The Federation of French-speaking Students (FEF) in Belgium quietly adopted a non-binding motion in favour of an academic boycott of Israel in April. The vote received the support of 85% of the 500 delegates.
The FEF represents 100,000 students in 25 institutions of higher learning in Belgium. FEF President David Mendez Yepez told Belgian newspaper Le Soir that the April 13 vote was kept secret to allow the FEF “to address people who would have been shocked or startled by our position.”
Maurice Sosnowski, president of the CCOJB umbrella organization representing French-speaking Jews in Belgium, spoke out against the vote.
“Isolating one party and preventing people from getting to know the other constitutes discrimination which runs contrary to the ethical, moral and educational role of the university,” he told the European Jewish Press.
