EUSA sabbatical officers visit Palestine

Inkeeping with a trend amongst past sabbatical officers to visit the Middle East, current EUSA student president, Adam Ramsey, recently returned from a five day trip to Palestine alongside VPAA, Guy Bromley and VPSA, Naomi Hunter.

The trip, aimed at raising awareness, incorporated a visit to Birzeit University hosted by the Right to Education Campaign.

Speaking to The Journal, Adam Ramsey explained his reason for the visit: “In 2005 Edinburgh students voted at the annual general meeting to twin EUSA with the student council of Birzeit University in Palestine. That’s why we went there.”

The twinning agreement between the universities is intended a sign of support from EUSA to Palestinian students and teachers. EUSA has attempted to extend this in several ways, including offering a Birzeit graduate a Master’s scholarship to study at Edinburgh University.

The 2007/08 president, Josh MacAlister undertook a similar trip to raise awareness of the conflict when he visited Israel last year.

He told The Journal: “It was a fantastic experience that involved speaking to politicians, journalists, and academics who all had different views and experiences to share. I met Israelis and Palestinians and had the opportunity to visit the West Bank.

"I came back from the visit with more questions than answers and if I was invited to visit other areas in the region I would jump at the opportunity.”

Mr MacAlister continued: "The debate on campus about the conflict in the Middle East is often very crude and I think it's great that student union officers at Edinburgh have had the opportunity to see some of the situation first hand."

Mr MacAlister stressed that his trip was in no way related to an affiliation agreement between the Labour Party—of which he is a member—and the Union of Jewish Students that occurred in the NUS in the mid 1990s.

He stated that: “The Union of Jewish Students is not affiliated to any political party or student political group and I was only invited on the trip because I was a student president.

"There were others on my visit who were not members of the Labour Party. There is absolutely no link whatsoever between the trip I took part in and my own party membership.”

While the current EUSA sabbaticals opted to self-fund their trip, foreign visits by union officials elsewhere in the UK have provoked controversy in recent weeks. Nottingham University Student Union president, Nsikan Edung was the recipient of an official censure from the student council after a debauched trip to Nottingham’s campus in China.

Mr Edung wrote on a friend’s Facebook wall that he was having a “totally inappropriate time” abroad. The council voted 28 to three, with one abstention, to censure the sabbatical after he publicly—if inadvertently—admitted to “getting smashed” and “wrecking the landscape” on the trip.

Officials have, as yet, refused to confirm whether the fact-finding voyage was paid for by the university or the union, or by Mr Edung himself.