The UK’s National Union of Students has been forced to apologies for
having deliberately
left out Israeli victims of terrorism from a list of countries suffering
from terrorist attacks, at the union’s National Executive Council meeting
earlier this month.
Despite Israel suffering no fewer than 169 terror attacks targeting
Israeli Jews in 120 days, the NUS statement read out at its meeting mentioned
attacks by “paramilitary organizations” carried out in Nigeria, Lebanon,
Turkey, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Kenya, Palestine, Mali and Paris,
but not Israel. The inclusion of Palestine in the list suggests that the
omission of Israel was deliberately discriminatory. In recent months Israeli
civilians have been the victims of numerous Palestinian perpetrated
rock-throwings, vehicular attacks where pedestrians were run over deliberately
by cars or vans, and stabbings. These have resulted in numerous deaths and
injuries.
The original National Union of Students’ statement read “those who have
perpetrated these attacks, have targeted people of all faiths, of all
backgrounds and of all identities. Since the attacks, we have seen an increase
in retributions places on Muslim communities here in the UK and around the
world. We restate the NUS’ commitment to fighting Islamophobia.” The Jewish
victims of terrorism in Israel were not mentioned, though.
Since being condemned widely for this action, National Union of Students
president Megan Dunn eventually apologized to Jewish students at an event with
around 100 Jewish attendees. She insisted that “antisemitism and abuse of
Jewish students is unacceptable.”
