Nadine Osman
King’s College London Students’ Union (KCLSU) has been slammed for suspending three elected Muslim student officers after they released a statement on Instagram expressing their support for Palestine and a ceasefire in Gaza.
The three elected officers that were suspended by KCLSU include Hassan Ali, the vice president of welfare and community; Sadaf Abbas Cheema, the vice president for education in the arts and sciences; and Alizeh Abrar, the vice president for postgraduate students.
According to media reports, the officers claim they had faced “verbal threats” from senior managers at KCLSU and “scare tactics” to force them to take down their online advocacy for besieged Palestinians.
The trio’s statement said: “It is unfortunate that the irony of threatening three Muslim sabbatical officers with suspension for the ‘crime’ of standing for Palestinian human rights during Islamophobia awareness month has not dawned upon KCLSU’ senior leadership.
“The fact that scare tactics were the first recourse senior leadership took in response to our statement, which emphasised our worsening mental health struggles, points to the chilling disregard that the senior leadership harbours towards the mental health of its own elected representatives.”
Several KCLSU employees told Middle East Eye that Ali, Cheema, and Abrar had been “singled out” and “excluded” for attempting to have the union make an official statement asking for a ceasefire in Gaza.
They also claimed that the union had been “hypocritical” in its stance on Gaza, despite professing “support for Ukrainian and Russian students” as Russia invaded Ukraine.
The King’s College London Students for Justice in Palestine (KCL SJP) have condemned the suspension and accused KCLSU of “harassing and intimidating” the union’s elected officers. The group’s petition calling for the reinstatement of the suspended union officers has garnered 600 signatures.
KCL SJP has said, “The KCLSU president has shamefully failed to protect his vice presidents and has remained complicit in this undemocratic action.”
KCL SJP, which is calling for the union’s senior leadership team to quit immediately, has also singled out student union president Steven Suresh for criticism for his silence “on the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
Insisting that as “our endorsed and elected representative, we expected a strong and vocal commitment to addressing the concerns of the student body. The lack of engagement on such a crucial matter is not reflective of the leadership qualities we had hoped for. “
This suspension comes just weeks after an Israeli air strike killed Palestinian KCL graduate and Chevening scholar Dr Maisara al-Rayyes, who died on November 7 with his family.
The university paid tribute to the former student and organised a memorial to his life and work.
In a statement to The Muslim News, KCLSU said that due “to ongoing proceedings surrounding” the unions, it is unable to comment on the specific details of the suspensions.
The Union insisted it remains “committed to freedom of speech, especially when debating contentious issues—this is a fundamental democratic principle we hold dear.
At the same time, we have clear governance policies and procedures that must be followed, and we must respect and maintain confidentiality.”
And that “racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, abuse, incitement, harassment, or any other prejudice or discrimination have no place at KCLSU.”
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