A pro-Israel organisation has launched a petition urging the National Union of Students president-elect Malia Bouattia to meet Jewish organisations to learn how to avoid “classic antisemitic tropes”.
We Believe in Israel is petitioning Ms Bouattia “to meet the Community Security Trust to learn about contemporary left-wing antisemitism and how to recognise and avoid the use of classic antisemitic tropes in debating Israel and Zionism”.
The petition said: “We call on Malia to withdraw her implied support for violent tactics by Palestinians against Israelis; to meet with the Union of Jewish Students to develop an understanding of what Zionism actually is (a movement for the national self-determination and liberation of Jews) and to understand that their connection to Israel is a key part of Jewish identity for over 90% of British Jews.”
Ms Bouattia was elected as the 2016 NUS president at the union’s national conference last Wednesday. In the run-up to the conference, Ms Bouattia had been criticised over her remarks about Zionists, including her description of Birmingham University, which has a large number of Jewish students, as a “Zionist outpost”.
An open letter signed by 45 Jewish society presidents during her election campaign raised questions about her “past rhetoric”.
A second petition published by Campaign Against Antisemitism has so far garnered 1,752 signatures on change.org. The petition said: “NUS president must retract comments, condemn terrorism and endorse policy on antisemitism”.
