The National Union of Students (Australia) has adopted "Solidarity with Palestine" as part of its policy platform
10 December 2020
At its 2020 National Conference, solidarity with Palestine was proposed as part of NUS' Ethnocultural platform. The platform, moved by 2020 Ethnocultural Officer Vinil Kumar and UNSW Education Officer Shovan Bhattarai, was adopted unanimously by delegates at the conference.
The adoption of Palestine solidarity into the policy of the National Union of Students is an important step forward in the international Palestine solidarity movement. Student unions have a long tradition of standing against racism and colonialism, and with indigenous people around the world struggling for justice and self-determination. The policy condemns the “historic and on-going genocide, apartheid, land-theft and oppression of the Palestinian people by the state of Israel” and affirms support for “the struggle for freedom, justice and self-determination of the Palestinian people.”
Importantly, the policy also recognises “that support for Palestine is not anti-Semitic. NUS acknowledges that any effective fightback against anti-Semitism requires understanding that Zionism and Judaism are not the same. Jewish people cannot be automatically identified with the Israeli state.” This is a crucial rejection of the smears levelled at critics of the Israeli state’s treatment of Palestinians, smears which attempt to weaponise the language of anti-racism to shut down criticism of apartheid and racism.
As Palestinians continue to struggle against the Israeli state’s imprisonment and murder of their youth, the theft of their land and resources, the destruction of their homes and the crippling blockade of Gaza, international solidarity is essential. Students in Australia affirming their solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and opposing our own government’s support for Israeli’s crimes is an important contribution we can make to the global struggle against racism.
The full text of the policy reads:
Solidarity with Palestine
51. NUS stands against all modern forms of colonialism and the dispossession of Indigenous people around the world.
52. NUS opposes the historic and on-going genocide, apartheid, land-theft and oppression of the Palestinian people by the state of Israel.
53. NUS supports the struggle for freedom, justice and self-determination of the Palestinian people.
54. NUS recognises that support for Palestine is not anti-Semitic. NUS acknowledges that any effective fightback against anti-Semitism requires understanding that Zionism and Judaism are not the same. Jewish people cannot be automatically identified with the Israeli state.
