This was not an isolated event

Two weeks ago, a highly inflammatory speaker with known anti-Zionist views was allowed to speak at the LSE. No counter voice was allowed. Jewish students present were intimidated and verbally abused.

This was not an unforeseen outcome. The UJS, which has done outstanding work in recent years, raised its concerns in advance. Assurances were given by the LSE student union. In the event they were not honoured. They proved to be empty words.

If this were an isolated event, I would say no more, but it isn't. It's part of a process that has been going on now for almost a decade. There has been incident after incident in which Jewish students have been intimidated, and verbally and physically abused. The university authorities, if they have acted at all, have done too little too late.

In 2007 Ed Husain, an ex member of Hizb ut-Tahrir and who co-founded the Quilliam Foundation with Maajid Nawaz, published The Islamist. The first 70 pages were the most terrifying I have ever read. They tell of how a tiny handful of radical students instituted a regime of intimidation across an entire campus and how easy it was to scare the academic authorities into silence and inaction.