Was NUS President Aaron Porter the victim of anti-Semitic abuse?

I blogged the accusations that he had been and read in many places the leftist denials that he had. So I was interested to read at Harry's Place that Aaron Porter himself says that he was in a piece in The Times:

'However, before I was able to speak to the rally of thousands, a small group of people started to chant abuse to try to intimidate me, and there were audible anti-Semitic comments. Racism is something that student activists have been fighting to eliminate for decades and this was a sobering reminder that there is still work to do.
I wouldn’t associate the racist comments with everyone in this breakaway group, who are largely drawn from hard Left factions and who disagree with the tactics and some of the policies of the NUS. For them it is not enough for the NUS to mobilise 50,000 students and lecturers to protest against the rise in tuition fees; instead they say we should be standing alongside those who kick in windows and burn effigies of Nick Clegg.
Those tactics are wrong and do not work. I represent the vast majority of students who believe that peaceful protest should be one part of a campaign.'

I await the leftists' apologies; albeit probably in vain.

The authentic voice of the anti-Semitism that is rife on the left of British politics

For years the left in British politics have united against racism, fought against Islamaphobia and deplored anti-Semitism; all the while blaming the right for these offensive views. For years many of us have known that this was complete and utter b***ocks with respect to anti-Semitism. Harry's Place has documented the British left's links with anti-Semitism, both as a by-product of their chosen alliances with foul Islamic groups and also as hangovers from history. Other websites have done a similar job and I hope that I have been one of them.

Yesterday the mask slipped as Aaron Porter the Jewish President of the National Union of Students had to be rescued by the police from angry protesters chanting anti-Jewish abuse and demanding his resignation. The Mail records that:

'Aaron Porter was surrounded by a 150-strong mob who broke away from a student fees protest in Manchester. As 12 officers led him to safety, there were chants of ‘Aaron Porter we know you, you’re a f******* Tory too’. A photographer said he also heard cries of ‘Tory Jew scum’.'

Despicable words and ones that the BBC have not reported. The BBC's report just includes this rather anodyne remark quite a way down the report:

'There have also been divisions within the protest groups - and NUS president Aaron Porter was challenged by demonstrators wanting a more militant leadership.'

'Challenged'?

Imagine that rather than the Jewish Aaron Porter, the President of the NUS was a Muslim called Ahmed Pirzada. Imagine that he had been verbally abused with chants of ‘Ahmed Pirzada we know you, you’re a f******* Tory too and ‘Tory Muslim scum’; do you think the BBC would be downplaying the story then, or would it be headline news? Actually in that instance the BBC would be conflicted between reporting a juicy story of Islamaphobia and not wanting to diminish the moral authority of the NUS in particular and the left in general.



UPDATE:
Here's some video of the incident in Manchester including the cry "I want to hit you with my shoe" which some claim was used to rhyme with "Jew". I am not sure I can hear that. However Iran's Press TV are reporting that:

'Police escorted Porter to safety as he made his way to his offices in Manchester. Protesters shouted 'Students, workers, hear our shout! We want Aaron Porter out!'.

Chants of 'Tory Jew scum' were also directed at Porter, who is facing calls to step down as NUS president by members of the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, who claim he has 'lost the confidence of the movement...'

Porter himself has said that he was subjected to racist abuse:

Mr Porter told NUS members in an e-mail: “Just before the march started, I was surrounded by a particularly vicious minority of protesters more intent on shouting threatening and racist abuse at me rather than focusing on the issues. Instead of standing together and fighting the cuts, they instead chose to pursue me along Manchester’s Oxford Road and drive me away from the start of the march. As a result, under the strong advice of the police, I had to withdraw myself from the rally.”

Is that a complete denial?

Every so often I hear someone say something that everyone seems to take as a denial but I hear something else. There was an example in The Independent on Friday:

'"There is no evidence to back up accusations that NUS stewards did anything to encourage this despicable violence," Aaron Porter, the NUS president, said'

So did the NUS stewards do anything  to encourage the despicable violence or is there just no evidence? Am I just being cynical?