In a joint statement, two of the UK’s leading unions for higher education staff and students have spoken out against Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi’s comments at a conference on anti-Semitism hosted by his department in January this year. In his original comments, Zahawi said that protesters heard chanting the slogan “From the river to sea Palestine will be free” should be referred to the police. He implied that usage of the phrase was tacit support for Hamas, who control the Gaza Strip and were added to the UK’s list of proscribed terrorist organisations in November 2021. In their statemen…