Essex Socialist Worker’s Student Society radically opposes the invitation to the Israel’s Deputy Ambassador called by the Government Department. We believe that such an invitation not only violates the policy of our Student’s Union and the tradition of our University, but more importantly represents an attack to the Palestinian cause. As revolutionary socialists, we prove unconditional support to the victims of the apartheid regime facilitated by a terrorist State that now takes place in Israel.
The atrocities of Zionism are countless, but they speak for themselves. So far, more than 15000 Palestinians have been murdered since 1948. The illegal occupation of Gaza and the West Bank violates at least 30 UN resolutions. Not only that, but Israel has also surrounded many Palestinian villages with an apartheid wall and has created military checkpoints to exacerbate an ethnic cleansing of the territory. Ultimately, Palestinians are treated as second-class citizens, with no rights to self-determination in their own country. In brief, the injustice in Palestine is so flagrant, that our solidarity is needed more than ever.
In an age of revolutions in the Arab world, solidarity to the Palestinian cause has been shown from Cairo to Kabul. We have been inspired by the Egyptian revolution, shouting for a free Palestine from Tahrir Square. As internationalists, we suffer the oppression of the Palestinian people as our own. Essex SWSS has a tradition of fighting for the Palestinian cause and more broadly for showing solidarity to any case of imperialist oppression across the world. Therefore we do not see the invitation to the Israel’s Deputy Ambassador as anything else than an invitation to fight for Palestine’s rights.
As a result, Essex SWSS calls upon students to assemble in Square 3, at 12:30pm on Wednesday, February 20th to protest against the decision made by the Department of Government to invite Mr. Alon Roth-Snir.
University of Essex Students' Union Statement (Invitation of Israeli Ambassador) 