NUS apologises for saying antisemitism on campus is “result of Israeli forces’ violent attacks on Palestinians”, then tells people to contact fringe Jewish group whose supporters said Jewish mourning prayer for dead Hamas terrorists

The National Union of Students (NUS) has apologised for a statement “in solidarity with Jewish students” in which it blamed antisemitism in Britain on Israel. The statement, which has now been deleted, was addressed to Jewish students, saying: “We are deeply concerned to hear of a spike in antisemitism on campuses as a result of Israeli forces’ violent attacks on Palestinians.”

The NUS then replaced the statement with a new one, which this time did not blame Israel, but did direct students to contact fringe Jewish group Na’amod, amongst whose supporters are activists who appalled the Jewish community in 2018 by reading a list of names of people who had recently been killed in Gaza, the vast majority of which belonged to dead Hamas terrorists according to Hamas itself, and then reciting the Jewish mourning prayer, Kaddish, for them. Hamas seeks the genocide of all Jews worldwide.

Many Jewish students feel increasingly abandoned by NUS, which in recent years even found that its own former President, Malia Bouattia, made comments that “could be reasonably capable of being interpreted as antisemitic”, but recommended that no disciplinary action be taken.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Even when supposedly showing solidarity with Jewish students, NUS has managed to blunder in ways that will leave Jewish students wondering how serious the organisation can be about representing and protecting them. It would almost have been better had they said nothing at all.”