The Liverpool Guild of Students has voted to join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, they announced on Monday, after a week of voting by students.
The voting system used a Modified Borda Count, which assigned points to each option based on the order of preference.
There were a total of 1,866 points in support of BDS, with 934 opposed to the motion and 1,479 points supporting the outcome of Summit as detailed in the manifesto.
It will mandate the student union to divest from companies complicit in the “Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem”, in the “siege on Gaza” and “in the discrimination against Palestinians living within the state of Israel.”
It will also allow for students to lobby the university to divest, and stop the Guild of students stocking products from Israel and Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
The UJS website posted the news saying, “It is disappointing that Liverpool Guild of Students have adopted a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) policy despite being defeated three times last year at Guild Summit.”
“Instead of embracing coexistence, dialogue, and peace, this decision only serves to further divide groups on campus, as well as silence the voices of Jewish and Israeli students on the conflict.”
They finished, “UJS will continue to work closely with Liverpool J-Soc in ensuring Jewish students are not marginalised on campus, and that students continue to be made aware of the case against BDS.”
