Palestinian students in UK demand resignation of V-P


January 14, 2017
Sarah Benton


Richard Brooks, a vice-president of the National Union of Students (NUS) was caught by Al Jazeera offering to help oust the organisation’s president, Malia Bouattia.

NUS Vice President Richard Brooks Caught In Undercover Sting Offering To Help Oust Malia Bouattia

The latest revelation of an investigation into Israeli diplomat Shai Masot.

By George Bowden, Huffington Post
January 11, 2017

Richard Brooks, the NUS VP for Union Development, was filmed discussing plans to remove Malia Bouattia from power with an undercover Al Jazeera reporter.

In the film, the reporter asks Brooks who they should speak with to help oppose Bouattia. Brooks replies: “You can speak to me because I’m helping organise them.” He now faces calls to resign.

The sting was part of a lengthy undercover investigation by Al Jazeera targetting Shai Masot, a senior political advisor at the Israeli embassy in London.

The same investigation revealed last week that Masot had said he wanted to “take down” MPs including Tory foreign minister Sir Alan Duncan. On Tuesday it revealed Masot made moves against “crazy” Labour leaderJeremy Corbyn

Israeli ambassador to the UK, Mark Regev, has since formally apologised for Masot’s previous remarks.

But the latest revelation suggests Israel’s sphere of political influence encompassed student organisations in Britain.


The latest revelation suggests Shai Masot’s sphere of political influence encompassed student organisations in Britain

Bouattia, 28, is the organisation’s first black Muslim woman president and has caused controversy in the past over her previous statements about large Jewish societies at universities.

She had also been criticised after footage emerged showing her condemning what she describes as “mainstream Zionist-led media outlets”.

Bouattia has since denied the comments amounted to antisemitism. She said she continues to fight racism “in all its forms”.


Brooks boasted about his public comments against Bouattia during the film

Masot is filmed offering the undercover reporter a job running the youth wing of Labour Friends of Israel.

And in other footage, filmed during a meeting in central London, Brooks and the undercover reporter discuss the NUS leadership.

“I could never have an elected leader who is racist,” Brooks said of Bouattia.

He said his comments on a BBC radio programme called out alleged antisemitism in her rhetoric.

Brooks said: “NUS’s internal structures don’t usually allow a sitting vice president to go and publicly criticise your president on national radio. But you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”

Malia Bouattia is the NUS’s first black Muslim woman president. Her vice-president plots against her. 

Later, Brooks tells the reporter he is organising people to move against Bouattia.

He told the undercover reporter he is the person to contact in order to oppose her, adding: “If you want to speak to someone in a certain geographical area I’ll point you at the right people.”

The investigation also suggested that Brooks, alongside fellow vice president Robbie Young, accepted funding from the Israeli government to travel to the country.

Their trip was organised by the Union of Jewish Students, which the investigation alleged was financed by the Israeli embassy in the UK.

Neither Brooks or Young declared this funding to the NUS’s ruling national executive committee (NEC). UJS said: “We are of course neither funded nor in any way directed by the Israeli Embassy.”

Al Jazeera also found Brooks had held “secret” meetings with a representative of the UJS to discuss electing people with “good politics”.


Both Young and Brooks, who was elected to a final second term in office as vice president last April, now face calls to resign. Brooks boasted about his public comments against Bouattia during the film

 

 

Richard Brooks now faces calls to resign from his position as vice president of the NUS

A source on the NUS’s NEC told The Huffington Post UK: “These shocking tapes clearly prove that Richard, and those close to him, have spent their time disrupting the NUS for their own political purposes.

“In the most critical year for generations in the student movement, rather than fight for students, they fight for themselves.

“Having spoken to colleagues on the NEC and a number of sabbatical officers across the country, we can see no alternative resolutions but immediate resignations.”

Richard Brooks responded to the allegations on Wednesday morning.

In a statement posted on his Twitter account, Brooks accused the undercover reporter of being a “lying secret journalist” who was “trying to frame” him “as some part of [an] Israeli government conspiracy”.

He said he was proud to work with the Union of Jewish Students in “ensuring everyone feels they have voices in our open, inclusive democratic debates”.

Bouattia, 28, is the organisation’s first black Muslim woman president and has caused controversy in the past over her previous statements about large Jewish societies at universities.

She had also been criticised after footage emerged showing her condemning what she describes as “mainstream Zionist-led media outlets”.

