Fury as Tonge blames campus hate on Israel
A CLAIM by Baroness Jenny Tonge that Jewish students suffer abuse “because of the illegal actions of the Israeli government” has sparked fury.
In a debate secured by the crossbench peer Baroness Deech in response to the publication of the Community Security Trust’s Campus Antisemitism in Britain 2018-2020 report, which showed an alarming rise of incidents at universities, the former Liberal Democrat MP said: “I was shocked when I read the nature of the abuse.”
But Baroness Tonge then added: “What is missing, however, is any investigation into why these incidents are increasing .... with increasing violence in the West Bank and Gaza, the expansion of settlements and the occupation of east Jerusalem, antisemitic incidents have continued to rise.
“Whenever I suggest a connection between the two, I am told this is ‘victim blame’, which it is not. The victims are innocent Jewish people—students, in this case. They are victims because of the illegal actions of the Israeli government.”
Lord Austin, the former Labour MP, said it was “completely wrong for the noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, to blame racism against Jewish people in Britain not on the racists responsible but on Israel.” The Conservative peer Lord Polak added angrily: “I am unsure how a one-minute contribution from the noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, will be sufficient to put right a career of repeating old, medieval tropes.” In 2010, Baroness Tonge was sacked as the Liberal Democrats’ health spokesperson in the House of Lords after demanding an investigation into allegations that IDF aid workers in Haiti were harvesting organs.