Anti-Semitic tweets found on a Warwick finalist’s account

A Warwick Politics and International Studies finalist, Aysegul Gurbuz, 20 – the youngest Labour councillor of Luton – has been stripped away of her position since numerous anti-Semitic tweets were found on her personal account.

The Campaign Against Anti-Semitism found her tweets that had been published between 2011 and 2014.

Some of them read: “Ed Miliband is Jewish. He will never become prime minister of Britain” and “Adolf Hitler = greatest man in history”.

However, she states that this was from a joint Twitter account with her sister, who could have posted the tweets herself.

Peter Dunn, director of press and policy at the University of Warwick, has stated: “We certainly wish to talk with this student when she returns to campus at the start of term to ascertain if there has been a breach of the University’s policies on these matters.”

Warwick Anti-Racism Society has released a statement saying: “We stand in solidarity with the Jewish community on campus and beyond as this type of appalling, racist behaviour is never acceptable.”

In response to her tweets, Warwick SU has said that they are meeting with the university to “consider appropriate next steps.

“Anti-semitism has no place on our campus or in wider society. It must be taken as seriously as any other form of discrimination, and we wish to offer support to any students who have been affected by this, given the highly inappropriate nature of the tweets in question.”

The Jewish and Israeli Society at Warwick was “appalled” at the tweets, saying: “We believe that Warwick Student Union and the University of Warwick must have a zero tolerance policy to such vitriolic racism. Anti-Semitism has no place at Warwick.”

Gurbuz had run for Ethnic Minorities Officer for last year’s Students’ Union elections. Her manifesto stated that she wanted “to increase awareness of Holocaust Memorial Day” and “more investment into Interfaith Week”.

Aysegul Gurbuz is a third year PAIS student Image: Twitter

She was also the president of the Friends of Palestine society for the last academic year.

On their official page, they advertise: “Very importantly the society is opposed to any racism, Antisemitism, Islamophobia and any offensive comments.”

Gurbuz had proposed the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions for Peace at the All Students’ Meeting earlier this year. Her motion calls for the SU to “condemn the Israeli occupation of pre-1967 Palestinian lands” and “join the international academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions which support or benefit from the occupation of Palestine.”

Even though this motion has been signed by 18 academics at Warwick, the Friends of Palestine society confirmed that it was “not a society-led campaign”.

They have released a statement regarding Gurbuz’s tweets: “As Warwick Friends of Palestine Society, we absolutely condemn this kind of behaviour, and hope the university takes quick action on these events.

“As current president of the society, I will make sure that we will carry on taking a zero-tolerance approach towards any racist, offensive and anti-Semitic behaviour from any member or exec of the society. This includes being reported to the University and being banned from all future events. We encourage everyone from the Jewish community to contact us if they ever encounter anti-Semitism or similar offensive behaviour as a direct consequence of the society’s actions.”

This comes after the National Union of Students (NUS) passed a motion which would disallow an automatic Jewish spot at the Anti-Racism and Anti-Fascism (ARAF) campaign.

In previous years, the two co-presidents of the role were always a black and a Jewish student. This has since been called an anti-Semitic practice.

This article has been updated to include comments and statements from Warwick SU, Warwick Anti-Racism Society, the Jewish and Israeli Society and Warwick Friends of Palestine Society.