Sally HayesDecember 02, 2017

Manchester Uni Balfour ‘Celebrations’ challenged

Sally HayesDecember 02, 2017

MANCHESTER STUDENT UNION members sprang into action when the university offered to host one of the main national events ‘celebrating’ the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration being organised by the Israeli embassy and Zionist Federation.

An open letter to the university, from nine student societies asked if “by agreeing to this, is the University…. unaware that the Balfour Declaration ultimately led to massacres of innocent people, and the ongoing illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza for 50 years?”

Many organisations, activists and university alumni wrote to the vice-chancellor, Nancy Rothwell, and planned a protest for the night of the event, 31st October.

There have been increasing conditions imposed by the University of Manchester, after they met the Israeli embassy, including censoring student organised Palestinian solidarity events.

On 31st October, in response to the protest, the university announced the Balfour event was cancelled. The event was actually relocating - the university was no longer hosting.

A well supported demonstration went ahead, marching to the new location at the Hilton Hotel. Labour Party activists who fight against all forms of racism and oppose antisemitism must not be silenced in opposing the actions of the Israeli state which continues to commit crimes against the Palestinian people.

Sally Hayes

Huda AmmoriMarch 22, 2017

Palestinian students under attack

When I discovered that my fees were assisting the destruction of my family’s home, I could not focus on my studies. Therefore, at the start of this academic year, I started the Palestinian-led BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaign, a student-led initiative demanding that our university uphold its self-proclaimed values of ‘social responsibility’.

Huda AmmoriMarch 22, 2017

Sally HayesNovember 27, 2017

Women's refuges at risk

The government is rushing to enact a Domestic Violence Bill which could further undermine the rights of women to safe, effective support, as it ignores the specific gender inequalities which women face.

Sally HayesNovember 27, 2017

Sally HobbsJuly 25, 2018

The Big Ride 2018

“With every mile you ride, you are protesting against 70 years of Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians”.

Sally HobbsJuly 25, 2018

CommentBriefing officeMarch 14, 2021

Support David Miller

Miller has spoken plainly about the Union of Jewish Students’ relationship with the Zionist movement, including the fact it was revealed as having been funded by the Israeli embassy in London by an Al Jazeera undercover investigation. That a foreign government should seek to monopolise and direct student activity on British campuses gives obvious cause for alarm, all the more so as universities face government pressure to accept the definition in the name of protecting Jewish students. Over 250 public intellectuals and academics, including Noam Chomsky, Ahdaf Soueif, Norman Finkelstein and Sami Al-Arian have signed an open letter in support of Miller.

CommentBriefing officeMarch 14, 2021

ReviewsTony GreensteinOctober 28, 2021

‘Labour’s Anti-Semitism Crisis: What the Left Got Wrong and How to Learn From It’ by David Renton

Usually, when reviewing a book, I try to bring out the best in what the author has written. In the case of David Renton’s book there is literally nothing in it worthy of praise. It is dishonest and selective in its facts and ignores that Black and Muslim people were the main victims of the ‘anti-Semitism’ witchhunt.