Varsity Issue 800

The Independent Student Newspaper

Issue 800 Friday 27th November 2015 Published in Cambridge since 1947

www.varsity.co.uk

Bumper 800th Edition Special Edition: an exploration into the famous faces, changing attitudes and biggest stories in the pages of Cambridge’s oldest student newspaper, from page 17

PalSoc prepares to protest Event featuring Israeli Embassy spokesman sparks anger among pro-Palestinian activists Senior News Correspondent The Cambridge University Palestine Society (PalSoc) is planning to host a demonstration against Yiftah Curiel, the head spokesman for the Israeli embassy, when he arrives to speak at the Union on Monday night. The executive committee is inviting members to bring “placards, banners and any other noise making equipment (tin pans and spoons, megaphones, whistles etc.)” The planned protest, mirroring the reaction to Curiel’s appearance at a similar event at UCL on Tuesday, follows PalSoc’s release of a statement expressing “outrage” at the Union’s decision “to give the stage solely to a representative of the Israeli government, rather than host a proper debate.” The details of the speaker event were not initially released by the Union, prompting PalSoc to criticise in an email to members seen by Varsity what they saw as “an attempt to minimise the opportunity for organised protest”. This follows the protest held against Daniel Taub, the Israeli Ambassador, who appeared in Cambridge in October last year. Monday’s appearance from Curiel, which will follow a speaker’s event

INSIDE:

with Professor Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian Authority’s Representative to the United Kingdom, was initially planned to be a single event featuring both men. However, the email goes on to describe how that proposed event was “prematurely suspended due to external pressure faced by the Union”. This is disputed by the Union, which claims that “over the course of our negotiations with various potential speakers to represent both sides, PalSoc withdrew their support.” A statement from the Union Press Office in response to the Palestinian Society’s grievances reads: “[the] two events are the result of months of negotiation with representatives from the Palestinian and Israeli Embassies, and were both hosted in the interests of balance and fairness in regard to the sensitive subject matter involved.” The Union claims that it had attempted to organise “a collaborative event for Michaelmas 2015... to feature both a Palestinian and Israeli representative, thus giving members an opportunity to hear both sides of the story.” While wary to comment in too much detail “in order to avoid compromising agreements reached in private between two Embassies and the Union”, the Union was keen to “clarify that multiple options for the configuration of these events were considered

and suggested.” Union Press Officers Matteo VioletVianello and Timothy Adelani further explained that “the Palestinian Society were consulted in advance of these negotiations, and were asked to be involved in these events as joint partners as a gesture of good faith ... as a neutral party, the Union organised the events that were agreeable to both speakers’ representatives. Both Embassies made requests regarding the format of any potential events, which were respected.” The Israel-Palestine conflict has long been prominent in Cambridge debate. In October last year, the Union passed a motion that described Israel as a “rogue state”, with 51 per cent of attendees voting for the proposition.

CARDIFF UNION TV

Keir Baker

Several open letters signed by Cambridge academics, on both sides of the boycott debate, have been released over the last year. In October last year, Daniel Taub, the Israeli ambassador to the UK, was greeted by around 50 protesters in the wake of Operation Protective Edge, the Israel Defence Forces’ military action in Gaza. At the time, PalSoc told members that “the Cambridge University Palestine Society considers the visit of such [Israeli] speakers a tacit endorsement of war crimes committed by their government, and a distasteful decision given the current situation in the West Bank. “As students of Cambridge University, we should stop such individuals pertaining to an apartheid government from using our university to whitewash their crimes, and be resilient against providing them with a platform to do so.”

City Council spends to tackle homeless rise Anna Menin News Correspondent Homelessness in Cambridge is continuing to increase at an startling rate, with Cambridge City Council’s spending on the issue almost doubling relative to last year. A recent Freedom of Information request has revealed that from January to July 2015, the Council spent £518,850 on temporary accommodation. This dramatic increase nearly matches the total spend for the entirety of 2014 was £540,329. Jake Beech, chair of the student-run project Streetbite, which distributes food and drinks to homeless people in Cambridge, told Varsity that the society has noticed “a significant increase in the number of people of no fixed abode living in Cambridge over the last few years”. “Speaking with members of the homeless community during our work, we tend to find they also believe the number of people sleeping rough has increased”, he said, adding that some of the homeless people Streetbite works with have “expressed concern” for those who find themselves homeless for the first time, and “lack of experience” with issues such as survival outdoors during the winter. In the past year, Streetbite has increased the number of daily rounds “due to increased demand”. Beech notes that “it has become apparent that.... Continued on page 2

TERROR ALERT, UNION ELECTION, SCIENCE FUNDING, ZERO CARBON VOTE