NUS: Government cuts students’ union links over anti-Semitism concerns
by Marie Jackson, BBC News:
The government is cutting ties with the National Union of Students because of concerns about anti-Semitism.
Universities minister Michelle Donelan said it meant the NUS would not be eligible for government funding.
She said she was horrified some Jewish students might feel ostracised by a group that should be a voice for all.
Last month the union announced it was allowing an independent investigation to take place, following a number of complaints by Jewish students.
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said he was “seriously concerned” at the number of reports of alleged anti-Semitism linked to the NUS.
“Jewish students need to have confidence that this is a body that represents them, and we need to be sure that the student bodies that we engage with are speaking fairly for all students,” he said.
[…] At the same NUS conference, Mr Rich added that a new NUS president was elected, Shaima Dallali, who he said has a past record of “fairly extreme views”.
In 2012, Dallali post a tweet that included an Arabic chant that referenced a massacre of Jews in the year AD 628, which she has since apologised for.
“It is not a coincidence that at a national level, NUS is failing to support Jewish students and its national leadership seems incapable of understanding how their own inflammatory language may be contributing to the problem,” he said.
“Jewish students deserve to enjoy their university experience just as much as anybody else, and when anti-Semitism happens they have a right to expect their own institutions, and their national union, to take their side.”
He said support for Jewish students from the government was welcome, but “it shouldn’t have come to this”.
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