Universities failing to protect pro-Israel students from hate

It comes as the government announced that universities will be required to publish the extent of Jew-hatred on their campuses as antisemitism in Britain surges.

The report, endorsed by Labour MPs Luke Akehurst and David Taylor, Liberal Democrat Christine Jardine, Reform’s Richard Tice, and Conservatives Bob Blackman and Dame Karen Bradley, warns that university authorities foster a “sustained climate of institutionalised intimidation” for Jewish students when they make complaints.

Crossbencher and former independent adjudicator for higher education Baroness Deech, said: “I have never known antisemitism to be so normalised.”

In its recommendations, StandWithUs UK has called for antizionism to be treated as severely as traditional antisemitic slurs.

It also urged a parliamentary select committee to summon university vice-chancellors for public hearings into campus antisemitism.

One Jewish student in the report said that dealing with antisemitism complaints has become a “full-time job”, while another said campus officials treated Zionism as “inherently provocative”.

At University College London, biology student Evelyn, 20, says that since taking on a leadership role in the Israel Society she has had to deal with at least two incidents of antisemitism a week. One occurred in the university’s antisemitism awareness week in March. A student approached Evelyn’s stall and branded her a “f*cking white supremacist, ugly ass fat ass bitch”. She recorded the exchange – which the JC has heard – and filed a complaint.

UCL officials responded with assurances that antisemitism is not tolerated, but months on, Evelyn has heard nothing further. She fears the student will not face any consequences. “UCL always puts out some statement saying they don’t tolerate antisemitism, however it is only increasing on campus.” she said. “Antisemitism needs to be treated with the same attitudes that any other form of racism is treated with.”

A similar episode occurred at last September’s freshers’ fair. Evelyn was helping on the stall when a student declared “Hamas is not a terrorist organisation”, adding October 7 was “justified and reasonable”. After Evelyn complained, the university offered emotional support. Three months on, she received an email saying the complaint had been closed because it did not merit disciplinary action. 

Only after a newspaper approached UCL for comment was the case reopened. After multiple meetings and countless emails exchanged with officials, she still has not heard any outcome of her complaint.

Students raise bloody hands while protesting directly outside a UCL building[Missing Credit]

Then came a talk on Mizrachi Jewish culture given by an Israeli. Activists outside chanted: “There is only one solution, intifada revolution” and “Zionists not welcome here”.

One masked man approached her and said: “How dare you get an IDF soldier on our campus, someone that has killed millions, millions of children.” In the charged atmosphere, police suggested she be escorted off campus in an unmarked vehicle. Originally from Washington DC, Evelyn had assumed Britain’s campuses would feel calmer than their American counterparts. “I did not expect that I would first have to fight to prove that my safety and humanity matter.”

Another student in the report was at neighbouring King’s College London. Jamie [not his real name] spent five months under investigation after sharing a message about a pro-Israel counter-protest and waving an Israeli flag in response to Palestinian flags on campus. He was accused of “targeting and antagonising” pro-Palestinian students and “attempting to engage them in conversations perceived as hostile and uncomfortable”.

The ordeal ended with a four-and-a-half-hour debrief in his final year and a 14-page ruling against him, seen by the JC, in which KCL officials found that in unfurling an Israeli flag beside a stand of Palestinian banners, which he later learnt was part of a “Discover Islam Week”, he had been “disrespectful to the event”.

“The way that you were waving the flag was a deliberate act of provocation and antagonism,” the ruling said. “[The committee] found such acts to be hostile and intimidatory of nature.”

Jamie was also investigated for circulating a flyer advertising a counter-protest to a campus talk featuring Dr Rana Baker, the Middle Eastern history lecturer who sparked controversy after handing students a Hamas propaganda document titled “Our Narrative: Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” and suggesting the terror group can be considered as an “Islamic national liberation resistance movement” that is fighting “against Zionists, not Jews”.

Jamie said Jewish concerns about the lecturer’s conduct “were met with deaf ears”. After a civil society group organised a counter-protest, he forwarded an existing digital flyer including a publicly available photograph of Dr Baker with a cross on her face to members of his student society. He later found that triggered disciplinary proceedings against him. “I was accused of harassment, incitement, intimidation, and public shaming. The scrutiny focused not on the lecturer’s public statements, not on the hate protests, not on the attempts to force open a locked room, but on a decision to share a flyer that others had created.”

The panel heard Dr Baker was “significantly impacted” by the flyer and upheld complaints of “offensive or abusive behaviour”, including “public shaming or humiliation”. It ruled he showed a “lack of empathy and insight” towards Baker, and he was ordered to write a 5,000-word “reflective essay” explaining “why your conduct in this case is problematic, and your learnings”, and to undertake university “training” on freedom of expression and campus policy. Failure to comply could result in suspension.

Jamie said his treatment shows that “Jewish identity, Zionist identity, or any expression connected to either was treated as inherently provocative,” and that the impact of the process has been a “silencing” of self-expression.

Elsewhere in the report, a dozen students at Birmingham, Manchester, City St George’s, London Metropolitan and Queen’s University Belfast describe a steady barrage of antisemitism.

Royal Holloway student Evaldas Barstys, 22, said abuse against him began after he founded an Israel Society and got phone calls from withheld numbers. “They said they had been watching me all day wearing my ‘funny little hat’, referring to my kippah.” That night he got nine more calls. In the following weeks, harassment escalated to up to ten calls a day. “They threatened to attend Jewish Society events and beat us up. On the final call, before I changed my number, they read out my university address and said they were coming to get me.”

The final-year history student reported the calls to the university and police. Campus officials allegedly identified one caller, but the case was dropped.

A government spokesperson responding told the JC: “As the Prime Minister set out last week, there will be ‘zero tolerance for inaction’ in tackling antisemitism, and it is essential that Jewish students feel safe, along with everyone regardless of race or religion.

“That’s why we have strengthened how the Office for Students monitors universities’ Prevent duties, updated guidance on managing external speakers and events, and are working with students to co-design a Campus Cohesion Charter setting clearer expectations around conduct and shared values.

“We have been clear in our expectations for universities to enforce robust disciplinary policies that explicitly set out the consequences of antisemitism and call on them to publish data on incidents to improve transparency and ensure accountability.”

A KCL spokesperson said: “The allegation made in this piece is entirely false, the act of waving a flag alone does not meet our threshold for misconduct and therefore publication of this without proper context is inaccurate and misleading. In this case, the student was disciplined for a significant range of offences including the targeting, and encouraging the targeting, of individuals on social media, which was part of a pattern of offensive, hostile and abusive behaviour.

“King’s has a duty of care to all our students and staff, to ensure a safe environment on campus and we do not tolerate abuse of any kind, including antisemitism, bullying, harassment, Islamophobia, and racism and it is inaccurate to imply that disciplinary action is pursued according to religious belief or national identity.”

Dr Michael Spence, the UCL president and provost, said: “I am deeply saddened that some of our Jewish students continue to experience harassment and abuse, and I am truly sorry that this is happening in our community. We are taking clear and sustained action to address antisemitism at UCL. When incidents are reported to us, we act quickly and firmly.  Alongside this, we are strengthening the support available to Jewish students and expanding education and training to deepen understanding of antisemitism across our community.”

Royal Holloway said: “Antisemitism, Islamophobia and discrimination of any kind have no place at the university. Our campus is home to a Jewish Society and a Jewish student community that is an integral part of our university. A number of the concerns outlined are subject to active internal or police investigations. It would therefore not be appropriate to comment on individual cases.”