By Naomi Firsht
1 min read
The Union of Jewish Students has welcomed the National Union of Students’s decision to rule out future work with a campaign group linked to Islamic State terrorist Mohammed Emwazi.
NUS president Megan Dunn said on Friday that her union would not co-operate with Cage.
David Cameron had previously criticised the student body for its links to the controversial group.
Ms Dunn said: “I will not work with Cage, the NUS will not be working with Cage and there will be no NUS resources used to work with Cage.”
Both Cage and the NUS had previously criticised the government’s counter-terrorism strategy. Students passed a motion at their annual conference in April pledging to lobby against the strategy alongside Cage.
In a further statement, Ms Dunn said the strategy had led to “students being treated as criminals”. She also defended NUS policies which tackle hate speech.
She added: “I don’t think that Jewish students need to see more antisemitic comments to be ‘more aware’ of antisemitism.”
Following her comments UJS said: “We also echo Megan Dunn’s assertion that the values of Cage are not compatible with NUS’s policies on anti-racism, anti-fascism and antisemitism.”
UJS campaigns director Russell Langer said: “There is no place in the student movement for groups like Cage, whose values are in direct contrast to that of NUS.
“I hope that there will no longer be confusion on the relationship between NUS and Cage and that this precedent is followed by others in the student movement.”
Cage came under fire earlier this year for calling Emwazi – also known as Jihadi John – a “beautiful young man”.
