UK
Calls for inquiry as UK universities branded ‘hubs of hate’ for Jewish students
Peers demand action over ‘institutional failure’ to protect Jewish students on campus
May 7, 2025 14:10
Peers demand action over ‘institutional failure’ to protect Jewish students on campus
May 7, 2025 14:10UK universities are becoming “hubs of hate” for Jewish and pro-Israel students, according to a damning new report backed by senior MPs and peers who are calling for a public inquiry into campus antisemitism.
The 33-page report, published by pro-Israel educational charity Stand With Us, accuses university leaders of “systematic and institutional failure” to protect Jewish students, many of whom say they have faced violent threats, intimidation and ostracism, often with no meaningful response from their institutions. Some students claim they were even investigated themselves after reporting abuse.
A letter of support, backed by eight cross-party parliamentarians including Lord Austin, Baroness Hodge and Bob Blackman MP, says anti-Jewish racism on campuses is “spiralling beyond control”.
“We are witnessing the normalisation of the previously unthinkable – flagrant support for proscribed terror groups, and the intimidation and ostracisation of Jewish and Zionist students simply because of their identity,” it says.
Baroness Deech, the first independent adjudicator for higher education, said the report “offers a chilling insight into the high levels of discrimination and even acts of violence that Jewish and pro-Israel students are subjected to daily across UK campuses”.
Deech, a former principal at St Anne’s College, Oxford, added: “Universities appear to be systematically failing these students, despite these same institutions rightly taking a zero-tolerance approach to all other forms of racism and discrimination.”
The report follows a nationwide survey conducted by Stand With Us in April 2024. After polling over 1,000 students, the charity found 64 per cent of respondents did not describe the October attacks as terrorism, while 29 per cent said they were an “understandable act of resistance”.
The latter figure rose to 38 per cent among students at the elite Russell Group universities. More than half of this group agreed that those who publicly support Israel on campus should “expect” abuse.
Between October 2023 and March 2025, Stand With Us also conducted interviews and received written testimonies from Jewish students.
These findings, published on Wednesday, include one student who said they had “completely stopped speaking Hebrew on campus because I feel unprecedented levels of being scared”. They added that one student with an Israeli-sounding name “was booed during her own graduation”.
Another said: “Fear is considered ‘normal, baseline’ for Jewish and Israeli students.”
One student at a London university claimed a seminar on the Middle East during the Cold War “turned into a 50-minute discussion defending Hamas’ actions on October 7.
“Hamas was portrayed as a ‘pioneer of change,’ and disturbing attempts were made to justify the massacre of civilians,” the student said. They said they complained to KCL but “nothing has changed”.
Another London student was shunned by her classmates and targeted on a WhatsApp group, where students called her a “b*tch” and said: “Is there a f*cking Zionist in this group chat?” She said she approached the university wellness advisor for support. “Within minutes of our conversation, she suggested I try to understand why the other students were behaving this way toward me.”
The student said she had been isolated by their peers, adding that in every class “there are two empty seats on either side of me.”
Another student said an event they hosted on dialogue and understanding was “stormed and shut down” by a group of activists.
A separate student described seeing a “swastika carved into the desk in front of me”. They said: “I immediately told my lecturer and filed a complaint through the university’s reporting platform. The university’s response? They claimed it was probably the ancient Hindu symbol, removed the desk, and didn’t follow up.”
A student at a Scottish university said that their room was targeted by flatmates who threw their Star of David necklace and an Israeli flag on the floor. The student confronted their flatmate, who allegedly said: “This flat will not support an inhumane government or the terrorist activities of the IDF.”
After the incident, the student felt unsafe and “had no choice but to leave and move into temporary accommodation”.
Another student reported: “My campus has become a place where antisemitic displays, flags, posters, signs, are common … Student union representatives chant for Palestine to be free ‘from the river to the sea’ and a motion was even passed under that exact title.”
The report claims that Zionist students “who publicly identify with or support the right of Israel to exist” are being “vilified, marginalised, and in some cases, threatened with violence”.
It adds that “anti-Zionism and antisemitism are inextricably linked”, and, on UK campuses, “anti-Zionist expression is frequently used as a cover for antisemitism”.
Commenting on the report, UK Lawyers for Israel cited the Terrorism Act, as well as the Protection from Harassment Act and the Public Order Act, as legal means to protect Jewish students under threat from anti-Israel activists and campus antisemites.
Stand With Us is calling for the principles of “recognition, accountability, expulsion, inquiry, oversight, and inclusion” to be implemented.
This includes recognising the “link between anti-Zionism and antisemitism”, expelling students and staff who promote hate and violence, and launching a public inquiry into campus antisemitism.
The report states: “A government-backed public inquiry should be launched to investigate the systemic failures that have allowed antisemitism to persist and escalate within UK universities. This inquiry should gather testimony from Jewish students, review university procedures, assess the role of student unions, and recommend national standards to ensure student safety and institutional accountability.”
Stand With Us is also calling for Jewish students to be involved in policy decisions about equality, diversity and inclusion on campus.