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The Nus Nec meeting 18/07/2016 - The Jewish Problem.

Ah here we are again, Jews and the NUS. Can't stop this train.

Yet again, It seems like the NUS have something against those of the Jewish faith. With the last National Conference electing a Leader, that only a few months later, was investigated for anti-Semitism. People actually speaking against officially commemorating Holocaust Memorial day. You would think that the NUS would want to limit this perceived Anti-Semitism, right?

Well like most answers to this question, it is no - no they haven't. Today,the NUS National Executive Council sat. I watched the stream. Possibly the biggest waist of my time since the last Indiana Jones film. They allowed only a minute to sum up the work that the newly elected members were doing, which really wasn't enough. The president spoke for two, see the perks of leadership?Two whole minuets! And then they got into the motions. The first one passed without a hitch. It was for the supporting of The Bergen Declaration, some international thing that promotes co-operation between international student movements. Motion two is when things get interesting.

But some background information first. The NUS have a thing called ARAF.This stands for "Anti-Racism, Anti-Fascism". It had two co-convenors,the NUS Black Students' Officer and a Jewish Student. In February of this year,a motion three passed in the NEC meeting. What this motion did was to take away this Jewish student position and allow the NEC to elect the second co-convener.You can see where the problem is here. Once again, the NUS is back-handing Jewish students. And again this time around,the call for the replacement Jewish elected member was struck down. Now the NEC have complete control over the ARAF campaign and elect who it sees fit to it.

Already, the Union of Jewish Students have complained about this new motion,saying the NEC have "Diminished Jewish students' involvement in national ARAF campaigns". This removal of a Jewish voice in the NUS has caused quite a stir among Jewish students, with many now calling for a vote to leave the NUS. There has already been four students' unions to leave the NUS, with many highlighting the concerns of anti-Semitism in the movement being the reason they left.

With many disaffiliation campaigns now popping up around the country, I feel that if the NUS do not act soon they will risk loosing a large amount of students' unions.

Reply 1

caravaggio2

It's amazing how in one generation so many on the left have become the new fascists.
The Tories were known as the nasty party and Labour are soon going to be known as the Nazi party.