Birmingham Uni JSoc & the World Zionist Organisation: how are they related?

Well it's not easy to find on line but it can be done in three steps.  Look:

1.  Here's the Union of Jewish Students' (UJS) website.  And here's a useful infographic taken from it:

Check out JSoc number 35.  It's Birmingham University Jewish Society.

2.  Here's the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS) website showing the UJS to be one of its "Permanent Executive Unions"

3.  And here's the WUJS website partner page showing the World Zionist Organisation as a partner and revealing that the WUJS "holds various capacities within the WZO".  See the blurb:

The World Zionist Organization is committed to promoting the Zionist idea and enterprise as vital and positive elements of contemporary Jewish life, in accordance with the principles articulated in the Jerusalem Program.  WUJS holds various capacities within the WZO, sitting on their Board of Directors as well as various internal committees.

So, there we have it.  Disappointing then that in two days there were two Guardian articles (here and here) misrepresenting the Birmingham University Jewish Society not simply as a generalist group of Jews but as the Jewish community at Birmingham University.  This was in the context of the smear campaign against NUS President elect, Malia Bouattia, who had mentioned the Jewish society (JSoc) as being among the UK's largest and the fact that it is led by Zionists.

See The Guardian's Nadia Khomami:

But her campaign was controversial due to her past anti-Zionist activism, including comments in an article where she described the University of Birmingham – with its large Jewish community – as being “something of a Zionist outpost”, and made separate claims about “Zionist-led media outlets”

And The Guardian's Richard Adams:

Bouattia’s campaign was controversial due to her past comments describing the University of Birmingham – with its large Jewish community – as being “something of a Zionist outpost”, and made separate claims about “Zionist-led media outlets”.

Malia Bouattia has insisted that she was referring to Zionist activists as the following quote makes clear:

The University of Birmingham is something of a Zionist outpost in British Higher Education. It also has the largest JSoc in the country whose leadership is dominated by Zionist activists. 

Actually by stressing that the JSoc "leadership is dominated by Zionist activists" Bouattia allowed for the fact that some of the JSoc members may not be Zionists themselves.  She certainly wasn't conflating a Zionist organisation with the "Jewish community" as Zionists themselves tend to and as The Guardian did, twice!.

Bibi: not just a Zionist Revisionist, he's a Holocaust Revisionist too

Bibi Netanyahu has made a complete dick of himself again.   Addressing the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem he said that Hitler had no plans for the holocaust until that British invention, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, persuaded him to carry it out.  Here's Marcus Dysch in The Jewish Chronicle:

Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed Hitler only decided to carry out the Final Solution after being convinced by a Palestinian leader.

Speaking at the World Jewish Congress, the Israeli Prime Minister said the plan to exterminate European Jews was developed after the Nazi leader met the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini.

Of course being written by Marcus Dysch they had to get something wrong. It wasn't the World Jewish Congress Bibi was addressing, it was the World Zionist Congress. Anyone would think that the JC uses the words Jewish and Zionist interchangeably.

Palestine stickers adorn zionist students' stall

The World Zionist Congress affiliated Union of Jewish Students is complaining that its stall at a National Union of Students event was "vandalised".  The "vandalism" consisted of some Palestine stickers being placed on their board - see below from the UJS website:

This evening, at NUS National Conference, UJS' stall was targeted in a disturbing act of discrimination and vandalism. Posters and banners were defaced with anti-Israel stickers, including over the Star of David emblems on the UJS logo.

NUS should be a safe space for all students within its diverse membership. Whatever one's views on the Israel-Palestine conflict, there is no excuse for this behaviour within the student movement. The singling out of Jewish students and the direct attack on Jewish religious symbols is antisemitism.

UJS is calling for strong action to be taken to ensure that this incident is swiftly and appropriately dealt with. We will do everything in our power to protect and secure the safety and welfare of Jewish students.

Needless to say, the UJS can't let an opportunity to falsely allege antisemitism pass them by. The incident was last night and already Harry's Place has two posts on it here and here. Neither HP nor the UJS have mentioned that hostility towards the latter may have to do with their affiliation to the zionist movement globally nor the fact that a zionist fundraising organisation has its logo on the UJS page complaining of the incident. In fact, rather smartly, HP doesn't even link to the UJS site.  I suppose Engage can be relied on to bring in all the facts. No? Not at the time of writing.  Perhaps they're waiting for the funding.