Richard Brook, Vice President of the UK’s National Union of Students (NUS) was filmed covertly by Al Jazeera admitting to conspiring to oust NUS President Malia Bouattia, as part of a sting operation involving the Israeli embassy. Working in “secret” with Michael Rubin, Parliamentary Officer for the Labour Friends of Israel(LFI) and Russell Langer, campaign director for Union of Jewish Students (UJS).

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 leveled 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.

NUS President have 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 leveled 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

Toqa Zait, Leeds University

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

Yousef Anis, University 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