Birzeit: "We hope that the student body at Edinburgh will distance themselves from this shameful trip."

We are very disappointed and shocked to learn that a sabbatical officer, Emma Meehan, from Edinburgh University Students’ Association (EUSA) which is twinned with Birzeit’s Student Council and the Right to Education campaign; a twinning that was only re-affirmed a few months ago, is taking part in a propaganda trip to the apartheid state of Israel, paid for and organized by the Union of Jewish Students.

As students at Birzeit University, we were looking forward to working towards forming closer relations and links with EUSA. However, Emma’s participation in a politically motivated mission which sole aim is to whitewash Israel’s crimes and the suffering of the Palestinians is disgraceful regarding the relationship between EUSA and Birzeit, but also in a wider context of standing up for human rights.

Students on the trip have decided to take a stand to be part of the oppression by visiting the settlement of Gush Etzion which is illegal under international law, and meeting the very people responsible for denying the right to education for students in Palestine, such as Capt Barak Raz, the IDF commander for the West Bank, but they made no effort to visit Birzeit University.

By accepting the UJS political ideology, Emma took a political stance, completely ignoring the attacks and obstruction of Palestinian education under illegal Israeli military occupation. She has also shown blatant disregard for the history of student activism for human rights at Edinburgh University and their commitment to standing up for a just peace in Palestine. Especially that a motion to boycott Israel was overwhelmingly passed at the Edinburgh University Students Association (EUSA) general meeting last March, and recently the student council adopted a motion to ban Danish-British security firm G4S because of the company’s involvement in the delivery of security services to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

We hope that the other sabbatical officers, and the wider student body at Edinburgh University, will distance themselves from this shameful trip and condemn Ms Meehan for taking part.