NUS president targeted by Zionists
Shaima Dallali was elected to the post of president of the UK National Union of Students in March 2022. Now it has been announced that she has been sacked before she could even take office.
Dallali tweeted: "on the first day of Islamophobia Awareness Month I find out I have been dismissed through Twitter".
The sacking of Dallali is the culmination of a massive campaign of smears, intimidation and bullying by the Zionist movement.
The National Union of Students has been under sustained pressure from the Zionist movement and its assets since March this year when she was elected.
Students at 23 universities wrote a joint statement denouncing the smear campaign and the harassment of Shaima after she was wrongfully accused of antisemitism.
But the NUS buckled early on. The Zionist Union of Jewish Students stated: "We call on Shaima and her team to ensure that NUS becomes a space Jewish students once more feel welcomed into rather than sidelined and excluded".
Accepting the dishonest statements of the UJS at face value the National Union of Students apologized, saying it was so sorry to particularly Jewish students who have been hurt and that they sought “to ensure Jewish students feel welcome in our spaces”.
But Zionist students will never feel welcome or included in anti racist spaces, since Zionism is an intrinsically racist ideology. This compromise with racism set in train the inevitable process of removing the democratically elected president of the NUS.
An independent investigation led by Rebecca Tuck QC was announced. The NUS board stated it worked closely with the Union of Jewish Students to make the appointment and agree the terms of reference.
In other words, the Zionists were able to vet both the terms of the investigation, and the person appointed to conduct it. The terms themselves were prejudicially written to express the fabricated antisemitism witch hunt.
The appointed QC was inevitably predisposed to finding against Dallali because she's a Zionist. Her public statements reveal that she has a clear and partisan opinion on the issue of antisemitism in universities.
Before making her Twitter account private following her appointment Tuck shared the Times article on May 23 2021 titled, "I'm an English student. It's not my job as a Jew to answer for Israel over Gaza".
Tuck wrote that she was "shocked and saddened by the university experience of the children I've watched grow up in my community as proud Jews now hiding their identities". In June 2021 Tuck co authored an article titled "Antisemitism in the workplace", which defended the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's Zionist friendly definition, which equates targeting of Israel as a nation with antisemitism.
The next step for Dallali is to fight back against these decisions with a legal and political challenge.
David Miller is an academic and former professor at Bristol University, a leading British scholarly critic of Israel. He's also the co founder and co director of the lobbying watchdog Spin Watch.
Ibrahim Abul-Essad, is a UK based Palestinian researcher and activist. He obtained his master's degree in Middle East Studies from Leiden University specializing in the formation of Palestine since the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
Ibrahim was the first writer to expose the conflicts of interests of the lawyer who undertook the investigation into Shaima Dallali for the National Union of Students.
David, tell us about this tweet that Shaima posted when she was just 17 years old which she subsequently apologized for.
Well, this has been held to be the clear evidence that she's anti-Semite and of course she was 17 year old when she did it, but it refers to a battle or a siege, actually, in the year 628, ... quite a long time ago, in which some Jewish villages and towns were besieged by a Muslim army, and they came to an agreement that they would stop the siege upon payment and cease attacks in the future.
There was no massacre. This is an entirely invented thing by the Zionists so, of course, the reason that they invent this massacre is because they want it to fit into the narrative that there has always, from time immemorial, been antisemitism.
It's always the same. It comes from every society where the Jews are, and that's why we need to fight antisemitism. That's why we see antisemitism in the broad way in which they see it.
Of course that's not the case, though antisemitism, racism against the Jews, has specific causes and specific historical periods. And it's different in specific historical periods.
So it's an attempt to construct this monster of antisemitism, which doesn't actually really exist in today's society.
David Miller, Academic
David, tell us about the implication of the so called safe spaces in this case.
Well, again, this is the problem that the Zionists want to say. You shouldn't be blurring together Zionist and Jew, you shouldn't be blaming Jews for what Zionists do, and we say, well, we don't do that. But it's them who consistently does do that.
So they have this idea that Zionists should be the beneficiary of safe spaces, they shouldn't be targeted for having particular views that they have. And if they are targeted that's a form of antisemitism, but of course, being a Zionist is a political set of beliefs.
It's not a protective characteristic. It's not being black or white or a man or a woman.
And of course, there should be no safe space for Zionism, which is a form of racism, and you know, the idea that we have safe spaces for racists is, of course, the very opposite of what safe spaces is supposed to do.
