YUSU Racial Equality Officer resigns over “anti-Semitic” comments

Lawrence Binitie. Photo: York Vision

Lawrence Binitie has resigned from his position as YUSU Racial Equality Officer, following mounting pressure to stand down over alleged anti-Semitic remarks. Binitie handed in his resignation letter earlier today, explaining: “my position as an impartial arbiter of racial disputes has been blighted by the decontextualised disclosure of my private comments about the Palestinian bid for UN membership.

“I give an unreserved apology to anyone who took offense to the comments that I made in the conversation on Facebook… my words were clumsy and unwise, but no more.”

Following this, YUSU President Tim Ellis commented: “While the situation is regrettable, we both felt that his position was untenable under the circumstances. The matter is now closed.”

The controversial comments stem from a private Facebook Chat conversation Binitie was having with ex-student and now Labour Councillor for Heslington, David Levene. In it the then Racial Equality Officer told Levene, who is Jewish, that he “would be ashamed, if [he] was from isreal [sic] or even jewish, to be associated with this.”

After saying he doesn’t associate himself with Israel, despite others doing so, Levene noted he’s “not ashamed of a country [he has] no connection with.”

Bintie went on to claim that “if I was you, I would be, because, like it or not, as a Jew, you are inextricably linked to isreal [sic].”

After an argument, in which Binitie claimed Levene should have publicly criticised Israel, Levene told the Racial Equality Officer to “go to hell,” who swiftly responded with the statement: “sounds like a Jewish response to me, but enough said.”

At this point, Levene is understood to have blocked Binitie from accessing his profile and other details on the social networking site.

Reacting to the departure, the former Union Council Chair said: “I respect Lawrence’s decision and regret that this matter needed to become public. Hopefully we can now all move on.”

With the prospect of a no confidence referendum almost inevitable, the resignation was seen by many as only a matter of time. Both York Vision and Nouse led with the story on their front pages on Tuesday, with Vision calling for a vote of no confidence in its editorial.

There will be no need for a by-election for the position as Basim Al-Ahmadi, who was shared the role with Binitie, will take over full responsibilities. Speaking to Vision, Al-Ahmadi said he supported Binitie’s decision, commenting: “It is an unfortunate situation. Lawrence [Binitie] is a decent man, was a pleasure to work with and has a lot of heart to him. But I think due to growing pressure he realised his position was hard to maintain.

“My official position on the matter is that mistakes were made on both sides. I think the whole situation exposes a deeper issue of whether private comments should be made public. Due to a lack of a clear legal and constitutional outline regarding how a private conversation in between two individuals are made public, YUSU were put in a difficult situation to deal with Levene’s actions.”

The Jewish society, who has so far remained silent on the issue told Vision: “We of course condemn the remarks that were made by Mr Binitie as offensive, and in particular have concerns that his comments may spark other episodes of anti-Semitism. We believe that it is the personal right of every individual, Jewish or of any other faith, to criticise or support Israel’s actions, and we do not believe that Jews across the world should be held collectively responsible for actions of the Israeli government. To accuse all Jews of wrongdoing because of the actions of the Israeli government is seen as anti-Semitic, and to tie all Jews directly to Israel is a link which many people would dispute.

“We are grateful for Mr. Binitie’s apology and regret that these events should have resulted in his resignation. We look forward to working with the YUSU Racial Equality Officer in the future and have every hope that this situation will not affect our good relationship with YUSU.”

Binitie’s resignation letter also goes on to praise various students, reading: “I would like to thank all those who have supported me through this troubling period, your kind words of understanding during this crisis have been invaluable to me.

“Specifically, I would like to thank YUSU President Tim Ellis for his guidance and impartial supervision of the process, and also York Sport President Sam Asfahani for suspending judgement and helping to get my side of the story across. I am touched by the amount of support I am getting from my friends, and even people I don’t know who have taken the debate online.”