) Standby for an ALERT that MPAC will put out, we have heard that hundreds of emails and calls have been made to pressure the NUS, and the DEEN to buckle, calling what we are doing anti semetic, we need to make calls and demand they do not buckle under this pressure.

Please do pick the phone up when you get the ALERT. I know for a fact that Jews from around the country have been calling including many of the prominant Jewish Organisations including Board of jewish Deputies. Not one single Muslim organisation has made a similar call on our behalf.

 

ZIONIST PRESSURE:

Apparently the Head of the University and the Students Union have
been bombarded with calls calling the Muslims racist and anti semetic.

The MP from Manchester sided with the Zionist Students because of
pressure from the local synogogue. What has the Local Mosque doing ? They still have not lifted a finger to help.

Apparently Jews attending synagogues in Manchester over the weekend have been told to turn out to support the Jewish students as they have been told that the motion includes a banning of the JSoc. This is what a Jewish colleague in my workplace. She ignored me when I tried to tell her that the motion was about the plight of the Palestinians not about Man Uni J Soc. It was getting quite tense so the producer made a joke by saying he would have to get UN peace keeping troops to keep peace at work!

THE COACH:

25 Feb:

A new wind is blowing across the UK. True Muslims are finally standing up. As individuals not waiting for others, but doing things themselves for once.

An example of this is one student, who has taken out a loan to hire a coach to travel to Manchester this Wednesday. Those who want to go with him and defend the Manchester University on the biggest campaign ever launched by Muslim Students in the UK can now travel as one brotherhood. You will still be out numbered most probably, as may coaches from the around the UK are being sent by the Zionists, but true Muslims are few, and thats the way its always been.

26 Feb.

78 seaters coach only 5 people confirmed.

Hello - where is everyone!

Everyone needs to be in Manchester by 9am - no later -

The UJS will be there from Tuesday night. Once again the Muslims will leave their brothers to fight alone no doubt.

where is the those who care about Islam, why is it the Zionists can get coaches full of people who care about their brothers, the Muslims cant even find one coach full.

We will either waste £900 of some poor student overdraft or have to cancel the coach - miss your lectures - take a day of work - sacrifice the easy things in life for the hard things.

THE RESULT:

Students union prevented from criticising Israel by rules change

London, Feb 28, IRNA (Iranian News Agency)

A resolution expressing support for the Palestinian people was overturned at Manchester University after a last-minute change in rules despite a majority of students voting in its favour.

After a tumultuous seven-hour debate on Wednesday, students voted 391 to 349 in favour of the motion criticising human rights abuses committed by the Zionist regime as "racist."

But a latest-minute intervention by the chairman from the university's students union ruled that the resolution needed the support of two-thirds rather than the usual simple majority to make campaigning for Palestinian rights official policy. Muslims attending the debate told IRNA that the Zionist lobby was so well organised in trying to defeat the motion. Jewish students were said to have been shipped in from other universities to ensure that the resolution was not passed.

A controversial intervention was also made by Junior Education Minister Ivan Lewis, who warned that the resolution has the "potential to incite tension and hatred on the campus, which will do lasting damage to relations between students" if it was passed. "This resolution is a disgraceful distortion of the true situation in the Middle East," Lewis said in a letter to Manchester University's vice chancellor last week.

The Zionist lobby also claimed that the text was "anti-semitic" and raised numerous amendments during the debate, but all were defeated.

Supporters of the motion, proposed by the university's Islamic Society, insisted its nine-pages of evidence was based on human rights violations against the Palestinians that have been well- documented by numerous organisations.

MESSAGE FROM MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY ISLAMIC SOCIETY: 

Dear Brothers & Sisters in Islam

Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatuallah Wabaratuhu

We would like to inform you that due to a technicality, the Palestinian human rights motion could not be passed on Wednesday the 27th of February at the General Meeting at Manchester University.  One part of the motion requested a change to the Union’s constitution, which meant that a 2/3rd majority was required to pass the motion.

Even though supporters of the motion outnumbered pro-Israelis in the meeting, after 5 ½ hours in the general meeting, the 2/3rd majority could not be reached.

