15th October 2014

Now vile SU refuse to commemorate Holocaust…because it’s ‘eurocentric and colonialist’

by The Tab Newspaper Harry Shukman and Colin Cortbus

Exclusive

What is wrong with these people

Deluded student politicians have rejected a motion to commemorate the Holocaust – after claims it would be “eurocentric” and “colonialist”.

A motion was proposed at the Goldsmiths Students’ Assembly yesterday to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day and victims of genocide.

Education officer Sarah El-alfy urged students to vote against the proposal, rejecting it as “eurocentric”.

This comes a day after it emerged the NUS voted against a motion to condemn ISIS and support the Kurdish resistance on the grounds of “Islamophobia”.

Sarah El-alfy, Goldsmiths’ Education Officer rejected the motion to commemorate the Holocaust

One student added: “The motion would force people to remember things they may not want to remember.”

Another suggested she couldn’t commemorate the Holocaust because she thought the Union was explicitly “anti-Zionist”.

One of the students present said the proposal should be voted against as it would affect the Union’s stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The unfortunately-named President Howard Littler said after: “Someone brought up Israel-Palestine out of the blue but I made a point of information and said I didn’t want to conflate the two.”

He later audaciously added that the whole thing is just “a storm in a teacup”.

Auschwitz train station

The motion was proposed by Goldsmiths student Colin Cortbus who is also a Tab reporter and helped write this story.

His motion – which is posted below in full – failed with just one vote in favour from Colin out of an estimated 60 present.

Would you vote for or against the motion? Read it in full and have your say

Motion for the Student Union to commemorate the victims of genocide, totalitarianism and racial hatred

The Student Union recognises the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust, of the other genocides, of totalitarianism and racial hatred. It further recognises that commemorating the victims of genocide, racial hatred and totalitarianism, and promoting public awareness of these crimes against humanity, is essential to sustaining and defending democratic culture and civil society, especially in the face of a resurgence of neo-fascism, racial hatred and neo-Stalinism across Europe.

The Student Union shall organise commemorative events for students and members of the public on Holocaust Memorial Day (27th of January), on the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism (23rd of August annually), on the Holodomor Genocide Memorial Day Act (4th Saturday in November, Annually) and on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day (24th April annually).

The SU have yet to release minutes as they agree on the contents for the next meeting on 18th November.

But those attending are encouraged to live-tweet the event using the hashtag “GSUAssembly”.

One student named T. Walpole, present at the Assembly, objected: “Our union is anti-Zionist.”

They added: “This is a colonialist motion. Vote it down.

“White people should not be proposing motions to condemn genocides without a lot of thought. This does not have that thought.”

GSU Education Officer Sarah El-alfy pleased that a proposal to commemorate the Holocaust was rejected

LGBTQ* Officer Cyd Thomlinson also said the motion was “time wasting” and called the proposer “a toddler throwing a tantrum”.

They boasted: “We did just collectively destroy his self esteem if that helps.”

Thomlinson also argued for the inclusion of the Transgender Day of Remembrance in the motion but did not propose an amendment for it.

Union President Howard Littler said: “I think this is a storm in a teacup to be honest.

“There was a broad range of political backgrounds in the room. There was the opinion that the motion could have been more inclusive.

“We intend to bring in a more exhaustive list to add to the Holocaust motion at the next meeting.

“If we are going to support memorial days we want to make it a better motion.

“We have put on events to commemorate the Holocaust before. The opposition here came from wanting to make the motion include a broader list of things to remember.”

GSU President Howard Littler

Sarah El-alfy added: “While the motion seemed sound at first, and I completely agreed with its sentiments, remembrance days should not be reduced to a list of European historical dates only.

“With our long history of pushing for diversity and recognition of multiple struggles, and considering it is currently Black History Month, I feel the motion didn’t go far enough.

“If we’re going to pass a commemorative motion, we ought to do it properly, hence why I offered to sit down with the Proposer and rewrite it in time for next Student Assembly.

Just yesterday it was revealed the NUS voted against a proposal to condemn ISIS and support the besieged Kurds on the grounds of “Islamophobia”.

