When covering issues pertaining to accusations of antisemitism against ‘progressive’ activists, the Guardian typically won’t go so far as to explicitly defend anti-Jewish racism as such. More often, their tactic is to omit the most damning evidence against the individual(s) in question, often leaving their readers with the impression that the charges aren’t as serious as alleged.
A story in the Guardian on an independent investigation being launched into alleged antisemitism within the National Union of Students (NUS) – a body which represents 7 million British students, with 600 student unions affiliated – and their current president, Shaima Dallali, is a case in point. For the second time in a little over a month, they published a report on the row citing only one of the examples of Dallali’s antisemitism.
Here’s the space devoted to the charges against Dallali in the article by their Education editor Richard Adams (“QC to examine NUS president election in antisemitism inquiry”, June 1):
The election earlier this year of Dallali attracted controversy because of some of her past social media statements, including a tweet that included a reference to a historical attack on Jews.
Other allegations have since emerged, including those involving her election campaign, which are now expected to be investigated by Tuck.
Dallali has welcomed the investigation and denied she is antisemitic, and apologised for the tweet that was posted 10 years ago.
First, the historical attack on Jews in question that the Guardian alludes to is “Khaybar Khaybar O Jews … Muhammad’s army will return Gaza“, referencing the Muslim massacre of the Jews of the town of that name in northwestern Arabia in 628 CE.
Moreover, just like their article in April about the controversy, the article omits other egregious examples:
In an 2018 article, she praised, as a “moral compass for the Muslim community at large”, Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who’s banned from entering the the US and UK due to his support for suicide bombings. Al-Qaradawi has also prayed for “every last” Jew to be killed.
As the Jewish Chronicle reported, at the height of the 2021 war between Israel and Hamas, Dallali tweeted a justification for Hamas terror, writing: “Palestinians have a right to resist by all means possible — even with weapons — this right is acknowledged in international law — Hamas did not start the aggression, what would you like them to do for example?”
Her tweet came just two days after three Israelis were killed when a barrage of rockets were fired from Gaza at Tel Aviv. The Arabic language tweet, translated for the Jewish Chronicle by CAMERA Arabic, continued: “Does this serve the Palestinian Cause? An important question. To my point of view the answer is according to your opinion regarding the solution of the cause — but armed resistance is a right and we should accept this.”
On May 29 last year, Dallali tweeted: “From the river to the sea,” a chant understood as a call for Israel’s destruction. That same month, Dallali also wrote: “Good morning to everyone except Zionists, settler colonialist and apartheid sympathisers. Free Palestine”.
Also, here’s her tweet from just last month, on Israel’s Independence Day, condemning the Israeli “occupation” since 1948, meaning all of Israel is ‘occupied’, and appearing to applaud violent “resistance”.
74 years of occupation, displacement and ethnic cleansing.
74 years of resistance – generation after generation.
74 years of persistence – for freedom and liberation
We vow to continue the struggle for freedom and justice 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/ZEvMRVANDE
— Shaima Dallali (@ShaimaDallali) May 15, 2022
Finally, see this twitter thread on Dallali’s involvement with protests that included extremist rhetoric.
In May 2021, she spoke at another awful anti-Israel rally in London. The Nazi abusers were at it again. Here, one of the climbs atop a blocked bus, to cheers from the hateful crowd. 4/9 pic.twitter.com/McspmZ3x7K
— habibi (@habibi_uk) May 16, 2022
As you can see, the concerns voiced by British Jews and others about the NUS president aren’t – as the Guardian suggests – based merely on one 10 year old tweet, but, rather, a pattern of support for violent extremists and her use rhetoric designed to exclude Jews from ‘the community of the good’.
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She’s also no “progressive,” no matter what other viewpoints she sponsors — universal human rights are indivisible, you cannot be demonizing Israel and Jews and then blithely assert you are any kind of progressive — that’s just a cover for their real focus.
She’s just a bigoted antisemite who was taught to hate by her Islamic cult upbringing