Universities warned over Israel protests
By UNIVERSITIES have been warned about anti-Semitism ahead of a series of events called Israel Apartheid Week, as a minister urged institutions to tackle “intimidation and violence” against Jewish students.
Jo Johnson, the universities minister, has written to the chief executives of the representative bodies for higher education institutions, reminding them of their responsibility to ensure students do not suffer “discrimination, harassment or victimisation”.
It follows a spate of anti-Semitic incidents on campus, including Holocaust denial leaflets being distributed at Cambridge University and swastikas discovered at Exeter University.
In the annual grant letter to the Higher Education Funding Council for England, sent yesterday, Mr Johnson said: “I am sure you share my concerns about the rising reports of anti-Semitic incidents in this country and will want to make sure that your own institution is a welcoming environment for all students and that the legal position and guidelines are universally understood and acted upon at all times. This will include events such as those that might take place under the banner of ‘Israel Apartheid’ events for instance. Such events need to be properly handled by higher education institutions to ensure that our values, expectations and laws are not violated.”
Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) is a series of events that seek to raise awareness about “Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people”, as well as encouraging the movement to boycott Israel.
Events run under the IAW banner have courted controversy in the past. The co-chairman of Oxford University’s Labour Club resigned in protest at its “problem with Jews” following its decision to endorse the event last year.
The Daily Telegraph revealed that an internal report found that Malia Bouattia, the president of the National Union of Students, had made anti-Semitic comments during an IAW event held at the School of Oriental and African Studies.
Baroness Deech, the cross-bench peer, who has previously warned that some of Britain’s leading universities are gaining anti-Jewish reputations, said that Mr Johnson’s intervention was “a great step forward”.