As someone who spends a lot of time working with the National Union of Students (NUS), it has been particularly interesting to watch the reaction from some of those on the far left of the organisation to allegations of antisemitism at Oxford University Labour Club.
When NUS National Executive Council (NEC) member James Elliott was implicated in the allegations, what we saw was an attempt by one of the union's officers to justify the alleged antisemitism in "context".
Others have labelled the claims against James Elliott as a smear campaign.
Therefore, it should have come as no surprise that Izzy Lenga, a Jewish student on the NEC, decided that she needed to bring an emergency motion condemning antisemitism and those who seek to excuse it.
After a genuine and passionate speech from NUS president Megan Dunn the NEC voted unanimously in favour of the motion. Anyone unacquainted with student politics would have thought that this was the NEC taking antisemitism seriously. Well, they would have thought that only for about five minutes.
Two motions later and the meeting moved on to discuss the structure of the Anti-Racism, Anti-Fascism campaign. The campaign has been traditionally co-convened by the Black Students Officer and a Jewish member of the NEC. This guaranteed position for Jewish representation has been vital as Jewish students are not represented by any of the NUS liberation campaigns. But here was the NEC voting to remove it. What hypocrisy!
Many on the left talk a big game when it comes to antisemitism but how much is this just paying lip-service? It is easy to vote to condemn hatred against Jews but evidently not so easy to follow up with action.
Let's make it clear. There are no circumstances that make antisemitism acceptable and when people see any allegations as a smear, they are obviously not taking the issue seriously.
This goes far beyond the student movement and one that needs to be tackled before these student leaders become national leaders.