Bouattia has since denied the comments amounted to antisemitism. She said she continues to fight racism “in all its forms”.

Masot is filmed offering the undercover reporter a job running the youth wing of Labour Friends of Israel.

And in other footage, filmed during a meeting in central London, Brooks and the undercover reporter discuss the NUS leadership.

“I could never have an elected leader who is racist,” Brooks said of Bouattia.

He said his comments on a BBC radio programme called out alleged antisemitism in her rhetoric.

Brooks said: “NUS’s internal structures don’t usually allow a sitting vice president to go and publicly criticise your president on national radio. But you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”

Later, Brooks tells the reporter he is organising people to move against Bouattia.

He told the undercover reporter he is the person to contact in order to oppose her, adding: “If you want to speak to someone in a certain geographical area I’ll point you at the right people.”

The investigation also suggested that Brooks, alongside fellow vice president Robbie Young, accepted funding from the Israeli government to travel to the country.

Their trip was organised by the Union of Jewish Students which, the investigation alleged, was financed by the Israeli embassy in the UK.

Neither Brooks or Young declared this funding to the NUS’s ruling national executive committee (NEC). UJS said: “We are of course neither funded nor in any way directed by the Israeli Embassy.”

Al Jazeera also found Brooks had held “secret” meetings with a representative of the UJS to discuss electing people with “good politics”.

Both Young and Brooks, who was elected to a final second term in office as vice president last April, now face calls to resign.

A source on the NUS’s NEC told The Huffington Post UK:

These shocking tapes clearly prove that Richard, and those close to him, have spent their time disrupting the NUS for their own political purposes.

“In the most critical year for generations in the student movement, rather than fight for students, they fight for themselves.

Having spoken to colleagues on the NEC and a number of sabbatical officers across the country, we can see no alternative resolutions but immediate resignations.

Richard Brooks responded to the allegations on Wednesday morning.

In a statement posted on his Twitter account, Brooks accused the undercover reporter of being a “lying secret journalist” who was “trying to frame” him “as some part of [an] Israeli government conspiracy”.

He said he was proud to work with the Union of Jewish Students in “ensuring everyone feels they have voices in our open, inclusive democratic debates”.


Source of the subversive plots, the Israeli embassy in London W8. Did the officers spare one thought for the impact of their plots on the British Jewish community?

In light of the revelations made by the Al Jazeera investigative documentary The Lobby, Palestinian students in the UK have published a letter calling for an apology and the resignation of the National Union of Students VP Richard Brooks. In the footage Brooks implicates himself in helping to organise a group that is trying to oust Malia Bouattia for her strong stance on Palestine. The attacks being levelled against Bouattia are based on her politics and principled opposition to Israel’s regime of apartheid and settler colonialism. As an elected official of the NUS, Brooks is betraying the trust placed in him by students and has demonstrated seriously misplaced and misguided priorities, which lead him to collude with the Israeli Embassy.

Statement in full

Following the revelations made as part of the first episode of the Al Jazeera documentary, The Lobby, we as Palestinian students, many of whom are members of the student movement in the UK, are issuing this statement to express solidarity with NUS President Malia Bouattia and to demand an apology from NUS Vice President (Union Development) Richard Brooks, as well as his resignation. We also call on Universities to introduce measures to ensure the protection of student rights to express themselves democratically, free of bureaucratic harassment and foreign interference.

The revelations contain evidence that Brooks has been implicated in soliciting help from the Israeli Embassy to bring down the NUS President and to destabilise the Union as a whole. In a climate where student activists, NUS, and the NUS President in particular, have been undermined, attacked, and harassed for their pro-Palestine politics, such activities and communications are outrageous, must be condemned outright, and cannot go without severe consequences.

The NUS President has been systematically undermined, attacked, and harassed for expressing support for Palestinian rights. As Palestinian students, we have long believed there to be Israeli government interference in the UK and on our campuses. Our events have routinely been monitored and filmed and student organisers harassed, both in the UK and on their return to Palestine.

Palestinian students in the UK are an important part of the national student movement, and it is due to this that both the Palestinian students and the wider student movement feel disturbed at what has been shown to transpire between Brooks and the Israeli Embassy.

