A campaign to boycott all Israeli goods in student union owned shops has been launched by the University College Dublin Students’ Union (UCD SU) today, Friday of November 29, to mark the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People.
The union’s three on-campus shops were examined by the Student Union’s Commercial Services Manager, who reviewed all products sold within the shops reviewed to ensure that nothing being sold had been produced or manufactured in Israel.
Following the the investigation, Joanna Siewierska, President of UCD SU, announced today that she is “delighted to say that SU shops do not sell any products that are produced of manufactured in Israel”.
She further noted, on the decision to Boycott Israeli goods that “this is a really important campaign as we cannot hope to influence change across the university or nationally if we are not looking inwards first.”
UCD SU were congratulated by Chairperson of the Irish-Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Palestinian-Irish citizen, Ms. Fatin Al Tamimi. She said: “It is simply wonderful to see so many young people, especially university students, getting engaged with the issue of Palestine, and BDS in particular. I thank UCD SU for this important show of solidarity with the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom, justice, and equality.”
UCD students voted in favour of the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel in 2018. The SU has been working since then to ensure that they are adhering to the campaign in all of their operations.
Trinity students also voted in a referendum to support of the BDS movement 2018, the proposal winning the support of 64.% of voters. Since then, Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) has been mandated to follow “the principles of BDS in all Student Union shops, trade, business, and other Union operations”.