We would like to thank everyone who helped on campus to make this general meeting possible; truly their efforts and time have not gone to waste.  We would also like to thank the hundreds of people across the country and the globe that rang or e-mailed Manchester Islamic Society to show their support for the motion.

Apology

Before going into the details of the day, we would sincerely like to apologise for the huge confusion and inconvenience that we caused people on the morning of Wednesday by spreading the word that we were going to pull out of the motion.  We felt that we had been unprepared for the motion and that the long-term repercussions towards Muslims not just here, but Nationally had not been considered in our decision to take on this motion.

With this in mind, we made sure that the first thing we did after the decision was made at 2.00am was to ring around telling people to cancel coaches and not to come, so as not to waste their time.(*)

However, at approximately 10.00 on Wednesday morning, we reversed the decision, and decide to continue with the motion. This was done after consultaion with our Sheikh, and other brothers and sisters who were able to alleviate our concerns.

We are aware that people had to take days of work, cancel appointments, had their deposits cancelled and much more.  Please accept our sincere apologies and we are more than happy to come to some sort of agreement regarding re-imbursing people if they so wish.

The jewish students played the victims role and wore "yellow and black T-shirts carrying the message “I’m scared to be a Jew on this campus”

The General Meeting

The morning of the general meeting saw the campus packed out with supporters and opposers to the motion defending their point of views.  TV and radio teams from various stations including Radio 1, Radio 5 Live, BBC, Granada TV and Channel 4 were there, as well as all reporters from all of the tabloid and braodsheet newspapers.

People waited patiently to go in and were actually let in at 2.00pm.

There were 1,000 seats, which were filled in the Hall, and unfortunately many Muslims were left outside, unable to come in.

Supporters of the motion far outnumbered the JSOC (who had teamed up with Sikhs and Hindus).  However, this only went to spur them on to cause great disruption to the event by using time wasting tactics such as asking for everyone’s library ID cards to be double checked (1000 people were in that hall).

The true nature and intent of these people was finally shown.  Their geering as speakers talked, their bad language.  They even accused one of the speakers of spitting at them.  Their total disregard for what this motion stood for was evident as they could not answer or deny one piece of information in the original motion.

Instead of discussing what was up for discussion, they diverted people’s attention away by calling the motion anti-semitic and lowered the tone of the day by causing confrontation and making it into an ISOC Vs JSOC thing.

They had a dirty plan, and they stuck to it. But then what did we expect?

Their amendment to the original motion was easily defeated, and when it came down to voting for the original motion, the vote was easily won.  HOWEVER, after the final vote had been counted, someone went to the chair and brought to his attention that part of the resolutions in the motion asked for a change in the constitution.

According to the rules and regulations of the general meeting, if part of the constitution is to be changed, then the whole motion needs a 2/3rd majority to be passed.

This section of the motion had never been brought up or highlighted during the many meetings that we previously had with members of the Union. We had sat with them and discussed every iota of the motion, and yet they neglected to inform us on this details. Had they done so, we could have easily rectified it.

So, at 7pm, the vote for the motion was recounted due to this oversight, and although supporters of the motion outnumbered the JSOC, the motion could not be passed, as there was no 2/3rd majority.

A Waste Of Time?

We feel that the majority of the benefits of this motion had already been felt before the general meeting itself.

1)       Unity amongst Muslims was at an all time high during this last period, with brothers and sisters from all sorts of backgrounds and ideologies coming together for this cause.

2)       The support and e-mails from across the world from Muslims and non-Muslims showed that there was a global union.

3)       The amount of media coverage and awareness that was raised regarding the plight of the Palestinians was huge.

4)       The true colours of the JSOC, UJS and Pro-Israelis was there for everyone to see; their tactics and slur campaigns showed them for what they really are.

The general meeting itself just went to compound the fact that the JSOC had absolutely no regard for the human rights of Palestinians.

