A red rose lies at Gleis 17 (platform 17) holocaust memorial at a former cargo railway station in Berlin-Grunewald November 9, 2006, to mark the Kristallnacht, or Night of Broken Glass (Photo: Reuters)
Goldsmiths Students’ Assembly said it has commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day in the past and will in the future Getty

A row has erupted at a London university following accusations its Union members are rejecting a proposal to commemorate the Holocaust for being "Eurocentric".

A motion was proposed at Goldsmiths University's Students' Assembly to feature events to commemorate those who were killed during the catastrophe on Holocaust Memorial Day alongside those killed during other genocides such as Holodomor and Armenia, reported The Tab.

The motion - set up by former Ukip member Colin Cortbus, who also wrote the Tab article - was voted down by the students by a majority of 60 to one, with some students taking to Twitter to describe it as a "colonialist motion".

The row intensified the day after the proposal was rejected, after Goldsmith University's education officer Sarah El-alfy tweeted a message of support that the "Eurocentric motion" was rejected.

The row erupted days after the National Union of Students (NUS) was heavily criticised for rejecting a motion calling on the organisation to condemn the militant group Isis (Islamic State) on the grounds it would be "Islamophobic".

The Goldsmiths University Union rejected suggestions this is an outright dismissal of an idea to remember the victims of the Holocaust as an "insulting misrepresentation" and instead said the motion will be discussed at the next Student Assembly in November following a redraft.

A spokesperson added: "Many baseless claims are made, however the central tenet is that the Students Assembly and the Students' Union opposed remembering the victims of the Holocaust. This is an insulting misrepresentation. We have in the past commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day and will in the future.

"A nuanced discussion about how best to effectively and collectively remember these events was had at Students Assembly. Re-drafting motions and re-entering them at a later date isn't unusual in Students' Unions and shouldn't be misinterpreted as opposition.

"Sarah El-alfy offered to help the proposer re-draft the motion and bring it to the next Student Assembly and this reflected the positivity in the room about the motion with the ambition to strengthen it further.

"A motion that includes remembering the Holocaust will be brought to the next Student Assembly in November. We feel these facts have been ignored in the subsequent reporting."

The Union also criticised The Tab for what it described as a series of "factual inaccuracies" in its report and for misgendering one of its students.

"We would like to ask for this to be corrected along with the rest of the article," it added.

Update: El-alfy has responded to the criticism via Twitter:

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