With all too piquant a sense of timing, the NUS vote telling Jewish students that they have no place in the student union came just two days after 1,500 people gathered at the We Believe In Israel conference to discuss and learn how we all have a role to play in countering the demonisation of Israel.

It was a remarkable occasion, and all the better for being positive: the day was entirely about what can be done rather than moaning about what is wrong. But even by the standards of recent anti-Israel developments, the NUS vote will have pulled many people up short. Because we should be clear: the decision to send students on Gaza flotillas, to ally with the Hamas-backed Islamic University of Gaza and to support a range of other Palestinian demands is categorically and unambiguously antisemitic. Its impact will be to disenfranchise - to say the least - Jewish students, and only Jewish students. So long as the NUS maintains this new stance, it will place itself outside the realms of civilised debate. That cannot be allowed to stand.