REVEALED: Malia Bouattia was investigated by NUS for anti-Semitism

They were ‘satisfied, based on the evidence and information available to me that it was not Malia’s intention to be anti-Semitic’.

anti-semitism CUSU Malia Bouattia National Union of Students NUS

President of the NUS, Malia Bouattia, has been investigated more than a year ago internally by the NUS for anti-Semitic remarks, with the conclusion that her actions did ‘amount to misconduct and will be addressed through informal procedures.’ 

Since the universities of Hull, Lincoln and Newcastle have disaffiliated due to these concerns and Cambridge is currently undergoing a referendum on disaffiliation from the NUS, a letter has revealed that Malia Bouattia was investigated internally by the NUS because of concerns raised.

A letter dated 3rd March 2015, sent in response to complaints about remarks made by Bouattia in a speech stated that she violated point 9.4 of the NUS Code of Conduct, ‘ acting in contravention of the NUS Equal Opportunities Policies’, has been handed to The Tab Cambridge.

The response acknowledged that  ‘It is not unreasonable for you to believe that the content of Malia’s speech was anti-Semitic and therefore in breach of Code of Conduct…’  However it ultimately concluded that the NUS  ‘satisfied, based on the evidence and information available to me that it was not Malia’s intention to be anti-Semitic’.

Extract from the letter in response to the complaint

Not only this, but the conclusion of the letter admitted that Malia’s actions did ‘amount to misconduct’, and would be addressed through an ‘informal warning’. This would involve ensuring she ‘familiarise’ herself with the Code of Conduct and Equal Opportunities polices in the future and made a written apology.

The letter concluded that Bouattia had breached the code of the conduct and could be reprimanded

Vice President of the NUS, Richard Brooks, confirmed that the organisation subscribes to EUMC’s (European Union Monitoring Centre) definition of anti-Semitism, which specifically says “making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media” is anti-Semitic. The letter in response serves to reiterate this view.

Malia Bouattia: The NUS President at the centre of a storm

The Tab has been told that the investigation in Malia Bouattia was allegedly undertaken by the NUS’s head of Human Resources.

Questions will undoubtedly be asked about why the NUS failed to disclose the fact that it investigated Ms. Bouattia for anti-Semitism more than a year ago and that their own investigation concluded that ‘it is not unreasonable…to believe that the content of Malia’s speech was anti-Semitic’.

Further details when The Tab gets them.

In an attempt to protect The Tab’s source the original version of this article did not highlight the date of the letter. This has now been added. The final line of the article, regarding questions about the NUS’s conduct, has also been rephrased to be better balanced.