Support for Hamas on university campuses raises worries for future - opinion

Can we believe that we are living in 2023 as we witness a rise in antisemitism that can only be compared to the 1930s, when Hitler rose to power?

I never thought I would be writing these words during my lifetime. What is happening now – throughout the world, including the civilized world – is exceedingly disturbing.

Yes, antisemitism has always been around, but the massacre in southern Israel of men, women, children, babies, and the elderly – who were barbarically attacked in their beds, in their cots, in their homes – is shocking beyond belief. Particularly painful to comprehend is that such vile hatred of Israel and the Jews skyrocketed worldwide despite the graphic pictures shown of this slaughter. And it all began on the very day of the massacre itself, long before Israel entered Gaza to eliminate the murderous Hamas.

It is heart-wrenching to witness the deep fear that is pervading our brethren in the Diaspora. There are those who are giving serious consideration to removing the mezuzot from their door posts. These fears are conveyed to Israelis, who have been cautioned not to travel abroad at this time because of antisemitism. Israeli Government Spokesman Eylon Levy announced that the National Security Council and Foreign Affairs ministry have put out a warning, “calling on all citizens of Israel to exercise heightened caution when traveling anywhere abroad and to avoid displaying any outward signs of their Israeli or Jewish identity.”

The disturbing rise of antisemitism on university campuses

WITHOUT DOUBT, the most disturbing aspect of today’s antisemitism is the manifold rise of antisemitism experienced by Jewish students on campuses worldwide. This is particularly alarming when recognizing that this Jew-hatred emanates from universities, from which future leadership emerges.

While most articles refer to antisemitism on campuses within the United States (home to the largest number of Jews outside of Israel), this writer, a former Brit – at one time working closely with Jewish students in the United Kingdom – decided to find out how Jewish students are faring in the UK.

The Magazine spoke with Edward Daniel, the UK’s Union of Jewish Students’ Communication and Public Relations officer. Daniel explained that since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) has seen a year’s worth of antisemitic incidents on university campuses across the UK and Ireland. UJS put out a press release on October 19, stating: “Since creating our student welfare hotline on the 8th October [the day after the massacre], UJS has received over 100 calls from Jewish students with concerns, anxieties, and reports of antisemitic incidents on their campuses. Students have reported verbal abuse, intimidation, posters calling for “intifada until victory,” targeting of Jewish students’ accommodation, and even death threats.”

The situation has gone from bad to worse, with well over 300 calls from Jewish students clearly in fear for their safety. Jewish Society WhatsApp groups have been bombarded with messages such as f*****g, dirty c***s and murdering b******s.

UJS reports that there are student union officers celebrating, condoning, and supporting the terrorist actions of Hamas as a form of “liberation” or “resistance.” At Cambridge University, on the day of the massacre itself (October 7), the Cambridge Students’ Union welfare officer wrote a “liking” set of tweets supporting the massacre and calling it “a day of celebration.”

DANIEL SPOKE of the motions recently passed at universities, including University College London, where there is one lone sentence referring to the massacre against Israeli civilians within nine pages of condemnation of Israel.

Cambridge University carried a motion stating, “Only a mass uprising on both sides of the green line and across the Middle East can free the Palestinian people, end the occupation, and ensure equal rights for all people....”

The prime theme that found favor with many universities, including Cambridge, Oxford, and UCL, was a call for “intifada until victory.” Motions also condemned the British government’s support for Israel.

Too often, it is the lecturers who blatantly contribute towards the hatred of Jews – a point made by eminent lawyer Anthony Julius in an article he wrote for The Sunday Times last week. Julius said, “At the university where I teach in London, the local branch of the lecturers’ union has just passed a motion calling for ‘Intifada until victory!’

“The university’s Jewish Studies department notifies students of lecture venue by text, for fear of disruption. Students at Jewish Society lunches are protected by security guards.”

Against this alarming backdrop, the UK’s Union of Jewish Students is to be congratulated for the manner in which it is supporting Jewish students on campuses today.

Here in Israel, Prof. Chaim Hames, rector of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), released a video of himself standing among the ruins of Kibbutz Be’eri, where over 130 members were massacred and an unknown number taken as hostages by Hamas. His message to fellow academics outside of Israel: “Academia must be able to distinguish between truth and falsehoods... Anyone who refuses to recognize this self-evident truth must be suspected of holding the opinion that ‘Jewish lives don’t matter.’”

He went on to state that 60 members of the BGU community have been murdered, hundreds of families are refugees in their own country, and six BGU students are hostages in Gaza.

“As rector, I am responsible for the safety of all students, Jew and Arab, and I expect you to do the same on your campuses,” Hames said.

NOVEMBER 2 marked 106 years since then-British foreign secretary Arthur James Balfour wrote a letter to Lord Rothschild, head of the Jewish community, committing the British government to creating a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine. Without doubt, the Balfour Declaration, as it became known, sowed the seeds for the modern State of Israel. The tragedy for the Jewish people was that we had to wait 30 years for it to come to fruition. Had it come 10 years earlier, millions of Jews might well have been saved from Hitler’s extermination policy.

Today, we are privileged to have the Jewish state, which serves as a beacon of light and security to every Jew wherever he or she may reside.

Am Yisrael chai. ■

The writer is chairperson of Israel, Britain and the Commonwealth Association.