The brothers and sisters who helped on campus did feel hard done by initially, but after the initial spell, reasoning took over emotion and the benefits of what had just taken place were realised. Further, our small team in Manchester was able to take on the great Zionist network, and we won. We gave them sleepless nights and worries, not to mention the gigantic amounts of money that they had to spend. This all goes to show that our work was that of truth, as we came up against so much pressure and hostility.

The Future

As they say, they may have won the battle, but they have not won the war.  There are plans in the pipeline, and these plans should come to fruit verrrrrry soon.  So keep your eyes and ears open for round two.

This is not the end, but simply the beginning. If a few of us at Manchester can acheive what we have - to terrify them thew way that we have, imagine what all of us together around the country, could acheive.

Thank You

We would once again like to thank everyone for their support and we ask you to make du’a for us. Further, we thank Allah for allowing us to be part of his great work, and we ask him to accept from us our humble efforts, and that tese efforts appear on our scale of good deeds on the Day of Judgement.

Wassalam

Manchester University Islamic Society.

(*) The Islamic Human Rights Commision had organised for Anti-Zionist Rabbis to attend the motion and shatter the zionist lies by talking to the student body about zionisms inherent racism and anti-Jewishness. This unfortunately had to be cancelled at the last minute due to the Islamic Society's eleventh hour decison to pull out of the motion (which was later reversed).

ARTICLE BY FAISAL BODI:

And still we rise

Jewish students, the NUS and even vice-chancellors are all attempting to drive Muslims from mainstream university life, argues Faisal Bodi.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/students/story/0,9860,661764,00.html

Faisal Bodi, The Guardian

Last week a fiery six-hour debate at Manchester University students' union produced a vote condemning human rights abuses by Israel and calling for a boycott of Israeli goods. But it failed to secure the two-thirds majority needed to establish a post of human rights officer.

Whoever said student politics was dead was either being ironic or, more probably, looking in the wrong place. But campus activism long ago moved to the periphery, as the demise of ideology and the rise of New Labour ushered in an era of sterile debate about student loans.

Today's designer-label student politicians have raised the drawbridge on those who dare to believe that humanity has yet to resolve all the big questions.

No group has felt the pain of being stranded on the wrong side of the moat more than Muslim students. Over the past decade, as their number and dynamism have grown, a powerful campus alliance of the political centre-left and right - the National Union of Students, the National Union of Jewish Students, and university vice-chancellors - has inexorably driven them from mainstream life.

Nowhere is this better illustrated than at Manchester University, where last week, Muslim students failed in an attempt to smash their way back into the centre. The headlines, produced by journalists with no frame of reference for modern student activism, talked up a concocted threat to Jews. The reality, however, speaks for itself.

In 1993, when I was an MA student in Manchester, we packed enough opponents of Zionism into the debating chamber to block a triennial Jewish Society-led motion committing the union to supporting Israel.

This was the first time the powerful "JSoc" had been defeated. For the traditional power brokers in the union, the alarm bells had started ringing - and literally, too. Outnumbered by two to one in that meeting and heading for a defeat that would have seen all our pro-Palestinian amendments adop-ted, our panic-stricken opponents switched to Plan B: the fire alarm. The building was evacuated, the debate abandoned. No inquiry, no investigation and no punishment followed.

We tried again in 1994. But the union struck out the key element of our motion for a new prayer facility inside the union building using anti-discrimination policy. Ten years on, I am still trying to get my head around the idea that granting a facility to one group of students amounts to discriminating against others. But the union knew what it was doing. Itself a multi-million pound business, it must have figured - correctly - that hard-up students would not be able to mount a costly legal challenge.

Matters were to get a lot worse for us. Against our will, the prayer room was closed down and we were herded to a disused church on the edge of campus, far away from the main union building. Ethnic cleansing, we called it. The cynicism of the union, now supported by the university administration, had plumbed despicable depths. They calculated that if the main reason for Muslim students using the union building - their prayer room - was removed, they would disappear from the picture; out of sight and out of mind.

