Cambridge SU sabbatical officers have signed an open letter to the National Union of Students’ (NUS) Board of Directors¹. Cambridge SU is a member of NUS.
This letter has been endorsed by groups such as the European Legal Support Centre (the legal group that has actively opposed the University of Cambridge’s Injunction); the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies; Federation of Student Islamic Societies and Palestine Solidarity Campaign and on a more local level, has been signed by Cambridge University Amnesty International and Cambridge Jews for Justice.
The letter calls for the NUS to “conduct a due diligence review and risk assessment with full disclosure on elected officials or student groups who have financial, institutional, or strategic ties to settler-colonial regimes or states” and to “reaffirm [the NUS’s] commitment to the students’ right to protest, including against Zionism”. The NUS has reacted with hostility, misusing allegations of antisemitism towards signatories; threatening to exclude those registered from their Lead and Change conference; and threatening to report signatories to the Charity Commission should they not remove their name from the open letter².
We condemn antisemitism and harassment within our institutions and beyond. We have made the decision to add our names because we agree with the aims of the open letter to NUS. This decision is supported by members of the community, including Cambridge Jews for Justice who reached out and shared their concern that legitimate criticism of Israel’s actions was being “ignored or shut down on the basis of accused antisemitism”.
We are adding our names in support of the sabbatical officers targeted for standing up for the values they have been elected to represent. These are in line with the values we were elected for and intend to represent over this coming year, including a commitment to enable student scrutiny and protest of institutions that do not represent student views.
¹ www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2025/07/15/nus-gaza
² www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2025/07/19/nus-palestine