Baroness Deech has condemned a student union's support for a boycott of Israel as "an outlet for antisemitism".
University College London student union council passed a boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) motion by 14 votes against four earlier this month.
UCL Israel Society said that it had emailed the union trustees claiming that, in passing the motion, the union had broken its own rules as a charitable institution. The email was signed by Baroness Deech, along with dozens of students.
The cross-bench peer, a former principal of St Anne's College, Oxford, told the JC that "turning a blind eye to irrational Israel hatred undermines the very notion of a university".
She added: "BDS is an outlet for antisemitism and its supporters are two-faced. Where is their boycott of Russia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria (those forgotten kidnapped girls), Turkey and other gross undoubted deniers of human rights and self-determination?"
The campus Jewish and Israel societies have launched a joint campaign, called UCLU Democracy, calling for a second vote allowing all students to take part. An online petition has so far been signed by 450 people. Around 770 signatures - two per cent of the union's 38,500 membership - are needed to force a second vote.
Ariel Tamman, Israel Society president, said the boycott motion, which includes a clause requiring all student officers to endorse BDS, "alienates Jewish students and discourages all future Jewish students from running to be a sabbatical officer".
He added: "I think for students in general it doesn't matter whether they're pro-Israel or anti-Israel, they just feel this motion should have been debated more widely. Students do feel it is unrepresentative."
Campaigners have also set up a Facebook page and have been handing out flyers urging students to call for a General Assembly meeting of the union where a second vote could take place.
Mr Tamman added that they were also working with university officials who had been supportive.
In a statement issued after the vote, UCLU said members of its council were elected by the entire student body.
A union representative told the JC that the trustees were due to discuss a letter from the Jewish students at its meeting this week.
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