The proposal offended Black Students Officer Malia Bouattia, who said: “We recognise that condemnation of ISIS appears to have become a justification for war and blatant Islamaphobia.

“This rhetoric exacerbates the issue at hand and in essence is a further attack on those we aim to defend.”

In the same meeting the NUS passed a motion to boycott UKIP and email every student in the country on polling day telling them to do the same – effectively meaning they find it easier to condemn UKIP than ISIS.

Share on WhatsApp

Person

Judaism =/= Zionism
- Anon
  
  You can’t care about the welfare of Jews and not be a Zionist. Zionism is the idea that Jews should form a state. Given the abject failure of other nations to protect the Jews from terror (first from the Nazis, and now from Islamo-fascists), it is absolutely necessary that the Jews arm themselves in order to avoid extinction.
  
  In sum: if you are anti-Zionist then it’s probably because you want to see the Jews wiped out.
  - Stupid stupid stupid
    
    This is a bullshit argument. Jewish people are not facing extinction. Palestinians might be, but not Jews. And ‘form a state’ is a nice way of saying ‘take a state’.
    
    I’m anti-zionist, anti illegal settlements, anti bombing civilians. That has nothing to do with how I feel about jewish people – many of whom share my views.
    
    Trying to lump everyone who disagrees with your political views together as racists is obnoxious, save that kind of idiocy for NUS meetings.
    - Anon
      
      >Jewish people are not facing extinction
      
      Did you actually say that on a thread about commemorating the Holocaust
      - Stupid stupid stupid
        
        You do know we won the war, right?
        
        The Holocaust isn’t happening now. We should remember it, we should learn from it, but we shouldn’t use it to justify land-grabbing policies in the 21st century.
        
        If you look at Gaza now, you’ll see that Palestinians are far closer to facing a Holocaust than Israelis.
        
        And what about the Romani Holocaust? Should they be all be allowed to go settle in Israel too? Or should their state be set up somewhere else?
        
        pewkatchoo
        
        Well, you and people like you certainly did not win the war. Brave men from my father’s generation won the war, not some pampered over-opinionated brats.
        
        Rabbi Burns
        
        If you check their media you will understand that there is nothing the islamonazis would like more than to “finish the job”. They have already eradicated virtually all of the million Jews (1948) from their “countries” while Israel has a million and half arab citizens with full rights, some even serving (voluntarily) in the IDF.
        
        Equating Gaza with the Holocaust reveals either astonishing ignorance of one or both or a lazy evil, however the situation IS rather like the Warsaw Ghetto, whereby Israel is the ghetto and all the arab nazis around it are trying to tunnel in to commit mass murder. I for one am delighted that the Jews are better armed this time.
        
        Ninja Avenger
        
        Hasbara Bullshit! the video Our Identity is not for sale looks at Iranian Jews who refused the Israeli offer to move to the Jewish homeland, the Jews of North Africa too, even many Yemenites are happy where they live despite the tensions whipped up by Israel.
        
        People like you Burns thrive on the hate you spread you are a supremacist a Jewish version of the KKK. The veil has been lifted, the WHOLE world knows the truth of Zionism, the zealots so clearly demonstrated over these last few months exactly what you are about. All doubt has been removed from the eyes of the world, so you carry on spouting your empty lies, which no one believes any more, only other zealous dickheads…
        
        Rabbi Burns
        
        Yet the number of Jews in Iran has fallen from 150,000 in 1948 to 8,756 in the most recent census (a reduction of 94%). For comparison, the Arab population of Israel (inside the green line, i.e. excluding Gaza and “West Bank”) was around 1.2 million before the war they started and lost and is around 1.5 million today (an increase of 20%).
        
        So if these Arabs experienced a “catastrophe” in 1948, what have the Jews of Iran experienced since then? (And they are least badly affected of all the Jewish communities in the Arab world plus Iran.)
        
        The common pattern is that these Arabs + Iranians have waged varying degrees of war against their Jewish neighbours, yet only in Israel did they not succeed and only in Israel is the population of the losing side greater than it was in 1948.
        
