Woke anti-semitism is now rife on campus
A young generation of activists are turning universities into incubators of illiberalism
What a disgrace it was to see the Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely targeted by a mob at the LSE on Tuesday. Congratulations to her for standing her ground and taking part in the meeting, and well done to the police and Community Security Trust, which safeguards Jewish community events, for ensuring it could go ahead.
It is, of course, outrageous that its protection should be needed at all at a university which is supposed to promote the free exchange of ideas and debate, but it is another example of the double standards on display on too many campuses. Why is it that anti-semitism is treated so differently from any other form of racism?
The protesters insist they do not hate Jews. They say they are good, virtuous Left-wingers campaigning for oppressed Palestinians, but how does threatening an Israeli diplomat or trying to prevent her answering questions in London bring a Palestinian state any closer?
Look closely at the banners and slogans. In among the Palestinian flags were placards proclaiming support for Kata’ib Hezbollah, a radical Iraqi paramilitary force funded by the Iranian dictatorship. These are not peaceful campaigners, but hard-line extremists. When they chant, as they did on Tuesday, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, they are not calling for a Palestinian state living alongside Israel in peace – which is what the rest of us campaign for – but for the abolition of the world’s only Jewish state and the Middle East’s only democracy.
The threats on social media were even worse, with student groups tweeting, “Whoever smashes the Ambassador [sic] car window (Lincoln’s Inn Field), gets pints. Let’s f---in frighten her” and posting, “18:25, we’re storming in. Let’s make her shake. F--- the old bill.”
Contrast the reception Mrs Hotovely received with the welcome given to Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi at the LSE in 2010 or when the university took £1.5 million from his son. Where is the fury at the close links between the LSE and China?
If the only country you protest about, boycott or campaign to abolish is the only Jewish one, and if the only people to whom you would deny the right to statehood are the Jews, don’t tell me you are not a racist.
I’m afraid this is the fashionable “woke” anti-semitism that we increasingly see among younger activists who view Jews as a privileged class or as “white”, and therefore at the top of the hierarchy of injustice and unable to be victims of racism.
This is the terrible result of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party. Young people radicalised, obsessed with Israel, blaming one side for a complex conflict, supporting or excusing terrorism against Israeli civilians. This has been happening on many campuses for years and explains how, for example, a professor at Bristol can teach conspiracy theories about Jewish people as if they were facts and be supported by many in his union for doing so. It may also help explain how Oxford has a blind spot when it comes to taking Max Mosley’s millions, money from the family trust of Britain’s most notorious fascist.
It is time to start standing up for our country’s values of democracy, freedom, fairness and tolerance, values we share with our ally Israel. The vast majority of British people believe in stronger ties between our two countries and this important relationship has brought billions of trade and investment to Britain, provides one in seven of the drugs dispensed by the NHS, as well as university partnerships developing life-saving treatments and a vital defence relationship.
As a first step, as the Campaign Against Antisemitism has demanded, the LSE must work with the police and Twitter must provide the details of the people behind Tuesday’s threats to ensure they are expelled from the university and prosecuted for inciting violence.
The LSE was right to facilitate the ambassador’s visit at the invitation of a student society. Our universities need to be bastions of debate and the free exchange of ideas – not incubators of illiberal mobs, violent extremism and anti-israel, anti-semitic obsession.