But Manchester's Muslim students, who have acquired a near-legendary reputation for refusing to surrender, have kept coming back. In 1996 another pro-Palestinian motion was stymied when the venue was changed at the eleventh hour, resulting in an inquorate meeting. Last week's attempt to have Israel declared an apartheid state and to institute a remembrance day for the victims of Sabra and Shatila, shows that the tradition of resistance is alive and kicking.

The experience of Manchester's Muslims is not unique. In recent times a central plank of NUS and universities' policy has been to emasculate Islamic groups, the rising power on campuses, by fair means or foul.

At last year's NUS conference the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (Fosis) circulated a leaflet accusing the NUS of alienating and marginalising Muslim students in the name of fighting extremism.

Dr Anthony McRoy, an Irish evangelical researcher, whose recent PhD on British Muslims (Rushdie's Legacy: The Emergence of a Radical British Muslim Identity) analyses the tensions in higher education, writes of "both institutional and overt Islamophobia" in the NUS, and, increasingly, among the heads of universities.

He cites the 1998 report Extremism and Intolerance on Campus, by the then Committee for Vice Chancellors and Principals (now Universities UK). The raison d'être for the report was an alleged increase in anti-semitism from Muslim sources reported by the NUS. No Muslim organisation was consulted during the CVCP's investigations, a state of affairs confirmed by the NUS and described by Fosis as insulting.

"This gave the impression that not just the CVCP, but also the NUS itself had conspired to produce a report that British Muslims saw as blatantly Islamophobic with draconian consequences for British Muslim students," says McRoy.

"It is perhaps questionable to produce a report, apparently instigated by a particular complainant, then fail to take contributions from the student grouping accused of the offence."

It is tempting to dismiss these goings-on in universities as remote and irrelevant. But their effects are of great importance to the multicultural project. Attitudes developed by students in this formative period, such as the perception that democracy does not work for Muslims, are carried into later life.

In a 1998 research paper for the University of Exeter, Sophie Gillat-Ray recorded an observation that should have driven the fear of God into our politicians: "The lasting impressions and experiences of Muslims in higher education may have an impact on lifelong attitudes towards British society. Memories of having to fight for basic facilities whilst at college or university will colour later views about attitudes to Islam in higher education in particular, wider British society in general."

Faisal Bodi is a writer on Muslim affairs
and editor of ummahnews.com

MOTION IS PASSED:

Apparently the Palestinian Human Rights Motion has just passed unopposed at SOAS University in London.

AND AGAIN!:
 
Zionism is Racism Motion passed at University of Wales (Swansea)

Islamic Human Rights Commission Campaign Update
24th March 2002

One of IHRC's campaigners has informed us that a motion was passed at the University of Wales (Swansea) Student Union on 20th March 2002 which held that Zionism is racism and that anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitism.  The motion further stated:

"THIS UNION FURTHER BELIEVES:

1.The Israeli government should immediately stop the excessive and indiscriminate force and collective punishments against Palestinian civilians.

2. Businesses such as Marks and Spencer, selling Israeli goods and contributing financially towards Israel are aiding the Israeli apartheid regime. Selfridges are carrying a range of goods produced on Israel's illegal settlements on the West Bank and Gaza. These are labeled "Made in Israel" in contravention of EU excise and customs regulations. These settlements have been built on land expropriated from the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. These are illegal under international law, including the fourth Geneva Convention.

3. A boycott of these businesses and Israeli goods will send out the positive message that the international community will not tolerate racism or violations of human rights. This action was taken against South Africa and had positive results.

THIS UNION RESOLVES:

1. To promote the boycott of companies whose profits are being used to prop up the Israeli apartheid regime and whose products are manufactured on illegal Israeli settlements.

2. To join the national BIG (Boycott Israeli Goods) and boycott organizations and companies who facilitate and encourage these human rights violations. This campaign was launched in parliament by George Galloway. Businesses include: Selfridges, Marks and Spencer, Harrods."

Congratulations to all campaigners at the University of Wales (Swansea) which included the Student Socialist Workers Society and members of the Islamic Society (UWS).  This is an inspiration to all.

LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY:
 
Anti-Israel speakers banned by university

Read article here.