Today, the students of the London School of Economics and Political Science voted in favour of the motion put forward at the UGM for, “Twinning with the Islamic University of Gaza”. This contentious motion caused largescale controversy this afternoon as various groups protested for and against the motion on Houghton Street.
The motion passed by 153 for and 133 against, a very small margin which may lead to a second vote on the issue. This has now been updated by the Union to be 161 to 131.
For the most part, the UGM was very civil and well handled, with an interesting amendment put forward to also twin with various other institutions around the world who experience varying degrees of academic access problems.
Student Rights attended the event and upon discussing the issues, we found that most LSE students actually found the issue too overtly political and thought it may be intended to strike up controversy and make a political statement on behalf of the LSE.
Another issue raised was the fact that the motion was only declared two days before the UGM. This led to a lack of discussion, discourse and the ability to effectively campaign for or against the issue.
The Islamic University of Gaza has been accused of being an institution that is used as a base for Hamas however those in favour of the motion cited the Goldstone Report in direct dismissal of this accusation.
An LSE student who wishes to remain anonymous has stated:
I am horrified that a motion to align the LSE SU with that of the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) is even being considered. This resolution is especially worrisome for Jewish or Israeli students at the LSE who will now have to attend Student Union meetings knowing that their Union supports an organization [Hamas] that calls for their deaths.
Student Rights will be hosting a complimentary event on the 3rd of December with guest speakers Douglas Murray, Prof. Eric Heinze and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign to debate the issue that, “Student Unions should take political stances.” See details here.
— Developing —
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[...] the wake of LSE Student Union passing the motion to twin with the controversial Islamic University of Gaza by a small margin, Queen Mary Stop the [...]
[...] by my school, it gets worse. I thought we’d reached a low when the London School of Economics voted to twin (my personal conspiracy is that the vote was scheduled on American Thanksgiving so none of the [...]
[...] Today, I feel proud to be a student at LSE, in an institution that will defend the freedom of expression of its staff, even in the face external commotion about less than preferable political ideologies, especially considering LSE’s somewhat tainted history with radicalism and a recent spat of concurrent PR disasters, including a major donation from a Libyan non-governmental organisation headed by Saif Al Islam Al Gaddafi – who also happens to be an LSE alumnus – and aligning with the Islamic University of Gaza. [...]