Student leader loses votes in national union presidential race over comments on Zionists

Oxford University Students Union has said it will not vote for Malia Bouattia as president of the National Union of Students over concerns about her past comments about Zionists.

A statement published on the Oxford Union’s website on Tuesday said its sabbatical officers did not find Ms Bouattia’s response to an open letter from Jewish Societies around the country challenging her views on Israel to be “adequate”.

The Oxford Student Union statement said: “We have noted NUS presidential candidate Malia Bouattia’s response to the letter sent by a large number of Jewish society presidents. The sabbatical team do not believe that the response was adequate and believe that there are still questions to be answered.

“As a sabbatical team we have decided that Becky Howe (as OUSU President, the leader of our delegation to NUS National Conference) will not vote for Malia Bouattia.”

The statement was signed by Ms Howe, and vice-presidents Alasdair Lennon, Nick Cooper, Cat Jones, Lucy Delaney and Emily Silcock.

In 2011, Ms Bouattia co-wrote an article about the University of Birmingham, describing it as a “Zionist outpost in British higher education”.

The piece added: “It also has the largest JSoc in the country, whose leadership is dominated by Zionist activists.”
The article went on to accuse the JSoc’s representatives of performing a “two-faced shift to Orwellian propagandising for the state of Israel”.

In their letter to Ms Bouattia, published last week, JSoc leaders said: “Our question is clear. Why do you see a large Jewish society as a problem?”

Highlighting a report in the Telegraph, they pointed out that Ms Bouattia had previously said that the government’s Prevent anti-terror policy was fuelled by “all manner of Zionist and neo-con lobbies”.

In response to the Jewish students' letter, Ms Bouattia said: “It seems I have been misrepresented. I am extremely uncomfortable with insinuations of antisemitism.

"To take issue with Zionist politics is not taking issue with being Jewish”.

Ms Bouattia is standing against current NUS president Megan Dunn and De Montfort student Adil Waraich.

The result of the election will be announced at the NUS conference in Brighton this week.

Brighton & Sussex JSoc has also appealed to their union representatives not to vote for Ms Bouattia in the upcoming election. JSoc co-president Gabor Szekely published a statement on the society's Facebook page which said: "Jewish students at Sussex need to know that USSU [Union of Sussex students union] will take seriously the worries of Jewish students."

Mr Szekely called on union officers to "publicly condemn Bouattia’s distressing comments and attitude toward the Jewish student community and her failure to address the concerns of more than 250 Jewish students. Furthermore, I strongly urge the USSU representatives to reconsider whether or not Bouattia is a suitable candidate for NUS Presidency."

However, a response from students union education officer Bethan Hunt posted on the JSoc Facebook page said: "We feel that comments Malia has made have been taken out of context. We have discussed these concerns with Malia and her campaign team and feel that they have been addressed."