Moreover, Brooks’ activities are contrary to the the stated policy of the NUS to endorse boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The policy was adopted by the NUS in 2014 on the back of Israel’s devastating attacks on Gaza that summer. The BDS Campaign calls for freedom, justice, and equality for Palestinians and the realisation of their human rights in line with international law. It is certainly not a mandate to coordinate with the Israeli Embassy to engineer the overthrow of the NUS’s democratically elected president.

As an elected full time official within the National Union of Students, Richard Brooks bears a great deal of responsibility towards the student movement, as well as to the Palestinian students who come under attack by public figures on an increasingly regular basis due to our nationality. It is unacceptable for a somebody in Brooks’ position to conspire with a foreign government to undermine and damage one of the largest democratic institutions in the country, which represents over 7 million students. This constitutes a massive betrayal of the trust placed within Richard Brooks by the students who elected him, in addition to demonstrating his misplaced and misguided priorities, none of which should include colluding with the Israeli Embassy, as is evidently the case. Furthermore, it is important to affirm that the attacks levelled at Bouattia since her electoral victory were based on her politics and principled opposition to Israel’s regime of apartheid and settler colonialism. As Palestinian students, we see these attacks as part of a broader attempt to dehumanise Palestinians and silence our narratives.

In light of these appalling and outrageous revelations, we the undersigned Palestinian students in the UK and supporters of the Palestinian cause feel that the position of NUS Vice President Richard Brooks has become untenable and unworkable. In light of this, we demand the following:

– An unequivocal public apology for the actions taken by Richard Brooks.

– Richard Brooks’ resignation from his position as Vice President (Union Development) of the National Union of Students with immediate effect.

– Call on Universities to introduce measures to ensure the protection of student rights to express themselves democratically, free of bureaucratic harassment and foreign interference.

Signatories

Malaka Mohammed, University of Exeter
Samar Ahmed, Kings College London
Yara Hawari, University of Exeter
Kareem Bseiso, SOAS, University of London
Yahya Abu Seido, University College London
Ayat Hamdan, University of Exeter
Shahd Abusalama, SOAS, University of London
Laura Al-Tahrawy, Lincoln University
Afnan Jabr Alqadri, St. Mary University

Sahar S, Kings College London
Omar Jouda, Oxford Brookes University
Abdulla Saad, SOAS, University of London
Eyad Hamid, SOAS, University of London
Motaz Ayyad, Imperial College
Razan Masri, SOAS, University of London
Rawand Safi, University College London
Razan Shamallakh, Kings College London
Hani Awwad, Oxford University
Beth Jamal, Cambridge University

Layla D., University of Nottingham
Emily M., Surrey University
Dana El Ghadban, University of Leeds
Mahmoud Zwahre, Coventry University
Miriam Abu Samra, Oxford University
Doa Althalathini, Plymouth University
Rama Sahtout, University of Exeter
Mostafa Afana, Belfast University
Haya Natsheh, London School of Economics
Ashraf Hamad, University of Leeds

Rama Sabanekh, SOAS, University of London
Basel Sourani, SOAS, University of London
Layla Al-Khatib, University College London
Hussam Al-Kurd, London School of Economics
Ramsey El-Dabbagh, University College London
Ala Sawalha, SOAS, University of London
Marwan Hanbali, Cardiff University
Jamal Abdulfattah, Exeter University
Mjriam Abu Samra, University of Oxford
Rawan Yaghi, Oxford University

Sari Salti, University of Kent
Abdulrahman Arasoghli, University of Manchester
Saba I., Kings College London
Syeda K., Brunel University London
Dena Qaddumi, Palestinian PhD student, University of Cambridge
Khalil al-Wazir at the University of East Anglia
Haya Naji, Southampton University
Labina B.
Dina Tahboub, University of Cambridge
Abdelrahman Murad, University of the Arts London

Alessia Cancemi, Goldsmiths University of London
Tamer EL-Nakhal , Medicine, Cambridge University Hospital
Hamss Hassan Dawood, University College London
Salim Habash, Loughborough University
Huda Ammori, University of Manchester
Laila al-Khatib, University College London
Samir al-Khatib, University College London
Zeena Jojo, London School of Economics
Ahmed A., University of Leeds
Haneen Shubib, University of Leeds

Hana Elias, University of Exeter
Rawan Kafri, University College London
Sophie Jubeh, SOAS University of London

If you wish to add your name, please email Malaka933@gmail.com

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