The Students’ Union won’t say whether it was right that the former NUS president was fired over allegations of antisemitism, a statement released today (2/11) suggests.

Shaima Dallali was fired yesterday night after an independent investigation into allegations of antisemitism.

In their statement, the SU offered a general condemnation of antisemitism, but didn’t express their view as to whether she had been rightfully sacked. Instead saying that the “lack of transparency” about the investigation limited their ability to give comment. The full report, yet to be published, is expected by the end of this year.

The Union of Jewish Students on the other hand said they “respect” NUS’ decision in a statement issued yesterday (1/11).

The SU urged the NUS to accelerate its timeline so that they can “act accordingly”.

They also repeated a claim, made by Dallali on Twitter last night, that the ex-president learned of her firing over Twitter. That claim has been rejected as false by a source close to the NUS.

Additionally, the SU criticised the NUS for failing to address reports that Dallali had faced Islamophobic harrassment as a result of the investigation into her.

Dallali’s sacking comes after a number of allegations of antisemitism were made against her.

She apologised after it was reported that she had tweeted “Khaybar Khaybar O Jews… Muhammad’s army will return Gaza”. The tweet alluded to a massacre of Jews in 628, often referred to in the context of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Dallali, who is now 27, said that she had become a “different person” since she sent the tweet in 2012.

She did not, however, apologise for calling a Muslim cleric who had previously downplayed the Holocaust “the moral compass for the Muslim community at large” in a 2018 article, even when his comments were put to her by The Tab earlier this year.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who has been banned from entering France and the UK, has called the Holocaust “divine punishment” for the Jews, and falsely alleged that “they exaggerated this issue”. In 2009, al-Qaradawi preached a sermon calling on God to kill Jews “down to the very last one.”

The cleric has also incited violence against gay people. When in 2006 he was asked how homosexuality ought to be punished, he said: “Some say we should throw them from a high place, like God did with the people of Sodom. Some say we should burn them, and so on. There is disagreement. . . . The important thing is to treat this act as a crime.”

Nonetheless, when The Tab asked her if she regretted praising him or endorsed his views, Dallali did not comment.

Speaking to Varsity, a spokesman for Cambridge’s Jewish Society said: “The dismissal of NUS’s President was a necessary decision, given that she was found to have committed significant breaches of NUS’s code of conduct over antisemitism.

“Dallali’s treatment of our community is unacceptable. An independent, KC-led investigation has taken place and its findings must be taken seriously.”

They added: “It is vital now to have an honest reckoning with how antisemitism has been able to find a home in parts of the student movement. Jewish students are asking how antisemitism in NUS has been allowed to spread unchecked until now – and they are owed an explanation.

“We await the publication of Part 2 of the report into the wider culture of antisemitism at NUS. We would urge any Jewish student with concerns to contact us or the Union of Jewish Students. Antisemitic incidents should be reported to the Community Security Trust.”