Sacked NUS leader ‘joked’ she would kill a Zionist

Dallali was elected to lead the NUS in July 2022 but was sacked five months later after her provocative comments on social media emerged. These included a tweet in which she said: “Khaybar Khaybar O Jews… Muhammad’s army will return Gaza”, a reference to a historical massacre of Jews.

She later apologised for the 2012 tweet. Announcing that she was bringing a case of wrongful dismissal, her lawyers, Carter Ruck, said the tweet was over a decade old and had been sent “in the midst of the 2012 Israeli operation in Gaza”.

They added: “Ms Dallali tweeted an expression (in Arabic) that was often used in her community in relation to Palestine, which she did not appreciate at the time would be understood as antisemitic and did not intend it that way.

“When Ms Dallali ran for office ten years later, she had no memory of the tweet.” When it was drawn to her attention, she “removed it and apologised publicly”.

They went on: “She understands and wholly disavows its meaning [and]… she has repeatedly made clear her opposition to all forms of racism, including antisemitism, while continuing to campaign to denounce the plight of the Palestinian people.”

Shaima Dallali

Shaima Dallali

They argued her pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist beliefs are protected under the Equality Act 2010 and added that other tweets that were investigated “were not antisemitic”. Instead, they said the investigation into her conduct “found that they were ‘discourteous’.”

It is not known which tweets the lawyers were referring to, but she also used social media to label a Muslim cleric critical of Hamas as a “dirty Zionist” and post a video of anti-Israel protesters calling for a “hit” on Tel Aviv.

Dallali’s lawyers said the new disclosure was an example of old posts being dredged up to “besmirch her reputation”, that it was “not language she would use now” and “would not have been taken remotely seriously by anyone reading it”.