        In other words, you stick to your hysterical “KKK” rhetoric, I’ll stick to the facts.
        
        Thor fenris
        
        What a stupid claim when the Palestinian population is constantly increasing.
        
        Lamia
        
        Palestinians are far closer to facing a Holocaust than Israelis.
        
        Palestinians are nowhere near facing a Holocaust, and never have been. Their numbers are rising, including in the West Bank. Conversely, Hamas, the elected government of Gaza, openly states its desire to destroy Israel and for every Jew in the world to be exterminated. And some of you wonder why there isn’t the level of support for Palestinians you demand. Funnily enough, genocidal bigots don’t become that much more cuddly to most people just because they are currently not in a position to carry out their wishes.
        
        If the power balance between the Israelis and the Palestinians were reversed, we know perfectly well every Jew in the Middle East would be dead, expelled or at best a second class citizen. Conversely, Israel could wipe out the Palestinians easily, but it does not do so. The fact that the Palestinians are currently the weaker party in all this does not necessarily make them the victims. Their predecessors greatly enjoyed persecuting and oppressing Jews – something that Sara El-alfy perhaps ought to be reminded off.
    - Noga Contentious
      
      “Jewish people are not facing extinction. Palestinians might be,”
      
      Some numbers:
      
      In 1933, the world’s Jewish population at that time was estimated at 15.3 million.
      
      Projected number of Jews worldwide for 2020: 13,558,000
      
      In 1946, the estimated number of Palestinian Arabs was: ~ 1, 221,000
      
      In 2005, the estimated number of Palestinians all over World is 10.1 million.
      
      Another number: There are 400M Arabs in the Middle East (Palestinians are Arab) in possession of 99.9% of the territory.
      There are 6M Jews in Israel which .comprises 0.01% of the Middle East.
      
      All these numbers do not mean that you have to love the Jews but that when you speak about them at least have the recorded facts correctly.
    - Thor fenris
      
      Any Jew who shares your views is a Kapo.
    - Anon
      
      >’take a state’
      >implying the Palestinians have ever had a state of their own instead of being Ottoman vassals
      
      top fucking kek learn some history
      - Rabbi Burns
        
        The term “Palestinians” didn’t even exist under Ottoman rule. It wasn’t even mentioned in the 1947 UN GA 181 partition resolution. The first time it seems to have appeared was the early 1960s, e.g. the PLO Charter of 1964 – which, incidentally, explicitly renounced claims of sovereignty over Gaza and West Bank (presumably as they were already under muslim arab control)
    - Name
      
      Are you implying the people killed in Gaza were all civilians? Or that a “palestine” has ever existed outside the twisted minds of muslims and left wing nut jobs? Or that houses in Judea and Samaria are “illegal” after Israel won the territory in 1967?
      
      Stupid stupid stupid is right.
  - Crackity Jones
    
    Sadly, there are a LOT of bigoted anti-semities that populate student unions in British universities, especially London universities.
    
    Admittedly, some are appalled at Israel’s actions, but quite a few of them are simply bigots who do not like Jews. It really is that simple.
    - So confused by anti-semitism
      
      I just don’t understand this. I don’t connect Jews in other countries to the actions of Israel any more than I connect Muslims over here to the actions of ISIS. I really don’t get HOW you can “not like Jews”. It just doesn’t make sense.
      - pewkatchoo
        
        Er, ISIS is made up of muslims from this and many other European countries.
        
        (White boy)
        
        Yes, however the muslims from this country that join ISIS are probably not representative of the vast majority that don’t.
        
        pewkatchoo
        
        That would make you wrong. They all believe the same things, just that ISIS is the extreme edge of it. As Sam Harris said “Islam, the motherlode of bad ideas”.
      - Rabbi Burns
        
        You are in the happy minority. Enjoy!
        
