PORTERS - or Palestine? Where would your interests lie if you were a student at the University of York?

Undergraduates, fresh from their recent sit-in at Heslington Hall, are being urged to attend an emergency meeting of the students' union tonight about military action by Israel in the Palestinian territories.

A group called York Students Against the War (York SAW) has proposed a motion that the students' union should join a national campaign to boycott Israeli goods.

But the university's Jewish Society is opposed to the meeting as they believe it could inflame anti-Semitism.

Meanwhile a mystery group of students has been putting up posters round the university saying "Porters, not Palestine", arguing that students should be concerning themselves with campus questions rather than international issues.

Last month, students hit the headlines when they staged a sit-in in Heslington Hall in protest about security arrangements at the university.

Gemma Khalsan, education and welfare officer of the students' union, said tonight's meeting promised to be an interesting one, but was confident it would not get out of hand.

Hussain Ismail, chairman of York SAW, said: "We are opposed to the continuing Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and the massacre of Palestinians.

"Any country which is under occupation illegally has the right to repel that force."

He denied the motion would promote anti-Semitism.

The Jewish Society was unavailable for comment.

Updated: 11:37 Wednesday, March 13, 2002