Pledge To Tackle Campus Antisemitism In U.K.

Education ministers in the U.K. have pledged to tackle antisemitic abuse on campus at a summit ahead of tomorrow’s Holocaust Memorial Day.

Urgent action is needed to protect Jewish students and staff alike amid record levels of reports of antisemitism, according to Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi.

In one of the most high-profile incidents, the Israeli ambassador was surrounded by protestors and reportedly threatened when she came to speak at the London School of Economics in November last year.

Among other recent incidents, a Jewish student at Glasgow University was told to “go gas herself”, while an Israeli flag with a swastika at its centre was stuck onto a building at Royal Holloway University in London.

Today’s summit brings together university leaders, students and organizations representing Jewish staff and students.

The Community Security Trust, a charity that protects British Jews from antisemitism, recorded 84 antisemitic incidents involving university students and staff in the first six months of last year, a 200% increase on the previous year and the highest figure it had recorded.

Mr Zahawi said he had been profoundly affected by a visit to Auschwitz last year, which had brought home horrors that would stay with him for life.

“It also strengthened my resolve to fight the lingering plague of antisemitism still sadly present in our society,” he said.

Mr Zahawi, who was previously the minister in charge of the U.K.’s Covid-19 vaccine roll-out, said education was the vaccine against anti-semitism.

“No Jewish students or staff members should be subjected to antisemitic abuse, and by working together we will send out a clear message that antisemitism – like other forms of racism – will never be tolerated in our classrooms or campuses,” he added.

Among the proposals being considered at the summit are ways of improving reporting of antisemitic incidents on campus, action to support victims and more targeted interventions.

“Antisemitism awareness training is a vital and effective tool for rooting out antisemitism in the higher education sector,” said Nina Freedman, president of the Union of Jewish Students (UJS).

“We hope to empower as many people as possible to recognise and call out antisemitism where they see it in any form.”

The number of higher education institutions signing up to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism has risen from 28 to 95 in the last 12 months, according to the UJS.

Mark Gardner, chief executive of the Community Security Trust (CST) and among the attendees at the summit, said they looked forward to working with universities to improve both the recording of antisemitic incidents and supporting those suffering from exclusion and abuse.

“It is the leadership of the universities who need to take antisemitism seriously and fulfil their duties of care,” he added.

The CST recorded a spike in antisemitism across the U.K. coinciding with the intensification of hostilities in the Middle East last year, including 635 incidents in May alone, the highest monthly figure on record.

There were 130 incidents involving school children or buildings in the first six months of the year, up from 22 in the same period the previous year, with 92 in May alone.