Anti-Israel posts by 2 of the 4 student president candidates

THE LEADING CANDIDATE to be the new president of the National Union of Students (NUS) is a pro-Palestinian activist who has posted a string of incendiary anti-Israel statements on social media.

Another of the four candidates has voiced support for BDS.

The favourite, Shaima Dallali, the City, University of London Students’ Union President, has the backing of current president Larissa Kennedy, who steps down at the end of June.

Labour Against Antisemitism has submitted a complaint to the Labour Party, of which Ms Dallali is a member, about a selection of her social media posts.

In 2012, she tweeted: “Khaybar Khaybar O Jews … Muhammed’s army will return #Gaza”, in a reference to a massacre of Jews in the year 628CE.

Contacted by the JC, she apologised for the post she had written a decade ago, saying: “This is a tweet I posted 10 years ago during Israel’s assault on Gaza in 2012. This reference made as a teenager was unacceptable and I unreservedly apologise.”

Twice last year she posted the Hamas rallying cry of “From the river to the sea”, which is widely understood to call for the destruction of Israel. Ms Dallali has also frequently challenged the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) online.

During the 2021 Gaza conflict, the UJS posted its concerns about the violence and urged dialogue in the pursuit of peace. In response, Ms Dallali tweeted: “‘Dialogue’ with a Zionist settler colonial project will result in nothing.”

Ms Dallali also attacked the Board of Deputies after it had issued a statement last year condemning both sides for escalating violence in Gaza and Israel and warning it damaged any prospect of a lasting peace.

Branding the BoD statement a “disgrace”, she said: “Take ‘any prospect of a lasting peace’ and shove it up yours. #Free Palestine.”

Ms Dallali praised an LSE protest in November of last year which saw Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely rushed from the event under police protection as students hurled abuse.

Another candidate to be NUS president is Radical Haslam, of Manchester Metropolitan Students’ Union, who lists support for the BDS movement as a main pledge.

Her posts have triggered a complaint to the Labour Party