One in five university students in the UK would be reluctant to share a flat with a Jewish peer, according to research that found “antisemitism has become normalised” on British campuses over the past two and a half years.
Almost half of students (47 per cent) polled said they had seen slogans or chants directly justifying the October 7 attacks, while among those who regularly encounter Israel-Palestine protests on campus, the figure rose to 77 per cent, according to a report published today by Union of Jewish Students (UJS)
One in ten students said denying or downplaying the Holocaust was not antisemitic, while 16 per cent believed that glorifying the October 7 attacks by Hamas should be protected as free speech, the survey of 1,000 students across 170 higher education institutions found.
Dozens of testimonies in the report describe Jewish students facing verbal abuse and physical attacks. In one case, a group of non-Jewish students advertising for a flatmate posted online that they had one rule: “no Zios in the flat”.
The survey, conducted by research firm JL Partners between January 26 and February 4, suggests a tolerance for antisemitism among students that appeared more pronounced at Russell Group universities and on campuses that have hosted protests against the war in Gaza.
Among students who had witnessed antisemitism, one in four said it occurred during a demonstration. Of those who regularly see Israel-Palestine protests on campus, 39 per cent said intimidation and harassment of Jewish students occurs “very” or “fairly” often.
A quarter of students said they did not care if Jewish students felt unable to be open about their identity. Meanwhile, 26 per cent said calls for “Zionists” to be removed from campus were not antisemitic, and 24 per cent said claims that Zionists control the media or government were not antisemitic.
More than a quarter of students (26 per cent) said they knew of, or had personally experienced, friendships with Jewish peers becoming strained or distant. The figure rose to 36 per cent at Russell Group universities.
Pointing to “rising polarisation” on UK campuses, the report states that “decades-old boycott movements have adopted new, nefarious trends, targeting the removal of all ‘Zionists’ from campus and the ‘globalisation’ of ‘intifada’”.
Half of students reported feeling socially pressured to hold certain views on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and a third said they feel unsafe engaging in political debate about it.
Students at Russell Group institutions were more likely to describe the atmosphere as intimidating and to say they felt unsafe discussing politics. Overall, 61 per cent of students described campus conversations about Israel and Palestine as “intimidating or toxic”. At Russell Group universities the figure rose to 79 per cent, with 51 per cent said they did not feel safe taking part in political discussions.
In a foreword to the report, Lord Finkelstein said universities were “failing students” by not confronting antisemitism more robustly.
Discrimination against Jews, he said, was “about civilisation, about the culture of liberal democracy and the country itself”.
“We are asking universities to act to protect themselves, to ensure that they are all they can be and all they should be,” the Conservative peer said.
“We are asking them to act in order to prevent them from suffering physical and moral collapse.”
Baroness Berger said the findings showed a failure to learn from the past.
“What will British campuses feel like for Jewish students when my own children, now aged just six and eight, reach university age?” the Labour peer asked, adding that the report was “vital”.
Louis Danker, the UJS president, urged universities to “heed our call for change”, saying the organisation “is not content with another two and a half years of concerned sentiment and piecemeal progress”.
The report sets out six recommendations, including stronger accountability for universities in responding to hate crime and closer oversight of students’ unions’ handling of antisemitism. It also proposes clearer protest rules, a counter-extremism strategy focused on campus radicalisation and closer cooperation between universities, police and government.
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