        Ninja Avenger
        
        Hahahahaha it was a Majority vote in Parliament to recognise the Palestinian state, so who cares if the majority of trolls on a poxy kippers page talk shit ,we know who you zealots are, keep on commenting and see if it has an effect in the real world numpty nuts, ahahahahaha you’re funnier than Jacky Mason…
  - Person
    
    I am the original poster, I am Jewish and I do not advocate or support the fact that some Jewish Israelis think they have a right to force Palestinians out of their homes and make them homeless. I do not support Netenyahus right wing government or their decision to obliterate more than half of Gaza.
    - Anon
      
      But there’s a difference between being a Likudnik and arguing that the Jews deserve a state of their own safe from anti-Semitism. Being opposed to Israel as a state, which is what anti-Zionism means, is destructive and pointless, especially when the alternative of the Israeli left/doves exists between Likud and Hamas.
    - Rabbi Burns
      
      What is this myth of forcing people out of their homes? Are you talking about eviction of squatters with no legal title to Jewish owned homes taken in the 48 war??
    - Thor fenris
      
      Fucking Kapo. We hanged you Kapos next to the Guards when Mauthausen was liberated
  - Ninja Avenger
    
    NOT TRUE AND TOTAL NONSENSE!
    
    Having only a couple of weeks ago talked with Max Blumenthal at Portcullis House on the very subject and seeing Ilan Pappe talk, also my FB friend Erhan Efrati and many other Israeli Jews such as Miko Peled would totally disagree with your HASBARA. My comrades in the activist movement Jewish Bloc would also disagree with your bullshit too.
    
    It is well documented that Zionism is a racist ideology, It is also well documented that Israel didn’t want the Beta Israel to live in the same homeland I think that would apply to most black Jews such as the Lemba the Igbo and the Abuyadaya as the video’s of the settlers in the West Bank chanting “kill the niggers” clearly demonstrates. So only some Jews are acceptable, otherwise explain to me why they force-ably sterilize black Jewish women?
    
    The fact that many more Jews live outside Israel, clearly shows you are lying about Jews becoming extinct what a ridicules fallacy your pathetic little fantasy is making claims like you do makes me feel you need help as you are clearly suffering from mental problems.
    
    One shot two kills is what the Zionists are about, so save your bullshit lies and hasbara for your ignorant friends, but really, get help .Israel has some world class facilities for people with mental problems such as yours…
- dfdf
  
  A person in the NUS is anti-Semitic?
  
  I’m so shocked.
The Fashion Guru

I’d like to propose a motion to ban Sarah El-alfy’s hideous sweater.
- Anonymous
  
  This is really unnecessary…
  - Jacob Cheval
    
    yes, jokes about her jumper might “destroy her self esteem”
  - dfdf
    
    I agreed with you, and then I went back and looked at it, and then all reason and logic went out the window because of just how bad it is.
    
    Is her jumper a cat??
  - Bantanamo Bay
    
    It’s good bang.
These people

are fucking STUPID.
Jess

Those tweets are pretty racist, basically saying he can’t have a say because he is white! Also those girls would go mental if he tweeted something about destroying their self esteem!
- dfdf
  
  No Jess.
  
  White people ARE able to have opinions.
  
  As long as those opinions are diametrically opposed to their interests and entirely based around abasement to one’s genetic moral superiors.
Why

is every left-wing student in this country an utter moron?
- Anon
  
  Important thing to note right at the bottom: “If we’re going to pass a commemorative motion, we ought to do it properly, hence why I offered to sit down with the Proposer and rewrite it in time for next Student Assembly.” – So in answer to your question, no they’re not morons they’re really decent people. Can’t say the same about the other side.
  - Disgusted
    
    Sorry, they’re immature idiots trying to force their disturbed view of the world down people’s throats. They should all be forced to visit the Holocaust Museum and write a report – assuming they can write.
- A Sensitive Scholar
  
  Because they are left-wing…
- SOAS
  
  We’re pretty happy condemning ISIS over on this side of London!
  - Lucas
    
    as your alumnus Maajid Nawaz says “condemning ISIS is not good enough.I deserve no thanks for saying I don’t want you dead.Emphasis must be liberal democratic values”
    - Kay
      
