Students at Cambridge University will vote on cutting ties to their national union this month.
Cambridge students union will hold a referendum on May 17 over affiliation to the National Union of Students in the wake of the election of Malia Bouattia as NUS president.
A motion backing the referendum, proposed by the “NUS: Let Cambridge Decide” campaign, was passed by Cambridge student union council last night by 32 in favour to seven against.
A second part of the motion will see the union send a letter to Ms Bouattia condemning her comments about Jews and Israel.
Jewish student Adam Crafton told the council that the motion “is about giving people a choice”. He added that Ms Bouattia “should know far better than to use the kind of language she has used”.
Cambridge University Jewish Society voted to support the referendum at a meeting last week. In a statement the JSoc said: “In light of the election of Malia Bouattia, whose rhetoric has disturbed many of our members, a referendum will allow Cambridge University students to decide whether they wish to be represented by the NUS.”
Campaign founder Jack May said: “This is a great decision from CUSU Council. The assembled representatives of over 22,000 students at the University of Cambridge have said in the strongest terms that they condemn the language used by the new president of the NUS. The coming referendum will now allow students to have their say on the NUS’s direction, and we encourage all students to vote on May 17th.”
Last Wednesday Oxford University student union council also voted for a referendum regarding NUS affiliation. It is due to take place before the end of the academic year.
Students at 10 universities across the country have launched campaigns to sever links to the NUS following the election of Malia Bouattia, who has previously described Birmingham University as a “Zionist outpost” and referred to “Zionist-led media” in a speech.
Meanwhile at Aston University, students are holding a referendum over whether the students union should “disassociate with companies and organisations which profit from or are complicit with the occupation of Palestinian territories”.
