British Junior Education Minister Ivan Lewis has controversially intervened to try to prevent students at Manchester University from voting for a resolution criticizing Israel's human rights record, reported the Iranian official news agency (IRNA).
"This resolution is a disgraceful distortion of the true situation in the Middle East," Lewis said in a letter to the vice chancellor of the university, said the agency, citing the Jewish Telegraph.
"I also believe this motion has the potential to incite tension and hatred on the campus, which will do lasting damage to relationships between students," he said.
The resolution, being debated on Wednesday, seeks to make it union policy of Manchester University in northwest England to campaign for the rights of the Palestinian people.
But it has been met with sustained campaigning by the Zionist lobby, claiming that the 9-page resolution is anti-Semitic. The Jewish Telegraph alleged that it posed a threat to the future of Jewish societies on campuses throughout Britain.
The Department of Education and Skills said that it could not confirm whether Lewis, who is Jewish, sent the letter or wrote it in his capacity as a junior minister or as a Labor MP.
Supporters of the motion have insisted that the motion has no intention of inciting anti-Semitism, saying that is based purely on the human rights violations against the Palestinians documented by numerous organizations.
Its aim, if it is passed by over 50 per cent of students, is to acknowledge the abuses and the racist policies of the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian people. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