      That twat is not ‘ours’.
      - Lucas
        
        Maybe he would say the same and judging from that response he would have better grounds to disown you
- Lucas
  
  yes they are!
- dfdf
  
  That’s a silly generalisation and the “left, right” scale of politics is misleading.
  
  http://www.politicalcompass.org/
- pewkatchoo
  
  Er, the clue is in the ‘left-wing’ bit.
Person

This is ridiculous mis-reporting, I was in the room and this is such a distortion of facts I can’t believe anyone calling themselves a journalist would be proud of writing this piece. I hope everyone sees Sarah’s full comment (hidden conveniently at the bottom of this piece) about what actually happened, and knows that she wants to help Colin reword the statement for the next Assembly to make sure that we commemorate victims of genocide worldwide.
- Anon
  
  nice try sarah
- The Tweets
  
  speak for themselves
  - Cherry picking imo
    
    They speak for a couple of asshole students, but sure, let’s tar all of them.
    - anon
      
      When someone at a very high level within the NUS is talking like that unpunished, there is a very big problem with the entire NUS.
- Or.
  
  Well, I’ve no idea what ridiculous bureaucratic procedures they have in place at this Union but, if that was the case – then surely other representatives could simply have submitted another motion commemmorating, say, the Rwandan Genocide Memorial Day (April 7th, if you’re interested) or the International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (March 25th) alongside it?
  
  Or, they could have withdrawn the motion and waited until it was rewritten, rather than putting the Union in the rather un-democratic position of voting down victims of genocide?
- dfdf
  
  Which is still out of order.
  
  We can’t mourn the deaths of foreigners in any one particular genocide because they are white (we all know what “euro-centric” means thanks to those tweets).
  
  It’s always got to be for every genocide victim, because god forbid we focus on one of the the most industrialised and proportionally devastating genocide.
  
  I can’t wait until remembrance day when we can’t mourn our own war dead because of their latest buzzword.
  
  I’m sure Colin will have a great time rewording his statement after getting racist abuse (yes, it is racist, and no amount of mental gymnastics and re-definition of words will change that).
  - Ninja Avenger
    
    I’d agree, except at least one of the tweeters is white, so at most it could only be ‘half racist’, I will ask if the other one is non white, if they’re white then your half baked theory is wrong.
    
    It is Eurocentric, where is mention of the Halabja genocide or the genocides done in Africa in the colonial era? The Nazi perpetrated Holocaust was not the only genocide an intelligent person like you knows that.
    
    Up to 10 million were murdered in the Japanese perpetrated genocide. Before that up to 10 million were murdered in the Belgian Congo under King Leopold. 7 million were murdered in Ukraine and that’s just three out of scores of genocides from the 20th century, all of which can be termed holocausts.
    
    I would argue that it is racist to leave them out, especially because of the fact that they dwarf in scale the most frequently referenced holocaust, the Shoa. The holocaust that lasted the longest and killed the most is the Atlantic slave trade, where as many as 120 million were murdered, but that’s from a different time. [Everyone forgets] October is the month to remember that history, so it may not be appropriate to include.
    
    Of course an intelligent person such as yourself knows about the other genocides/Holocausts (many don’t), and I would presume you would want some focus on those as well as the Shoa, which is why in that context I don’t understand the point your comment. No doubt you will elucidate so I can understand…
    - dfdf
      
      By that logic you should pay into every charity, never spend time alone with one friend, and see each relative equally. It is not odd to remember one thing at a time, and an agreeable motion should be accepted regardless of what agreeable points are left out.
      
      The holocaust killed a larger proportion of the target than those other genocides. It was cold, it was industrial, it was perpetrated by well educated state workers who only years before shared values we have today. That is why we remember it.
      
      Holodomor’s ethnic elements are exaggerated, it was a period in which tens of millions of soviet citizens starved, there were always going to be a lot of deaths.
Joe

Absolute bonkers
Human

Is the only thing The Tab care about silencing and belittling women of colour??
- Anon
  
  How is the Tab silencing or belittling “women of colour” if it is repeating what they have said?
  - Ursula
    
    Because she says really horrible things publically on twitter. You’re not supposed to take her public pronouncements and errr… uhm… make them public.
- Anon
  
  Fuck off back to tumblr
- Crackity Jones
  
  How is the person in question being silenced. Her bullshit is loud and clear.
- dfdf
  
  Stupid is stupid in any colour.
  
