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Earlier in June, Ken Livingstone, the former Mayor of London, came to speak at the Oxford Union. I had just one question for him.
“Ken, do you ‘just hate the Jews in Israel’?”, I asked him, trying to maintain composure. I was referencing the comments he recently made in an ill-conceived attempt to distance himself from ‘real antisemites’. Unsurprisingly, Ken didn’t even deny the claim, and just rambled on about how Israeli politics has deteriorated in recent years.
What was surprising though, was the fact that the audience’s response to the question wasn’t booing or cries of “shame”, but laughter. The laughter wasn’t insensitive, rather I’d like to think it was in appreciation of the chutzpah of the question. But, the truth is that the audience was simply not all that concerned about Ken’s antisemitism, and I think this reflects the fact that most students just don’t know or care that much about antisemitism. It’s not on students’ radar.
Like other universities up and down the country, Oxford recently voted to remain affiliated to the National Union of Students. This referendum was triggered by some allegedly antisemitic comments made by its newly elected President, Malia Bouattia. But 57% of Oxford students didn’t vote for continued affiliation because Oxford is filled with antisemites, as many seem to think. The reality is that most students just don’t care; only 28% of Oxford’s students bothered to vote.
Antisemitism is a big and deeply concerning issue in Britain at the moment. The Labour Party for one, just can’t seem to shake itself free of antisemites. But the greatest threat to the Jewish community at the moment isn’t just anti-Jew hate crime itself, but the potential for antisemitism to once again become normalised and ignored in our society, after all the progress we have made on the issue. We must respond to complacency and ignorance about Jew-hating, with education and information, and we clearly need to start with our students.
Dov Boonin is a second year student studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University
