Our student union will be making a big mistake if it chooses to cut off ties with the largest democratic voice for students in the country.

I have found the days following the election of Malia Bouattia as NUS president incredibly difficult and isolating. The vote cast at the conference has so strongly divided opinion that even among my closest friends I feel afraid and even vulnerable when expressing my opinion. But sometimes you have to put your head above the parapet; sometimes, you have to make a stand. I strongly believe that CUSU should not disaffiliate from NUS and it would be detrimental to the student body were we to do so.

Malia Bouattia, the first BME woman to hold the role as well as the first Muslim, was elected NUS president democratically. A refugee from a young age whose family experienced terrorism first hand, she has a long history of campaigning successfully on behalf of minority groups. Earlier this year, she highlighted the importance of commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day and yesterday supported a motion at the conference to tackle anti-Semitism. She has also led efforts to combat Islamophobia and works tirelessly to tackle the dangerous impact of the government’s ‘Prevent' strategy on campus. Any leader of a national organisation should expect scrutiny and criticism, but the current attacks on her and calls to break ties with the NUS are both unfair and simply wrong.

She has been accused of making anti-Semitic remarks, centering in particular around her use of the term ‘Zionist’. Yet such criticism unfairly and wrongly contrives a link between two entirely distinct phenomena. Criticising the policies of the Israeli state is legitimate political debate, while targeting Jewish people on account of their faith is not, and never will be, acceptable. Conflating anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is an attempt to delegitimise human rights activism on behalf of Palestine and shut down debate on Israel’s continued violations of international law.

Last term in Cambridge, a mock-checkpoint was held in a corner of the Sidgwick lecture site by Cambridge University Palestine Society, a means to inform students about daily life for Palestinians under military occupation and an opportunity for students to experience first-hand what it is like for Palestinians to cross military checkpoints. The demonstration, purely political in nature, was labelled anti-Semitic by several pro-Israeli groups and public figures, and even used to chart a rise in anti-Semitism on campus. The labelling of a political activity such as this as ‘anti-Semitic’, risks draining the term of meaning, endangering the truly pressing fight against real anti-Semitism.

I myself am the descendant of a Palestinian whose family were forced out of their home under the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, losing everything. Having visited the West Bank and seen first hand the dehumanisation of Palestinians and brutal daily violence against them, I find it terrifying and distressing that these Palestinian voices are frequently silenced among the student community. Where is the mainstream media coverage and outrage when a 'Death to Arabs' rally is held in Israel, or when journalist and Jewish-Israeli activist David Sheen is beaten up by the mob of protestors? Our Palestine solidarity campaign is multi-faith, cross-partisan and builds itself on universal principles of human rights and respect for human dignity and freedom. For fourteen years I have worked alongside incredible organisations such as ‘Jews for Justice for Palestinians’ and Christian organisations supporting Palestine, and have personally received abuse and attacks in the past for my support.  

It is the NUS which provides us as students with a democratic voice at a national level, and the NUS which has spearheaded numerous crucial campaigns on our behalf. Breaking away from it sends a message that democratic accountability, participation and lively debate are not important to the Cambridge community. Malia won a fair election and has dedicated herself to fighting every form of discrimination, seeking to fulfil her promise to represent and campaign for all students across the country. Let’s give her the chance she deserves to prove that.