  You don’t get special treatment for being non-white if you say something outrageous in public. I mean, you actually do online, hence this conversation, but you shouldn’t.
The Great Unwashed

Maybe it’s about time to actually take SUs seriously; rise up and line these absolutely fucking moronic, racist cunts up against a wall and fill them full of holes.
I wouldn’t liken it to revolution, more “taking out the trash”.
hello

So the person who wrote this went to this thing, got totally shut down in the room by randoms (it was open meeting right?) and then whines writing a news piece on it? Can this website start posting some real fucking stories please.
Patriotic- Britain First

Everyone knows the Holohoax never happened. I applaud the lefties for showing some initiative.
- Ursula
  
  There, the NUS got its endorcement. From… sir could you tell us your affiliations?
  - Patriotic- Britain First
    
    Green Party and I’m also an officer at Plymouth Students Union
    - vildechaye
      
      Clearly a university education ain’t what it used to be.
Ridiculous

I don’t know why its necessary to make rude remarks about the people at Goldsmiths Students’ Union. You should respect other people’s point of view and not write completely bias articles that are based on one guy’s views. I really hope this paper isn’t the next generation for journalists – if it is I’m worried.
- Sol Robinson
  
  VOTED AGAINST HOLOCAUST COMMEMORATION THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU
  - Anonymous
    
    Yes – to be re-submitted so all students are happy. Can’t you read until the very end where conveniently the most factual parts of this article are placed?
    - read the article yourself goon
      
      can’t you read all the other bits that say they oppose the motion because it’s ‘colonial’? or because he’s a white boy, or whatever. etc. don’t call people selective then just ignore the quotes from all the other sources apart from yours. idiot.
      - Ninja Avenger
        
        So you’re saying other genocides from outside of Europe, that were even greater in scale than the Shoa shouldn’t be included in the commemoration?
        
        What kind of narrow minded monster would deny tens of millions recognition? We should commemorate the Shoa but at the same time we should include ALL genocides against whomever it may be, whether Jewish, African, Chinese, European, Asian or any other..
        
        ALL should be remembered not just the European ones, ALL!…
    - Lamia
      
      Yes, to take into account the ‘sensitivities’ of anti-semitic scum like Sarah El-Alfy.
- YOU FUCKING MORON
  
  READ THE TWEETS
  - Simmer doon
    
    I feel like these have been presented as representative of all students who voted against the motion, rather than just two (~60 present, remember).
    I could see the argument for voting this motion down not because you didn’t support it but because you wanted to extend it to include non-European genocides as well.
    But guess what gets clicks?
Squeezed Middle Britain

Just another reason to vote UKIP, send these jihadists back to Iran.
- :)
  
  Yes let’s combat the racism with racism, that’ll make the racism go away.
  Can we please be pragmatic about the fact that student politics has reached the point of laughing stock?
jj

these people sound like the biggest possible bunch of fucking cunty idiots. ‘we can’t commemorate the holocaust because it’s colonial’ what fucking stupid student union stupid planet do you live on? especially that racist LGBT officer going on about destroying self esteem and making racist comments about him being a white male. what a stupid bitch. seen plenty of your type at uni. too retarded to realise how fucking hypocritical you are. one thing it proves is how all student union execs are cunts.
- Rabbi Burns
  
  “all student union execs are cunts”
  
  Amen
- Ninja Avenger
  
  Naturally someone as smart as you couldn’t condemn racism without stooping to misogyny – now that is a clear example of how stupid you are in your hypocrisy, well done brains!
End the NUS

“White people should not be proposing motions to condemn genocides without a lot of thought”

What thought is that? “Oh shit I’m white, I probably love genocide because my ancestors might have committed it a bit”.

