Representatives from student unions and other organisations across the country have divided over a Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC) report that accuses the National Union of Students (NUS) of an ineffective response to the problem of anti-Semitism.

The report particularly criticises NUS president Malia Bouattia, accusing her of “defensiveness and apparent unwillingness” to engage with the concerns of Jewish students, with the implication that she has failed “to represent all sections of the student population”.

Bouattia has repeatedly sparked controversy with remarks that have been interpreted as anti-Semitic, notoriously calling the University of Birmingham “something of a Zionist outpost” and referring to the UK media as “Zionist-led”.

The Select Committee report addresses these points of contention in strongly-worded terms, reprimanding Bouattia’s “choice of language” and labelling the “Zionist outpost” comment a piece of “outright racism”.

Bouattia has defended herself in written evidence to the Select Committee. She distinguished between opposition to Zionist beliefs and anti-Semitism, commenting that “Zionist politics are held by people from a variety of different backgrounds and faiths.”

She added: “It is vital that we are able to disagree on politics, without this undermining or threatening the safety of students, or the solidarity of the student movement.”

In response, the NUS have criticised the report for its allegedly disproportionate focus on the students’ union, on the grounds that the majority of anti-Semitic incidents occur at the hands of the far right.

However, the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) has welcomed the report, with Josh Nagli (Campaign Development Officer) stating that it confirms “what so many Jewish students have been saying for some time.” He added that the report proves that Bouattia “treats Jewish students’ concerns differently to those of others”.

Reaction among other students has been mixed. An open letter in support of Bouattia had been signed by 350 student union office-holders/academic staff and students when Varsity went to print. Office-holders and students are not explicitly distinguished from each other on the letter. Among their number are NUS Vice-President Sorana Vieru and 15 members of the union’s National Executive Committee.

The pro-Bouattia letter welcomed the report’s hard line on anti-Semitism, but accused it of failing to address “the large majority of anti-Semitic abuse and crime” that is committed “by the far right”, instead focusing on the NUS in the spirit of what it calls “partisan selectivity”.

The letter also repeated Bouattia’s distinction between “legitimate criticism of Zionism” and anti-Semitism, insisting that “Zionism is a political ideology… held or rejected by both Jewish people and non-Jewish people” that “should be open to discussion, scrutiny and debate.”

It also accuses the report of deliberate omissions, in particular “Bouattia’s repeated assurances… that she will address concerns and revise her language”, which the letter says “are completely ignored by the HASC report.”

Finally, it criticises the report’s “selective and partisan approach”, claiming that it “attempts to delegitimise [the] NUS, and discredit Malia Bouattia as its president.” It then concluded by demanding “a revised report that is impartial and contains factual evidence.”

However, not all student leaders have been willing to back Bouattia. 98 members of student unions and other student organisations, including the president of the UJS Josh Seitler, the National Chair of Labour Students Kate Dearden, and four members of the National Executive Committee of the NUS, have signed a rival letter which has called upon Bouattia “to issue a full and formal apology to Jewish students, and indeed to her entire membership.”

Bouattia accused of ‘outright racism’ by MPs

This letter suggests that for an NUS president to be accused of utilising racist language is an “unprecedented situation”. It also states that Bouattia’s comments following the report do not “go far enough in acknowledging or apologising for the significant damage that her actions and language have done to NUS”.

The letter concludes that if Bouattia “fails to acknowledge the need for an immediate and full apology” and refuses to lay out a strategy for accommodating the findings of the report, she should resign from her post as president of the NUS.

The last NUS President to resign their position was Aaron Porter, who stepped down in 2011 following allegations that he had not fought tuition fee increases with sufficient vigour