David Miller, Academic
The absurdity of that is self evident. I mean, I think if people think back to the South African apartheid regime that people were saying, we wanted a safe space for apologists for the apartheid regime.
Is it fair to say that Rebecca Tuck, QC, has a conflict of interests in this case?
Well, Chris as the video clearly shows, Rebecca Tuck has expressed her position on this topic, through her online social media activity, sharing the articles written by The Times that alluded to the fact that any form of Palestinian activism on British campuses equates to anti semitism, which is absurd.
People calling for the human rights of an oppressed people does not automatically equate to antisemitism. Rebecca Tuck has also, within that tweet, mentioned the words shocked and saddened.
So it obviously shows that she has a clear position on this topic, which is not needed when we need to ensure that there's independence and integrity when the investigation has been conducted.
She had also co-written an article titled "Antisemitism in the Workplace" where she had made references to the IHRA's definition of antisemitism stating that targeting Israel is antisemitic, which again is an absurd assumption to make.
Calling for the human rights of the Palestinian people and aiming to hold Israel accountable.
Israel, which again was referred to as an apartheid state by international human rights organizations, as well as Israeli human rights organizations.
It is not antisemitic to call for the human rights belonging to an oppressed people.
Ibrahim Abul-Essad, Palestinian Researcher and Activist
David, this Rebecca Tuck, what she said she said, something about the Jewish Labor Movement, didn't she, would you tell us a bit about that?
Well, how do you know that? You don't, you don't know; it’s very difficult to find out because, of course, her Twitter account is now private. She set it to private after she was appointed to this role.
But of course, you know, some people have got the ability to do due diligence and we know that, that back in the day she was a supporter of the JLMs appointment to the Labour Party for antisemitism training.
Now, of course, that's completely absurd. The JLM is a Zionist organization, committed to Zionism and its being brought in to do antisemitism training, which of course would be a definition of antisemitism, which blurs together Zionism and antisemitism.
So there's a clear, clear indication that from her, from herself, that she's presented, that she is already, before she started this, biased against the whole idea that it might be possible to dispassionately examine this.
So the whole investigation as a result, you know, not even accounting for the fact that the terms of reference, were vetted by the Union of Jewish students again, another Zionist organization.
It would be left out in the cold anywhere else but because it's to do with antisemitism everyone just pretends it's not happened.
David Miller, Academic
How do you think people should respond to smear campaigns like this?
I believe you should join groups or organizations that will be able to defend you, be part of a collective as opposed to an individual and understand that being part as a collective you stand stronger, as opposed to being an individual, being targeted by organizations that are very coordinated, very uniformed in their attacks, and against their campaigns and smear campaigns.
So I would definitely advocate to those that have the experience like Shaima to join such collective organizations that mirror you, as an individual, and your outlook on particular topics.
When it comes to Palestinian activism, when it comes to your mistreatment as a woman, as a woman of colour, as a woman with a headscarf on your head, definitely join the collective as opposed to standing there as an individual being targeted by such campaigns.
Ibrahim Abul-Essad, Palestinian Researcher and Activist
How is it that the IHRA described the targeting of "Israel" inverted as antisemitic?
Well, people have said, one of the things that they say about it is that many of the examples attached to the IHRA working definition, which itself is only about 30 words or so, are examples which mentioned Israel in some way.
So there's already a presumption that that's something to do with anti semitism but there's a specific thing in there which talks about the Jewish people's right to self determination, and if you question that, that is itself, anti semitic.
What they're talking about here is the right of a Jewish state, meaning a Jewish majority state, which, you know, which is in practice is based on the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
So if you criticize that you're in some way denying a fundamental right of the Jewish people to ethnically cleanse and colonise Palestine which, of course, is absurd.
And it's that distinction, the transfer of the idea of antisemitism from individual Jews to the State of Israel, which is at the heart of this problem with the IHRA. You can't have a nation state which has rights of every other nation state, which is what they're asking for.
David Miller, Academic
Yeah, I mean, how did the IHRA come about in the first place?
Well, it was a long period, 20 years to get there, and it came out of a process which was started off by the Israeli government, in which Mossad was in charge.
They created these forums for the discussion of this, the Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism, and that they then used that to get the EU to adopt the working definition.
The EU eventually rejected it, and so they had to find somewhere else for it to go, and that's how it ended up in 2016 at the IHRA, it became the weapon of choice for this entire period for attacking the left and political activism.
