The newly-elected National Union of Students president, Malia Bouattia, has avoided answering questions on Israel’s right to exist in her first television interview.
Questioned by Channel 4 News’s Cathy Newman, Ms Bouattia was asked whether she applied a double standard to the Jewish State.
Ms Bouattia said: “With Israel I condemn the human rights violations and continued oppression of the Palestinian people. It is not a particular targeting of any group.”
Ms Newman asked whether Ms Bouattia had a problem with the existence of Israel or “with Israel per-se”.
In response Ms Bouattia said: “I have a problem with the continued occupation of the Palestinian people and them being stripped of their rights.
“Israel as it behaves is problematic to me.”
Ms Bouattia, 28, was elected student leader last Wednesday at the NUS national conference in Brighton.
She has been heavily criticised over her past comments about Zionists. An open letter signed by 45 Jewish Society presidents during her election campaign posed questions on her “past rhetoric”.
In 2011 an article she co-wrote referred to Birmingham University as a “Zionist outpost” and a video clip which emerged last week showed Ms Bouattia using the term “Zionist-led media” during a speech.
