One of London's leading universities has voted to boycott the State of Israel, just hours after a deadly terror attack and while Israel is still in the throes of a renewed upsurge in Palestinian terror.
University College London (UCL) Union voted 14-4 to accept a motion to endorse the so-called BDS movement, which advocates boycotts, divestment and sanctions against the Jewish state, according to London's Jewish News.
The decision follows last week's "Israel Apartheid Week" activities by anti-Israel groups, and a recent mock "checkpoint" set up by UCL Friends of Palestine Society, which included students dressed as IDF soldiers, as part of a campaign it entitled "Palestinian Experience."
The vote took place mere hours after a Palestinian terrorist murdered a US citizen and seriously injured scores more people in a stabbing spree in Tel Aviv/Jaffa, and other Arab terrorists committed a string of stabbing and shooting attacks.
Jewish students in British universities have complained of rising intimidation and anti-Semitism from left-wing and Muslim anti-Israel student activists.
Ariel Tamman, co-president of the Friends of Israel Society, told Jewish News the vote would simply compound already "invasive" anti-Israel campaigning on campus, and deter Jews from attending UCL in the future. UCL has traditionally had a relatively large Jewish student body, though Tamman warned Jews were already feeling "intimidated" by increasingly aggressive anti-Zionist activity.
"It may lead to less Jewish students coming to UCL," he said, and added that his group would be contacting university authorities to protest the decision and the way it was carried out.
He accused union leaders of having "already made up their minds" in advance of the vote, which he claims he was only notified of about a few hours prior, adding that news of the initiative was buried on the Union's website without any notifications or emails sent to alert students of the impending vote.
The UCLU Friends of Palestine Society, meanwhile, hailed the decision on Twitter, with one supporter responding to Jewish concerns by tweeting "If our existence intimidates Zionists on campus then that’s their problem."
It comes as controversy continues over allegations of rampant anti-Semitism and intimidation of Jewish students at Britain's prestigious Oxford University.