David Miller, Academic
The colonization of the National Union of Students by Zionist lobby groups
The National Union of Students has been colonized by the Zionist movement. How did this happen? As is usual in these harassment campaigns, there were a variety of extremist Zionist groups in operation.
The original Kompromat appears to have emerged from a troll group called "Labour Against Antisemitism", which specializes in fake charges of anti semitism. This was a group of ragtag activists responsible, as the labour files revealed, for 12% of all complaints on antisemitism to the Labour Party.
One of its key figures Euan Phillips, who is not Jewish, made complaints to the party using a false Jewish sounding name.
Also central to the attacks on Shaima Dallali has been the Union of Jewish Students. It's now increasingly known that the UJS is not, as it claims, there to represent all Jewish students. Rather, it is constitutionally bound only to represent Zionist students.
As a Zionist organization, it is represented on, and helps to run, the World Union of Jewish Students, which is a direct member of the World Zionist Organization, based in occupied Palestine. In 2002 the WJS produced a Hasbara or propaganda handbook subtitled "Promoting Israel on Campus", which was sponsored by the Jewish Agency for Israel, one of Israel's national institutions. The handbook aims to arm pro Israel Jewish students with tools for influencing public, political, and campus opinion on Israel and Zionism.
Among other things, students were told that when it is not possible to level the charge of antisemitism, it is often worth expressing personal upset, saying that one was hurt as a Jew by the controversial Act.
The language of hurt was adopted from the beginning by the National Union of Students. This indicates that they had already been indoctrinated by heavy Zionist pressure and intimidation.
The idea that Jewish students are hurt by criticism of Zionism is a dishonest camouflage for political disagreement. It is not legitimate to feel, or claim to feel, hurt by opposition to the racism of Zionism.
Imagine if supporters of the far right said they were hurt as a white person at criticism of the Neo fascist beliefs or identities, people would rightly laugh.
As with all such attacks, the response should be militant and principled, no apology for anti Zionism; the response should be at a political level to confront the racist ideology of Zionism in all its forms.
Do you think the NUS has been captured by the Zionist lobby?
In order to answer that question, you must speak of the UJS and their connections to the NUS. The UJS, the Union of Jewish Students, has been found in the past to organize trips where they invite NUS members to stay in illegal settlements that are on stolen land.
It has also been found that the UJS, through the Al Jazeera documentary "The Lobby", has a productive working relationship with the Israeli embassy.
It was recorded that the UJS former president, Nina Freedman, was speaking so proudly, how there are UJS alumni in the IDF, UJS alumni in the Foreign Ministry to the president's office.
So we see a clear connection between the UJS and the "State" of Israel, but now what is the UJS's involvement with the NUS despite organizing these trips, these annual trips towards Israel?
As David mentioned earlier, the UJS were involved in the selection of Rebecca Tuck when conducting the investigation on Shaima.
So we definitely see a clear connection between the NUS to the UJS, to the "state" of Israel, and it's an umbilical cord connection that must be severed, and, as long as that connection stays, we will see more individuals like Shaima, as well as the many before her, being silenced, smeared, and targeted, by the Zionist movement.
Ibrahim Abul-Essad, Palestinian Researcher and Activist
What do you make of the role of the Labour Against Antisemitism group in the witch hunt?
Well, Labour Against Antisemitism was a key group which was involved in targeting the Jeremy Corbyn led Labour Party, made some something like 12% of all the complaints to the Labour Party, and met many, if not all, of these who were, effectively, fake and fabricated campaigns that would dig up Kompromat from people's old Twitter accounts or their Facebook, which they'd left open, the privileges open etc.
And it's an organization, which as you saw in the film, Euan Phillips, one of the leaders of this organization, was writing letters to the Labour Party complaining about people using a fake Jewish sounding name. I mean it's an incredible state of affairs, the Labour Party knew this, but didn't really effectively take any action against that; they were the ones who dug up the Kompromat on Shaima.
One of the tweets they found, when 17, you know, they were argued as antisemitic.
The rest of them are all clearly to do with Israel and to do with anti-Zionism; they might have been rude, they might have hurt people's feelings, but they are not in any way racist, and it's an absurdity that they should investigate her on the basis of an organization which is so discredited after its appearance in the Labour Files and it's used as an honest witness as an honest broker in raising allegations against someone who has been, let's remember, democratically elected by all students who are able to vote in an NUS election.
