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7:43pm on Thursday, 21st February, 2019:
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I saw a TV satellite van parked outside the university on the way home.
It seems that the Student Union decided not to allow the formation of a new Jewish Society on campus, citing concerns regarding the conflation of Judaism and the state of Israel. The timing of this, just a few days after eight Labour MPs left the party stating that its attitude to anti-semitism was a contributing factor, probably explains why the Student Union's decision is now national news.
The university administration's attitude to Jewish people is exemplary (if it wasn't, we wouldn't have a Jewish Chancellor), but when it comes to student societies decisions are made by the student body. Even back in my day as a student, there was rancour in the Student Union about the relationship between Jewish ethnicity and the state of Israel; it's sad that things haven't moved on in 40 years.
It's also sad that this doesn't happen with any other cultural society. I'm not saying that it should, I'm saying that it's interesting to note that it doesn't. We already have societies for people with the following cultural heritages: African Caribbean, Arabic, Asian, Bengali, Bulgarian, Chinese, Cypriot, Hong Kong, Eurasian, Filipino, French, Ghanaian, Hellenic, Hungarian, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Latin American, Malaysian, Nepalese, Nigerian, Pakistani, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Somali, Sri Lankan, Tamil, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese. Some of the countries dominated by people with those ethnicities aren't exactly respectable, but the Student Union never seems to have a problem with them. It does with Israel.
This is all happening in the week when the big push is taking place for final-year students to fill in the National Student Survey. I'm sure that the vast majority of the student body will take it into account when it comes to filling in the section about the Student Union.
Oh, Essex...
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Copyright © 2019 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).