Anti-Israel protest in London in June 2021. Credit: Loredana Sangiuliano/Shutterstock.

The Student Union of Oxford University (SU) will on Tuesday evening vote on a resolution proposing a referendum that would ask students to determine whether the organization disaffiliates from the National Union of Students (NUS) due to concerns about antisemitism, The Oxford Student, a campus daily reported.

A recent report by Rebecca Tuck, an independent lawyer, that described NUS’ culture as causing “considerable alienation of Jewish students” and fostering antisemitism prompted the resolution, students Ciaron Tobin and Mindher Ba-Shammakh, two former NUS delegates, told the paper, citing NUS’ allegedly inferior student services and Tuck’s report as reasons supporting disaffiliation.

“The report confirms, as Jewish students have long been aware, that the NUS has a problem with antisemitism,”Oxford University Jewish Society (JSoc) president JoJo Sugarman also said in a statement.

The referendum must be held in eight weeks if the resolution passes. Students last voted on their NUS affiliation in 2016, when Malia Bouattia, the organization’s president at the time, was accused of being antisemitic. 57 percent of the 3409 students who cast ballots voted to maintain it.

NUS has long been dogged by accusations of prevalent antisemitism throughout its organizing structure.

In November NUS removed president Shaima Dallali after finding her guilty of antisemitism and other misconduct. In announcing the removal, the first in the organization’s 100 year history, NUS apologized for “the harm that has been caused” and pledged to “rebuild the NUS in an inclusive way — fighting for all students as we have done for the past 100 years.”

Rebecca Tuck’s report cited dozens of examples of antisemitic incidents alleged by Jewish students, many of which occurred at NUS conferences. Students reported incitement of violence against Israeli civilians, the spreading of conspiracy theories about Mossad’s rumored role in the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), and opposition to a motion proposing observance of Holocaust Memorial Day.

Tuck recommended exhaustive vetting of candidates for office, antisemitism training, and the hiring of a “facilitator” to mediate conversations about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a subject she anticipates “will be the subject of student activism, as has been the case for decades.”