UJS demands apology from NUS candidate over ‘antisemitic’ posts

The Union of Jewish Students has demanded an apology from a student running for a seat in the National Union of Students over “antisemitic” social media posts.

Zeid Truscott is running for a seat on the NUS national executive committee, which is the main scrutiny body for NUS’s political leadership.

A number of messages allegedly sent from his Facebook and Twitter accounts were uncovered by the Twitter account The Golem on Thursday afternoon.

Among them, a tweet from last year said: “Just your daily reminder that Israel is a racist, apartheid state. Founded on ‘divine right’ and created through terrorism and ethnic cleansing.”

Another tweet claimed the IHRA definition of antisemitism is “anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab.”

A Facebook post from 2014 linked to an article suggesting Isis leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi was trained by the Mossad.

Another message reads: “Some of the IHRA examples (Israel being a racist endeavour) aim to silence Arab lived experience and sideline oppression of Arabs.”

Daniel Kosky, UJS campaigns organiser said the union was “deeply troubled” by the posts.

“The suggestion that Israel or the Mossad has trained ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi is antisemitic, echoes age-old antisemitic tropes of Jewish world domination and has been used by infamous antisemite David Icke,” Kosky said.

“Those who engage in antisemitism should have no place in the student movement, let alone on NUS’ top policy-making body.”

“We expect Truscott to apologise immediately for their antisemitic social media posts, and engage with UJS to combat antisemitism in the student movement,” he said.

Truscott and NUS were approached for comment.