ByNaomi Firsht, Naomi Firsht
1 min read
A motion to boycott Israel failed after an apathetic response from students at Reading University.
Only 180 students bothered to vote on whether to boycott Israeli businesses and organisations operating in the Occupied Territories - 20 below the amount needed to make it valid under student union rules.
A statement on the union website read: "The number of total votes cast was 180, which did not meet the required quorum of 200. Therefore the policy did not pass."
The motion was a reworded version of a stronger proposal put forward at the student union in April, which would have affiliated the union to the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
The original vote was halted over fears that adopting a boycott would contravene the union's charitable status.
A spokesperson for the Union of Jewish Students said: "Barely 1 per cent of the student population took part in this vote and the remaining 99 per cent were both uninterested and unengaged. With just 20 more votes, the result would have been another
discriminatory policy passed by a radical minority."