UK Jewish students denied right to select anti-racism delegate - Ari Soffer

by Ari Soffer

National Union of Students strips Jewish students of the right to select their own member of anti-racism committee; Jewish students alarmed.

British Jewish university students will no longer have the right to vote for their own representative to the National Union of Students (NUS) anti-racism committee.

In a move which will reinforce Jewish students' concerns over anti-Zionist NUS chief Malia Bouattia, far-left NUS members managed to defeat a motion to undo the recent, controversial decision to remove the NUS's Anti-Racism, Anti-Fascism (ARAF) campaign's Jewish-elected delegate.

As a result, the NUS will no longer consult with the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) in picking a Jewish delegate, but will simply nominate whoever they wish without coordinating with the Jewish student body.

According to the Guido Fawkes politics website, "the motion was a close run thing, requiring a deciding vote from none other than NUS president Malia “Zionist-led media” Bouattia," who, unsurprisingly, voted against the Jewish students' motion.

In a statement following the vote the UJS accused the NUS National Executive Committee of repeatedly ignoring the rights of Jewish students:

Today, NUS NEC once again showed its complete lack of commitment to Jewish students by voting for a motion that means that Jewish students will have no say in who represents them on the NUS Anti-Racism, Anti-Fascism (ARAF) committee.
It will now be down to NEC to elect the ARAF committee and therefore to decide on behalf of Jewish students who represents them. This decision is undemocratic and excludes the 8,500 Jewish students that we represent.
It was no surprise that the NUS President, Malia Bouattia, who had the deciding vote, once again showed that she has absolutely no interest in defending Jewish students’ interests by voting to remove the ability of Jewish students to shape for themselves the student movements’ fight against racism and fascism.

The election of Bouattia earlier this year alarmed Jewish students, given her open support for Palestinian terrorism, her rants against "mainstream Zionist-led media outlets", and a reference to Birmingham University's large Jewish Society as "a Zionist outpost."

Her hard-left positions also led several universities to break away from the NUS in protest.

This is not the first hostile vote faced by Jewish students since Bouattia's election. In April, shortly after she was voted in, Jewish students mounted a successful campaign against efforts by left-wing students to stop marking Holocaust Memorial Day.


Ari Soffer

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/215261

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