NUStiesmay be broken, UJS admits
THE UNION of Jewish Students could pull out of working with the National Union of Students, a leading figure has admitted.
Josh Nagli, UJS campaigns director, said the union’s members may cut off all contact with the national body over concerns about NUS president Malia Bouattia.
“Jewish students are frustrated and angry,” Mr Nagli said.
“It wouldn’t surprise us if Jewish students put forward motions at our conference in December about the relationship and engagement with the NUS.”
While UJS is not formally affiliated with NUS, Mr Nagli said such a move could lead to Jewish sabbatical officers stopping their work with the group’s officers.
Ms Bouattia was elected in April despite controversy over a blog post she had co-authored describing the University of Birmingham as a “Zionist outpost in higher education” with the “largest JSoc in the country”.
UJS officials met Ms Bouattia to discuss their concerns in April, but were unhappy when she went on to write about the session in the There has since been no further contact between the parties.
“We made it very clear that until Malia adequately addressed the concerns Jewish students raised, we won’t be contacting her,” Mr Nagli said.
“She’s still yet to properly acknowledge those concerns.”
Mr Nagli said UJS was continuing to work closely with two other NUS officers to “ensure Jewish student issues are represented”.
Despite a violent demonstration at King’s College against an Israeli speaker in January, and antisemitism among members of the Oxford University Labour Club, Mr Nagli said he was positive ahead of the new academic year.
He said: “The event at King’s was really a starting point of universities and student unions sitting up and realising there may be an issue here to deal with.
“The events in Oxford, despite them being extremely bad, made people within the Labour Students group r e a l i s e we need to deal with this issue.”
Mr Nagli said d i s c u s s i o n s had taken place about the possibility of him running sessions for Labour student clubs about how to make them more inclusive.
“Jewish students have always had a positive experience of campus, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon,” he said.
“Unfortunately, it seems that when Jewish students have engaged politically, that’s been when they have either been demonised or vilified, but it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get involved.
“The only way you can create change is from the inside, and that’s not only in the NUS, that’s within student unions.
“Obviously antisemitism isn’t going away. But UJS is here to support Jewish students in whatever area of student life, and that includes preventing antisemitism.”
On Tuesday, the NUS’s National Executive Council avoided discussing a question on how it would work with Holocaust groups to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day next January.
Izzy Lenga, a Jewish NEC member, had attempted to put the question to Ms Bouattia after she outlined her intention to collaborate with UJS, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) and Holocaust Educational Trust (HET) to help student unions mark HMD.
Ms Lenga had intended to ask how the co-operation would take place, given the rift between Ms Bouattia and UJS, but was told her point could not be raised.
Following the meeting, Ms Lenga tweeted that it was the second consecutive NEC meeting at which Ms Bouattia had declined to answer her questions about Jewish students’ concerns.
A UJS spokesman said: “With many Jewish students heading back to campus in the next few weeks, Malia is yet to provide adequate proof that she’s willingtostandupforthemand their best interests. We therefore hope to see her response in the coming days.”
The meeting passed a motion noting the need for NUS to make its noplatform policy apply online. In effect, this would stop NUS officials corresponding elect r o n i c a l l y with people or organis a t i o n s which are p h y s i c a l - l y barred from campuses.
Malia is yet to properly acknowledge concerns of our students’