BICOM

A pro-boycott motion at the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), which called on members to back all forms of Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, was roundly defeated at the union’s annual Delegate Meeting in Eastbourne.

The proposal had called to instruct the union’s National Executive Council to “encourage members to boycott Israeli products and back lecturers and other professionals who refuse to co-operate with Israeli institutions” as well as to “write to the BDS movement declaring the union’s support for the campaign”.

Delegates were told by Michelle Stanistreet that journalists working in the region would be put in jeopardy if the motion was passed and stressed that the NUJ’s colleagues in Palestine had not asked the union to introduce a boycott.

Simon Vaughan, representing BBC London said his branch and the group representing BBC branches opposed the motion because they believed it would “make the lives of their colleagues covering events in that part of the world very difficult.”

Speaking during his trip to Israel, Labour leader Ed Miliband had spoken out against a boycott, arguing that, “Anyone looking also at the sensitive stage we’ve reached in the negotiations would even additionally to that general principle would realise it’s so not the solution. You’re in a very sensitive moment when you’re wanting to encourage both sides not to try to isolate one or the other.”