|
|
April 22, 2005/Nisan 13 5765, Volume 57, No. 34
Jews: British student groups anti-Semitic
DANIELLA PELED
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
LONDON - Jewish students have demanded action after warning that Britain's main student representative organization has failed to address rising levels of anti-Semitism on campus.
The issue made national headlines after three Jewish members resigned from leading positions in the National Union of Students to protest the group's apathy in tackling anti-Jewish prejudice.
In front of a packed hall at the group's annual conference, Luciana Berger, 23, a graduate student at London's Birkbeck College, announced that she was leaving the union, as were colleagues Mitch Simmons and Jonny Warren.
In an emotional speech, Berger, the co-organizer of the union's anti-racism and anti-fascism campaign, accused the NUS leadership of having failed consistently to address a full year of anti-Jewish incidents on campus.
"While I accuse no one of anti-Semitism, this year NUS has been a bystander to Jew-hatred," Berger said.
Berger said she was disgusted by the union's failure to take action against anti-Semitic leaflets distributed at the conference - including one that cited the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and compared the Jewish people to the Nazis.
She also was angry at the union for not living up to its commitment to provide kosher food for around 70 Jewish delegates at the conference.
The Union of Jewish Students said the situation was so grave that nothing less than a national inquiry on anti-Semitism in the student community would do. The Jewish student group warned that the NUS was in danger of turning to "the politics of hate under weak leadership."
The School of Oriental and African Studies, part of the University of London, has been of particular concern to Jewish students.
Last year the college hosted a conference on resisting what it called "Israeli apartheid," and in February the students' union banned a speaker from the Israeli embassy who was set to address a Jewish society meeting. College administrators eventually overturned that move.
|
|
