Ousted NUS president Shaima Dallali joked that she would “kill” Israeli border guards if they tried to stamp her passport as she entered “occupied Palestine” because it was “like recognising Israel”, the JC can reveal.

Discussing a trip to the West Bank, the former student leader, who is suing the National Union of Students (NUS) over her sacking after facing allegations of antisemitism, wrote: “I don’t want no Zionist near my passport, I’ll probs kill him tbh.”

This revelation comes as Dallali’s lawyers attempt to argue she was wrongly sacked as president of the student body because her anti-Zionist beliefs were protected under equality laws.

Shaima Dallali

Shaima Dallali (Twitter)

She was dismissed after an independent probe into her alleged antisemitism found “significant breaches” of the union’s policies. Her lawyers say she considers her sacking to have been “discriminatory” and motivated by “antipathy” towards her pro-Palestinian beliefs and Islamic faith.

Now the JC can reveal that she wrote about killing Israelis while discussing work opportunities in the region in 2014. Informed of the comments, her lawyers claimed it was “clearly not remotely serious”.

Writing on Facebook, she said fatwas from radical clerics meant “we’re not allowed to go to occupied Palestine… Israel and that… It’s still not allowed because you’ll need Israeli authorities to stamp your passport and that’s like recognising Israel…”

One of the clerics she cited in the discussion was the late Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who called for the “annihilation” of Jews. Dallali, 28, has said al-Qaradawi, who was banned from Britain, was “working to be a moral compass for the Muslim community”. Her lawyers say she does not endorse all his statements and the NUS had not relied on these comments in dismissing her.

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Yusuf Al-Qaradawi (Photo: Getty Images)

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”.