David Miller, Academic
What do you make of the claim by the Union of Jewish Students that it is representative of all Jewish students?
Oh, that is clearly a lie. You have Jewish students, as well as Jewish academics, criticising the UJS specifically, you had, in relation to Shaima's case, Barnaby Raine speak out and criticize the UJS for uploading a petition whereby his signature had been forged.
So it is silly to believe that Jewish students that aim to campaign for the Palestinian rights, and Palestinian freedom as well as their dignity, feel represented by the UJS that clearly have a direct connection to the State of Israel, that clearly wants to colonize more and more Palestinian land.
As we see with the most recent election, ... It's time for us to be the landlords of our own country. So we see that connection, so it's absurd to believe that the UJS represents all Jewish students as there are students that speak out against Israel's occupation of Palestine.
Ibrahim Abul-Essad, Palestinian Researcher and Activist
And how is the UJS connected to the World Union of Jewish Students?
Well, the UJS as a board member of the World Union of Jewish Students, just as the World Union of Jewish Students is a member of the World Zionist Organization as the video showed.
We also see ex presidents of the UJS taking up jobs for the WUJS, so there is a direct connection when it comes down to the appointment of the individuals to their perceived outlook on the situation in Palestine, everything from the ideology to individuals that propagate that ideology.
Ibrahim Abul-Essad, Palestinian Researcher and Activist
Tell us about this Hasbara handbook, did it really say that students should claim to be hurt as Jews?
Yes. And the interesting thing about this, it is quite clever, really. I mean, this is from 2002. And they say that, you know, when you can't be sure if something's antisemitic, or you haven't got the evidence, it's antisemitic, but what you should do is you should say you're hurt by the comments, but you're not just hurt and upset as an individual, you are hurt as a Jew by the comments.
So the course the clear implication there is that although you might say something which is factual, you might be hurt as a Jew. That actually the implication is that you're saying “this is something which I feel is antisemitic, but I'm not actually accusing you of antisemitism”.
And it encourages this idea that antisemitism is everywhere, that is widespread. And of course, it's not, I mean, this is the whole problem is the creation of the idea of hurt, where your political feelings are hurt, as if that's something to do with racism. It's not.
David Miller, Academic
That has the Hasbara handled, but the National Union of Students are using the language of hurt, why do you think that is?
It is ridiculous because quite frankly, if you were to say to me, Chris, Ibrahim, I have felt hurt by the actions that you have done. I would not want to repeat that whatsoever. It is a very specific word, using it to silence any individual that wants to campaign for the dignity, human rights, of people that have been oppressed and facing Israeli occupation for over 70 years.
Again, if you said to me, Chris, Ibrahim, I felt offended by what you said and it has hurt me. I will not want to repeat that. But now we have to ask ourselves the question why is an individual feeling hurt for (sic) me advocating for another person's freedom?
Ibrahim Abul-Essad, Palestinian Researcher and Activist
What do you say to this notion, which some argue, that there should be no apologies, that we shouldn't apologize, what are your thoughts on that?
Well, no apology will ever be enough. The Zionists will never accept an apology and say, Okay, maybe you made a mistake, let's, you know, let's get on, let's have different political views but let's get on, because they don't want you to get on with them.
They want to defeat the opposition to Zionism. That's the problem.
But when you are a Zionist and Zionism is a form of racism and as a result, as with other forms of racism, it needs to be demolished and dismantled. That means not just defeating the ideas but dismantling all of the organizations which give Zionism, and the racism which is intrinsic to it, sustenance.
So that's every single Zionist Organization. Yes, in occupied Palestine but also in the UK, in the US, and France, and elsewhere. In the UK there are literally hundreds of Zionist organizations and many of them have charitable recognition.
These are organizations which are there, which form as part of their key rules, promoting racism in Palestine and also actually promoting racism against Muslims and Palestinians in this country, too.
David Miller, Academic
It is clear that antisemitism is weaponized, but there are also examples of “apology” having been weaponized as well.
That's right, I mean, the mistake which the Labour Party under Corbyn made and some of Corbyn's closest advisors, you know, very closest advisors, including people who've been on what's called the far left, were advocating that what we should do is apologize and move on,. the news cycle moves on, people will forget,
But of course, they didn't calculate in the fact that the Zionists don't forget, this is an organized political movement with a massive institutional support structure, which is able to keep this on the agenda, day after day, week after week, month after month; so you can't apologize and move on.
David Miller, Academic
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