Bristol Palestine Soc to boycott Israeli ambassador event

The Bristol Israel/Palestine Discussion Group’s event with Mark Regev, Israel’s ambassador to the UK, has been put into peril due to news that UoB Friends of Palestine will be boycotting the talk.

The event, set to take place later today a 6, is to contain a short speech from the ambassador followed by Q&A audience participation.

Security for the talk is to be stricter than most university society events due to the high profile nature of the speaker. Bags are to be left outside the hall and tickets are in high demand.

Now, UoB Friends of Palestine have threatened to derail the event by proclaiming an official boycott due to “a violation of the basic principles of the BDS movement by legitimising Israel’s regime of occupation, apartheid and settler-colonialism.”

Somewhat surprisingly, the statement also reads that there will be a boycott of any future IPDG events too.

The Bristol Israel/Palestine Discussion Group responded to the statement a few hours later.

They described the action as “a step that takes progress, debate and understanding backwards” and highlighted the fact that the society chose to boycott the event “seemingly without a vote of its membership.”

It goes on to describe how both Joseph Percy, the PalSoc president, and Jonathan Godsi, the IPDG president, were to co-chair the event – making the U-turn by PalSoc quite shocking.

Rob Angel, an IPDG committee member told us: “The decision of to boycott all events discussing the conflict in the Middle East is rather disappointing if I’m honest. Whatever your view on the conflict I believe that dialogue and discussion, not boycotting, will always be the most successful way forward towards peace.”

You can find a link to the event here.