As new university year looms, UJS chief appeals for all students to fight antisemitism on campus

Many of these non-Jewish students had questioned why the NUS President focused so heavily on conflict in the Middle East, he said.

“I think it clearly played a role. [But] it wasn’t just that there was a pushback from Jewish students who decided to get involved but lots of people from more moderate affiliations also responded.”

Mr Davidi-Brown, who previously worked at JHub and UJIA after graduating with a BA in Youth Studies from Nottingham Trent University, said last year’s elections saw a record number of Jewish students run for NUS positions.

And he thought anti-Israel campaigns such as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses were now in decline. 

In the nine months after the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, he said, there were 16 BDS motions among students, of which 11 were passed. In the past 18 months, fewer than five were passed.

“I am overwhelmed by how impressed I am with the way Jewish students deal with this,” he said.

 “In the last two academic years there have been over 200 events educating on Israel with J-Socs, Israel societies. They’ve featured scientists, academics, writers, Israeli diplomats — all gone off without a problem.

“In a lot of the Israel Societies, it’s not just Jewish students running these events. It’s people from lots of different backgrounds willing to stand up for Israel. There have been three or four events that have been met with that kind of aggressive protest.

“The reason they’re so newsworthy is that they aren’t the norm. I understand that it is news when it happens, but, broadly speaking, hundreds of events and tens of thousands of students are accessing intelligent and informed approaches to Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Relations between Jewish and other students have been fraught in recent years, particularly flaring up over support for Israel boycotts.

In June, the NUS reinstated its BDS policy but with an amendment pledging not to “target” Jewish and Israeli students. Clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel groups on campuses have added to the sense of unease many feel.

But at the universities linked to the most high-profile incidents, he pointed to the work done by J-Socs and Israel societies.

Khulan Dav and Avrahum Sanger, from  the J-Soc at the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas), were honoured at the annual Wizo Commitment Awards in July for co-ordinating an event at Soas featuring Israeli ambassador, Mark Regev.

The university is known for pro-Palestinian politics among its students  and being  a campus where “a lot of nasty stuff” takes place, he said.

But the likes of Ms Dav and Mr Sanger are “not cowering away, they’re not afraid. But they are very keen to make sure it’s not something they have to encounter. 

“If you’re trying to change the minds of a handful of angry people, that’s not where you’re going to make the difference;  it’s [getting] the wider group of students to engage with Israel.

“There may be places you’re more likely to encounter more animated political debate, which might spill over into aggression. But even in the places people might point to as being more problematic, there is also a lot of good stuff going on.

“There’s nowhere I wouldn’t advise anyone to go.”

A Soas spokesman said: “We are continuing to work with our Soas Jewish students’ society and the UJS on how to tackle antisemitism on campus.”