As for the criticism of the motion to condemn ISIS… here is the motion:

“NEC Resolves
1. To work with the International Students’ Campaign to support Iraqi, Syrian and other international students in the UK affected by this situation.
2. To campaign in solidarity with the Iraqi people and in particular support the hard-pressed student, workers’ and women’s organisations against all the competing nationalist and religious-right forces.
3. To support Iraqis trying to bridge the Sunni-Shia divide to fight for equality and democracy, including defence of the rights of the Christian and Yazidi-Kurd minorities.
4. To condemn the IS and support the Kurdish forces fighting against it, while expressing no confidence or trust in the US military intervention.
5. Encourage students to boycott anyone found to be funding the IS or supplying them with goods, training, travel or soldiers.
6. To make contact with Iraqi and Kurdish organisations, in Iraq and in the UK, in order to build solidarity and to support refugees. 7. To issue a statement on the above basis.”

I challenge anyone to find the islamophobia in that. To suggest that it’s pro-US intervention, when it explicitly states the opposite, is just nonsense.

These are people who have got too lazy to think, too busy being outraged to remember what their purpose is. Throw around some buzzwords you learned on tumblr like “eurocentric”, “islamophobia”, and “cultural appropration” and you never really have to make an argument.

Fuck the NUS.
- dfdf
  
  They go on about crackers committing genocide, then say they can’t reject genocide, then they proceed to belittle the act on twitter.
Someones changed his tune

It was also mentioned that the motions were not written in an accessible format which Colin aggreed with last night but seems to have forgotten between being in the room and writing this. The understanding was that the motion would be re written, in colaboration with the students union to ensure that all students were represented and not just European students. It’s lost on me how this sham of a newspaper seems to think that remoulding something to include more students is somehow a bad thing?
- dfdf
  
  Anyone too stupid to access those motions shouldnt be involved in a political process.
  
  It wasn’t just the accessibility though was it?
TomH

and quote “The motion was proposed by Goldsmiths student Colin Cortbus who is also a Tab reporter and helped write this story.”

This was just Cortubus’ way of throwing a tantrum because he didn’t get what he wanted, so he wrote an inflammatory article full of slander to smear the Goldsmiths’ SU. I’m honestly shocked at how shameless he is about it.
Wow.

If you are seriously concerned about the recognition of the Holocaust in contrast to other, less generally-known genocides, than perhaps the solution to that is to raise a motion in support of those genocides as well, rather than declaring that we not commemmorate the Holocaust at all? Maybe we declare the day after tomorrow Aboriginal Peoples day, or Rwandan Genocide Memorial day.

Otherwise, you’re basically just declaring “Forgetting any genocide is bad – let’s show that by refusing to symbolically commemorate the victims of a genocide!”

Sorry – but this is LITERALLY just a motion in support of an official national memorial day. It does nothing, it hurts no-one, and has little to no significance beyond the symbolic. The fact that they can’t even support that? Says a hell of a lot.
- Or…
  
  Or raise another motion alongside this one, or wait until this motion is rewritten to be more ‘inclusive’ before voting on it.
- dfdf
  
  I hope you donate to every single charity, campaign for every single belief you hold, see all your relatives equally
  
  Good is good, it doesn’t need to be spread to be good and worth voting for.
- https://twitter.com/Suada1976 Suada
  
  The argument is a strawman anyway; Holocaust Memorial Day does recognize other genocides and crimes against humanity.
  
  http://www.hmd.org.uk/
michael

I didn’t go to uni but the motion was to have four commemoration days for genocides. I’d have voted against that as no-one would have come, it’d be really depressing and as I understand it, students are more into having fun than being sad about dead people.
Anthony Trepniak

Despicable. GSU should hang their heads in shame.
Pathetic Journalism

Tab journalist planted a motion which was seemingly innocent but required the expenditure of significant effort and massive emphasis on certain selected historical events. When the motion failed because it wasn’t crafed or presented properly, tab runs a story how outrageous it is that people won’t commemorate the holocaust. This isn’t journalism it is manufactured news.
pewkatchoo

