Antisemitic hate at UK universities increases during Israel-Gaza flare ups

A new report by the Community Security Trust (CST) has revealed that antisemitic incidents increase during conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians. And antisemitic incidents as a whole had increased over the past two years.

There were a total of 150 university-related antisemitic incidents reported to the CST between 2020 and 2022. This was a 22% increase over the previous period.

CST Chief Executive Mark Gardner said:“Antisemitism at our universities has been a running sore for decades and these new findings show that far too many Jewish students suffer hatred and bias.

“This study also reinforces last week’s National Union of Students’ own report into antisemitism, including the link between anti- Israel hatred and racist treatment of British Jews.

“Students’ Unions and university authorities need to better support their Jewish students, taking concerns seriously and acting against antisemitism, whether it comes from students or academics.”

The Jewish News reports on the breakdown of the incidents:

Fifty-five of the 150 university-related antisemitic incidents took place in a single month, May 2021, when there was a significant escalation of conflict in Israel and Gaza.

This was a period when national levels of anti-Jewish hate crimes increased, and university campuses were disproportionately affected.

In one incident, a Jewish student was called a “neo-Nazi white supremacist”.

Overall, in the last two academic years,93% of university-related incidents were categorised as Abusive Behaviour, totalling 140 incidents.

This category includes all forms of verbal and written antisemitism both online and offline, other than those that include direct threats.

Seven threats were made to Jewish students in the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 academic years. Four of them were online and the other three were offline, all of which took place off campus.

There were three instances of assault, one each in Lancaster, Birmingham and Bristol. In one case, a Jewish student was hit with a rubber bat as they were returning to their student accommodation.

On three occasions, the comments made by academics directly targeted or mentioned students or student organisations.

In one case, an academic at the University of Glasgow tweeted that he had received an “email from the lobby” after a student journalist requested a statement for an article they were writing.

It is clear that anti-Israel sentiment is strong at universities, colleges and schools throughout the UK. These institutions have long been dominated by left-wing politics, including anti-Israel and anti-Western views. We must pray for our young people. That they will not be influenced by hatred.