NUS ‘created a hostile culture’ for Jewish students
JEWISH students faced a ‘hostile culture’ in the National Union of Students, an investigation has revealed.
The independent report detailed harrowing accounts of abuse faced by students and found that the student organisation ignored and dismissed anti-Semitism.
Abuse included Jewish freshers having swastikas drawn on them during white T-shirt parties, in which students are encouraged to write on one another’s clothing. Stickers reading ‘Hitler was right’ were also placed in student common rooms.
The report by Rebecca Tuck KC comes months after NUS president Shaima Dallali, 27, was sacked after a probe into anti-Semitism allegations found ‘significant breaches of policy’.
She later apologised for a ‘wrong’ and ‘unacceptable’ offensive tweet she wrote as a teenager in 2012. Another account detailed in the report included a meeting in which the words ‘the final solution’ were used. The individual who used the term refused to apologise.
The report also highlighted an incident in which ‘pro-Palestinian’ students objected to Coca- Cola sponsoring a 2015 NUS conference due to the presence of a distribution centre in the West Bank.
An elected officer is said to have sent a message to another that read: ‘Enjoy the sweet taste of a dead baby’s blood in that Coke you’re loving.’ The message references the anti-Semitic myth of the blood libel, an accusation that Jewish people ritually sacrifice Christian children at Passover.
The report put forward 11 recommendations, which did not include further sanctions or disciplinary investigation. The recommendations include regular anti-Semitism training for NUS staff and officers.
But the report also noted that recommendations from ‘ numerous’ previous investigations have been implemented inconsistently.
Ms Tuck concluded: ‘It is apparent from this report – and indeed from other reports over the last 17 years – that the culture within NUS and at NUS events has been perceived by many Jewish students, for good reason, as hostile.’
The Office for Students watchdog said the latest findings painted a ‘deeply disturbing picture’.
Describing the probe as ‘ shocking’, the NUS pledged to tackle anti-Semitism across ‘the breadth and depth’ of the union. ‘Our action plan is the next step towards earning and restoring trust with Jewish students,’ a spokesman said.
‘Swastikas drawn on them’