Shock horror, students found to hold brainless, irrational, socialistic ideas. Wins the No Sh 1 t Sherlock award for the year.
BetrayedRosse

A whole new generation of Owen Jones’, all stupider than the last. How has our education system been so hijacked by these horrible, cultural marxists??
- Craig Shrimpton
  
  ‘cultural marxism’
  - anon
    
    Yes, that is a real, widely-used term referring to people who aren’t full-blown communists economically speaking, but are in terms of social views.
“White Guy”

If i tweeted something like Def cisnormativity as a “white guy” like “(non-)White people should not be proposing motions condemning genocide without a lot of thought” #Cambodia #Rwanda #Darfur #IndiaSikhsforjustice1984. I would be labeled a racist, because it is a racist! So how the hell does Def cisnormativity get away with it!
It should not matter who proposed a motion to remember and condemn genocidal events and surely the only people this would offend would be genocidial in nature..

Just to clarify I am not racist and condemn any genocide committed by or who whatever minority or non-minority.
Palestine till the end

The Jews are doing exactly what got done to them now in Palinsite.
They definatley remember a thing or two from holocaust..
- Lamia
  
  The Jews are doing exactly what got done to them now in Palinsite
  
  So they have rounded up and industrially murdered several million Palestinians? Really?
This is Europe

You live in Europe therefore you should respect the historical dates, we aren’t telling you not to celebrate international historical dates or force other country’s to celebrate them, which is exactly what your doing!

Respect the country and culture you live in!
- Craig Shrimpton
  
  Why don’t you just shut up and fuck off,m,,,,m,m,m,
Rabbi Burns

Littler’s eyebrows are paying homage to the Fuehrer
Opularfutz

Insights of a madhouse. This must all be satire.
ellie

Banned motion includes commemoration of Armenian genocide which was carried out by Turkey. How is that Eurocentric?
“Things we do not wish to remember”, indeed. Evil assholes.
andywade

Another essentially Fascist stance from the NUS. If I were a student I’d feel duty bound to raise a fuss, at the very least to make it very clear they do not speak for me.
Shameful

There can be no excuses or mitigating circumstances for the SU here. The passing of the motion would not mean that all other genocides are to be ignored. Any conflation with the Israel-Palestine conflict is totally false. The Holocaust is the Holocaust, millions died, you damn well better respect and observe the memorial day.
Disgusted

Voted down by a muslim. What a surprise.
Mike M

Is it really “eurocentrism” when a European university engages with a European event?
Anon

I’m glad I didn’t go to Goldsmiths. What a load of thickos.
Anon

“Sarah El-alfy”
I wonder if she doesn’t like Jews.
Anon

As usual, “anti racist” = “anti white”
Depressed lefty

Conflating zionism with the holocaust is fucking disgusting and ironic in light of the fact you got so worried that in condemning ISIS you would promote ‘islamophobia’.

There’s a serious problem with anti-semitism in leftist circles and people like you give the rest of us a bad fucking name.

Stop playing identity politics and semantic games and go and try and do some real good in society rather than circle jerking over your ability to apply basic intersectionality to everything.

Bleugh.
JustMe

Its good to commemorate such Important days as the Holocaust and other Genocides should not be forgotten, but lets face it most student celebrations end up in a messy night of drunkenness and that then makes it seem more as a celebration of the holocaust and not a remembrance of the horrors
Someone with Common Sense?

This is an absolute joke, how can the SU even start to think that they represent us “Students” when they do something like this… I don’t know if its because some has a chip on their shoulder but it is a disgrace to disregard the death of millions of people. If they think it is eurocentric, its not. The war cost millions of lives around the world let alone Europe. If people want to start commemorating other world tradgedies, we would all be very happy to do so, but this is most definitely the wrong thing to do. I am offended.

Would you vote for or against the motion? Read it in full and have your say

More of our famous journalism

How to dress for The Venue: A fresher’s guide

That’s pisstory – fresher hit by flatmate’s urine on the 699 bus

A Practical Guide to Helping Friends with Depression

We went into that creepy Scientology shop on Tottenham Court Road

There are no funny greetings cards left