Union is ‘pushing us out’

THE NATIONAL Union of Students has voted to “push out” Jewish students from an anti-racism campaign, according to a leading Jewish member of the union.

The NUS’s National Executive Committee passed a motion ending the practice of giving an automatic leadership place on its Anti-Racism Anti-Fascism (ARAF) campaign to a Jewish student.

Izzy Lenga, who sits on the NEC and is currently a co-convenor of ARAF, said the motion was a “shameless attempt to push Jewish students out of it”.

Until now, the ARAF campaign’s two co-convenor roles have traditionally gone to a black student and a Jewish student. The NEC motion, which was passed at a meeting last week, called for the post to be elected from any group considered to be an ethnic minority.

Ms Lenga said ARAF was the only forum in the NUS that allowed Jewish students to talk about antisemitism on campus.

At the same meeting the NEC passed a motion, tabled by Ms Lenga, resolving to reaffirm the union’s commitment to fighting antisemitism, following the allegations of Jew-hatred within Oxford University Labour Club.

NUS president Megan Dunn, who spoke in favour of the motion, acknowleged that “the left has a problem with antisemitism”.

She added: “I am a socialist, a trade unionist, a student unionist. And antisemitism is not acceptable in this movement or any other and it is time to say enough is enough.”