The UK’s National Union of Students (NUS), representing seven million university students, has a well-deserved reputation of ignoring or minimizing the expression of antisemitism by its officers, so it was a pleasant surprise when the NUS fired its no-longer-current president, Shaima Dallali, for her display of the “oldest hatred.” More on this unusual event can be found here: “UK National Union of Students Fires President After Antisemitism Investigation,” by Dion J. Pierre, Algemeiner, November 3, 2022:
The National Union of Students (NUS), which represents over seven million university students in the UK, removed president Shaima Dallali from office on Monday after finding that she is guilty of antisemitism and other misconduct.
Following the independent KC [King’s Counsel] -led investigation of antisemitism, specifically into the then-President Elect under the NUS Code of Conduct, an independent panel has found that significant breaches of NUS’ policies have taken place. As per this finding, we have terminated the president’s contract,” NUS said in a statement.
In announcing the decision, the first in the organization’s 100 year history, NUS apologized for “the harm that has been caused” and pledged to “rebuild the NUS in an inclusive way — fighting for all students as we have done for the past 100 years.” An internal investigation of antisemitism in the organization began in April and is ongoing.
On Wednesday, Dallali, who has been suspended from NUS since September, announced through an attorney that she may sue the organization for discrimination.
Ms. Dallali rejects the findings of the disciplinary panel, as she rejected the allegations about her that were investigated in the context of those investigations,” said a press release by Carter-Ruck Solicitors, a law firm based in London. “She considers the process to have constituted — and that it continues to constitute — discriminatory treatment of her as a black Muslim woman and her beliefs concerning the plight of the Palestinian people.”
Dallali was not fired either because she was black or Muslim. Ms. Dallali was fired because of her statements, that are not in dispute, about Jews. These statements display extreme antisemitism and include a clear incitement to murder Jews — the “battle cry” she favorably quotes, “Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews, the army of Muhammad will return,” refers to the mass killing of Jews at the Khaybar Oasis in 628 A.D. by Muhammad and his men.
Dallali’s tenure at NUS has teemed with controversy ever since Jewish student rights groups discovered tweets in which she called Hamas critics “Dirty Zionists” and quoted the battle cry, “Khaybar, Khaybar o Jews, the army of Muhammad will return,” a reference to the Battle of Khaybar in 628 that resulted in a massacre of Jews.
Jews who deplore the terror group Hamas for murdering Jewish civilians are, in Dallali’s skewed view, “dirty Zionists.”
Dallali has also praised an extremist Islamic preacher, the late Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who supported Palestinian suicide bombers and was banned from visiting four western countries and regarded as a terrorist by several Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates….
Shaima Dallali praised the late Muslim Brotherhood cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi in a 2018 article. Qaradawi was banned from traveling to the U.S., Britain, France, and Germany for his support of terrorist murders of Jews. She called him the “moral compass for the Muslim community at large.” This “moral compass” called for the “annihilation” of the Jews, and described the Holocaust as well-deserved “moral retribution.”
On November 1, the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), which has led efforts to purge NUS of antisemitism, called for a wider examination of the organization’s culture.
UJS respects the decision of the National Union of Students to dismiss their president. Antisemitism in the student movement goes beyond the actions of any one individual and this case is a symptom of a wider problem,” the group said. “Jewish students across the country will be asking how an individual deemed unfit for office by NUS was elected in the first place. We await the findings of the substantive inquiry into NUS’ treatment of Jewish students.”
In May, former UK higher education minister, MP Michelle Donelan, announced that the government would “temporarily disengage” from NUS and cut its funding to address accusations that widespread antisemitism has persisted in the organization for decades.
The announcement followed several controversies that reinforced a perception that the union intentionally outrages Jewish students, including an incident in May in which NUS hired an antisemitic rapper to perform at its centennial event and told Jewish students to self-segregate during his performance if they found him offensive.
The incident prompted Donelan to charge that NUS has “antisemitic rot at its heart.”
Dallali has also posted a video of anti-Israeli protesters calling for an intifada, that is, a series of violent attacks on Israelis.
The JC revealed in May that government ministers were demanding an investigation after it emerged that Dallali’s election may have been invalid because she failed to commit to the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.
The NUS receives government financial support. But in order to qualify for public money, it must commit to the IHRC definition of antisemitism. Dallali, in her few months as president of the NUS, failed to do so.
Facing huge public pressure, the NUS then announced in May that it had appointed Rebecca Tuck KC to conduct an independent investigation into Dallali, as well as allegations of institutional antisemitism at the organisation.
Rebecca Tuck’s investigation led her to conclude that Dallali had repeatedly issued antisemitic statements, including some calling for the murder of Jews, and had endorsed similar statements by others. This report led to Dallali’s suspension as president of the NUS.
Just hours after her suspension as president on 24 August, Dallali posted on Twitter: “Don’t ever believe that an organisation is ‘progressive’ or cares about justice before finding out how they treat women of colour and/or Muslim women. Many enable oppression and Islamophobia. They will punish us for daring to be political and make us believe it’s our fault.”
Her defense was preposterous. It amounts to a claim that as a “woman of color and a Muslim,” she is a victim of “oppression and Islamophobia.” “They” – who are they? The NUS? International Jewry? White people? – “will punish us for daring to be political.” No, “they” will not allow someone who clearly holds extreme antisemitic views, including support for the most famous massacre of Jews in the history of Islam, to head the state-supported NUS. That is neither racist nor Islamophobic. Had Dallali been a white male, and expressed the same views, she would have been discharged as president just as expeditiously.
Two weeks after her discharge as the NUS President, Dallali posted a lengthy thread on Twitter: “I always knew it would be difficult being a Black, Muslim woman in the public eye but the racist and Islamophobic abuse I have been subjected to and death threats I have received since becoming NUS president are not ok.”
She’s continuing to harp on her being the real victim, that is a “black, Muslim woman” who is being punished for her identity by racists and Islamophobes, and not for her repeated expression of murderous antisemitism.
She has talked of suing. Let us hope she does. Let all of her hair-raising remarks made about Jews over the last several years be introduced into evidence, including her invocation of the Khaybar massacre, her endorsement of Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who called for the “annihilation” of the Jews, and her defense of the jihad terror group Hamas. At the end of the day, she will be hoist by her own petard, having been exposed in that courtroom as a murderous antisemite. Such an instructive case should make a deep impression on the British public. And for Shaima Dallali, who for her own sake ought to have left quietly, no good can come of this.
