UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) has written to the Trustees of the Royal College of Art (RCA) Students’ Union asking them to override a Motion titled “Palestinian Solidarity and Academic Freedom” (the “Motion”) as it is unlawful.

If the Motion were put into effect, it would breach charity law and harm Jewish students. It would also cause breaches by the university in education and procurement law

The Motion, adopted on 20 March 2024, would require the Student Union to engage in political campaigns, including calling for an “immediate ceasefire in Gaza”, supporting the Boycott, Divest, Sanction (“BDS”) movement and its actions, supporting “Palestine and Palestinian sovereignty”, condemning support for Israel, including through boycotts and divestments, and resisting the UK Government’s Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill.

These political campaigns do not support the Union’s charitable object of advancing the education of students at the RCA, and would be likely to harm Jewish students, and damage their welfare, contrary to the RCA’s constitution which aims to promote students’ interests and welfare.

The likely harm to Jewish students is all the more serious because of the numerous false and highly defamatory allegations against Israel contained in the Motion, including allegations of genocide and apartheid, as well as misrepresentations regarding the political and historical context of the conflict.,.

The Motion would also undermine compliance of the RCA with the Education Act 1994. It would commit the Union “To support and provide legal protection to students at the RCA willing to educate themselves and their peers on the Palestinian liberation struggle, to discuss openly on campus the Palestinian cause, and to address and criticise the racist apartheid Israeli regime” and “To support and provide legal protection to students at the RCA in their efforts to campaign and demonstrate for the liberation of the Palestinian people and against their oppression”.

On the other hand, there is no provision to support and provide legal protection for students at the RCA willing to educate themselves and their peers in the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, Zionism, or the Jewish people’s struggle to survive and flourish.

This discrimination is contrary to section 22(2)(i) of the Education Act 1994 under which “the procedure for allocating resources to groups or clubs should be fair.”

The Motion would also commit the Union to engaging in BDS and promoting BDS by the RCA in breach of legislation on public procurement and fiduciary duties.

UKLFI has requested that the Trustees confirm that they will override the adoption of the Motion in accordance with the Constitution of the union.

UKLFI wrote similar letters in March 2024 to the Trustees of Student Unions at Goldsmiths, Liverpool and Nottingham Universities. In the absence of satisfactory replies, UKLFI will be contacting the Charity Commission. Following a similar letter to the University of Manchester Student Union, the BDS motion there appears to have been frozen.

Jonathan Turner, chief executive of UKLFI commented: “A political campaign outside the Union’s charitable objects cannot be brought within the charitable objects by the mere fact that some students passionately support such campaign. Students are entitled to support a political campaign as individuals, provided they do so in a lawful way. However, they are not entitled to have the Union conduct the campaign, because it is a charity and its resources, facilities, and the time of its staff and officers may only be used to promote its charitable objects.”