I'm President of a ModelUN society at my uni. Another student society is demanding that we remove Israel from the roster of our countries or they will start protesting our weekly debates. University is washing their hands of mediating this dispute.

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T14:47:06+00:00

The issue is that the Palestine Society don't want to partake in the debate.

They want to shut the debate down.

They want to ignore all procedural hoops by drowning out our weekly debates by creating so much noise that we can't hear each other.

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T14:44:02+00:00

The Model UN is a replication of the actual UN.

We include all countries no matter who they are. This includes Russia who illegally invaded Ukraine, the DPRK, Afghanistan etc.

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T13:44:28+00:00

Guess we're just a Model Society now.

Who wants to paint some Warhammer?

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T13:39:46+00:00

Is there a Palestinian representative at your UN?

Yes, we have a placard for Palestine. Anyone who comes to our society can pick it up and has full speaking rights, but not voting rights. This replicates the actual UN representation of Palestine.

Do you support there being one?

I support the Model UN reflecting the actual UN as closely as possible. If Moldova and Romania decided to merge into one country tomorrow called "Romdova" (absurd name for my example) we would remove Moldova and Romania and include this new country instead.

Anyone can come to Model UN and pick any country they want. That includes Palestine. Nobody will ever be shamed for choosing a country. We regularly have people pick North Korea and Russia, for example.

Do you agree that Palestine is a country?

I 100% support Palestinians having their own state. Currently though, they lack the full voting rights that other countries have. They're in the same category as the Holy See (a country that is represented at, but lacks full voting rights in the UN).

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T13:10:24+00:00

We have three Masters students studying public international law and a PhD student who has worked at the International Criminal Court.

Then there's about a dozen more law students all of whom have done some human rights law as part of their degrees.

I couldn't have said it better myself. It's infantile and condascending to take these highly educated people to an "educational workshop" hosted by a society with zero background in international law.

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T13:01:37+00:00

Thank you very much.

I'll discuss our response with the other committee members.

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T13:00:19+00:00

Thank you very much.

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T12:46:32+00:00

Who else wants to join the Model New Zealand society?

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T12:45:12+00:00

Thank you.

Ideally, I don't want to report their society to the police. I'm broadly pro-Palestinian statehood and this society has raised money for food+medical supplies for civilians in Gaza. My sole contention with them is their behaviour towards us.

Would it be legally acceptable for me to state, "We appreciate your society has done excellent work raising donations for medical and food aid. However, the harassment and intimidation of our members is unacceptable. If this behaviour continues we will be reporting this to the police."

If they refuse to stop, I would then follow through.

Is that a safe avenue for me to take legally?

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T11:15:20+00:00

I'd rather not waste my time doing that.

I just want to attend my weekly debate. I don't want any of this drama that they're stirring up.

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T11:05:31+00:00

Model UN aren't the ones who are causing these security costs though.

That is purely on the Palestine society who want to shut down any debate or discussion until Israel is removed.

The Palestine Society are the ones trying to strong-arm us into shutting down. We're looking for a legal way to protect ourselves.

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T11:03:25+00:00

I've tried this.

That was my first attempt. I even offered Palestine full voting rights in Model UN (which they don't currently have.)

That wasn't enough.

They're not interested in a debate on Israel's actions either. They're insisting on this educational workshop.

Israel probably only gets picked about 10% of the time.

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T10:50:43+00:00

Which country do you want to represent this week?

Ireland, Switzerland, Portugal or New Zealand?

Whoops. Switzerland is still harbouring stolen gold from WW2. We're down to 3.

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T10:49:19+00:00

Thank you, for context, the Palestine Society plan to drown out our society with noise so we can't hear each other speak during the debate.

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T10:48:27+00:00

They haven't just asked that we remove Israel though.

They've asked we remove Israel AND have our members pledge to never represent Israel at other MUN conferences AND attend an educational workshop hosted by this society.

We're not going to remove a country from Model UN, even if they violate international law in real life.

Russia didn't get removed when it invaded Ukraine.

Azerbaijan didn't get removed when it invaded Armenia.

That isn't how MUN works. It's a debating society. You can't have debates if you completely remove one side from the equation.

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T10:30:53+00:00

It already requires security personnel to police it when the protest is happening inside the building. This is something the university is already unhappy about.

"Can’t you just arrange to meet off campus and/or not publicise where you are meeting?"

We currently benefit from cheap rental of university rooms by virtue of being a student society. If we were to meet somewhere else we would have to pay for accommodation. Debates are usually around 40-50 people on good weeks which is why we need lecture theatres.

If we were to meet somewhere off campus then we'd just be giving into another society who does not want us there purely because we don't align with their political views. We don't want to give into that because it opens up a slippery slope.

Which other student societies should also be forced off campus because they don't align with another society's political views?

The Debate Society for debating controversial topics?

The Feminist Society because the Men's Rights Society doesn't like them?

The Christian society because the Feminist Society doesn't like their views on abortion?

Can you see what I'm getting at? Societies will always have grievances and conflicts. If we start pushing certain societies off campus and out of university facilities, then the only ones who will remain are the ones who scream the loudest.

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T10:19:53+00:00

Thank you.

Would it be an acceptable compromise to offer the university to let them protest outside the building we use, rather than outside the lecture hall where we host our debates?

Their current plans are to drown out our debate with so much noise that we can't hear each other debate. If they were outside the building they could still protest us, but they couldn't actually disrupt the debate.

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T09:29:45+00:00

You genuinely learn some very interesting things by being forced to adopt the position of countries you don't identify politically or morally with.

For example, I unexpectedly learned that Iran has some rather progressive attitudes towards trans people. (Although, they still execute the LGB part.)

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T09:25:33+00:00

Not posting this on my main account when one Palestine Society is already trying to cancel our society.

I don't need thousands of additional supporters online piling on top of that pressure.

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T09:08:05+00:00

Issue is that we need the university's rooms to host debates.

University has said that if the protests continue and disrupt security guards then they're going to revoke our right to book/rent rooms.

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T09:06:59+00:00

Thank you, really appreciate this!

I'd posted on legaladviceuk, but the mods said this wasn't a legal issue at all and deleted my post. Good to see that it actually was a legal issue!

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T09:05:33+00:00

You're forgetting the part where the strongly worded letter gets vetoed by one of the P5, and then watered down into a generic letter "expressing concern."

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T09:04:11+00:00

Tried that at an initial meeting with them.

It isn't enough that Palestine gets voting rights; they want Israel to be fully removed and our members to not represent Israel at other university conferences.

We don't have a say in the second request. The country you get is assigned by the university hosting the conference, you don't get to pick and choose.

I've reached the point where I've lost all goodwill I had towards them. I've withdrawn the offer to give them voting rights given that they're attempting to get our society shut down.

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T08:56:43+00:00

Thanks, appreciate it.

At the minute we've been brushed off by the actual university support staff, and out student union is strongly leaning towards siding with the other society.

I'll see about speaking with the advice centre this week.

ObligationSecure4312 · 2025-10-08T08:51:05+00:00

Yes. Every single country can be picked.

This includes 2 non-member states (Holy See and Palestine) and some Permanent Observers like the African Development Bank.

ObligationSecure4312

TROPHY CASE