Manchester Student Union rejects anti-Palestinian motion. A Complex System of Pipes reports:
Now, I’m starting to think that those “prevailing ideas in society” prevail only in the media. I was one of those campaigning for this vote, and was surprised at what a positive response I got from people. A lot of those who weren’t students or who were unable to make the meeting expressed sympathy with the Palestinian cause, and only a very few times did I have to explain the hypocrisy of equating Palestinians with terrorists, or put the violence of the oppressed in the context of, um, violent oppression.
One girl even marched up to me, with a leaflet in her hand supporting the Zionist motion, saying “this is all wrong!” and asking what she could do about it. More generally, while explaining the content of the motion, I rarely got to say the words “renounce terror” without provoking a tut or a rolling of the eyes. What really struck me at the meeting – aside from the necessary logistical nightmare that is democracy – was how on the defensive the Zionists were. “We’re not denying the Palestinians’ right to resist, but …”, “no-one wants to end the twinning, but…” – actually, I’ve spoken to these people in the past and they do deny the suffering of the Palestinians, they do oppose the twinning and have since its inception, but didn’t consider it politically viable to say so.