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New Report Could Hamstring Palestine Advocacy in Britain's Largest Student Organization
(Jewish Currents) Dahlia Krutkovich - On Jan. 12, the UK National Union of Students (NUS) released a report investigating allegations of antisemitism within its ranks. The report by investigator Rebecca Tuck found that the union was a "hostile" environment for Jewish students. In response, the NUS has promised to set new limits on anti-Zionist speech and organizing as part of a broad anti-antisemitism strategy, which will be drawn up in consultation with the Union of Jewish Students (UJS). Tuck writes that she agrees with British Jewish groups "that many instances of antisemitism...occur when pro-Palestinian or anti-Israeli or 'anti-Zionist' campaigning takes place." She found that Judaism had been omitted as a religious identity from various NUS surveys and candidate nomination forms, and that multi-faith prayer rooms were used for committee meetings during prayer times for Jewish students. Anti-Zionist advocates worry that the report's recommendations will functionally eliminate the NUS as a national platform for Palestine solidarity. Historically, the union has served as an important arena for anti-Zionist organizing. In 2015, the NUS executive leadership voted to endorse BDS and support individual student unions that wanted to hold boycott campaigns. "A lot of students organizing on campuses are very worried that the takeaway from this report is that they need to moderate their activity," said Stella Swain, student campaigns officer at the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC).