University rejects full IHRA definition
V THE UNIVERSITY of Bristol is embroiled in a row with its Jewish students after its senate declined to recommend the adoption of the full IHRA definition of antisemitism.
The university declined to explain why its 100-member senate — which is responsible for the institution’s day-today operations — removed each of the 11 examples of antisemitism included in the definition.
It has passed on the amended IHRA code to its board of trustees, which was due to meet on Friday to rule on whether it will approve its adoption.
A request to speak at the trustees’ meeting made by Nina Freedman, the president of the Bristol J-Soc, was rejected.
Ms Freedman said that Jewish students were not consulted ahead of the senate’s decision.
Writing to Professor Judith Squires, the university’s Vice Chancellor, she argued it was “odd that a room of individuals would be debating how to define racism against a minority group without representatives of that group being there to explain their own oppression”.
Ms Freedman added: “I would like to make clear that we would be outraged if the university takes the decision to define antisemitism for the Jewish community rather than listen to what your Jewish students, Jewish academics and the wider Jewish community have been telling you about what our oppression actually is.
“It seems baffling to me that Jewish voices and opinions would not be listened to when deciding how to safeguard Jewish students on campus.”
Daniel Kosky, the campaigns organiser for the national Union of Jewish Students (UJS), accused the University of Bristol of delivering a “slap in the face” to Jewish students.
He said: “It is quite incredible that the university is seeking to adopt their own definition of antisemitism without even consulting with their Jewish students. The University of Bristol have consistently stated that they want to listen to their Jewish students, but almost every request made by the Jewish Society in relation to antisemitism has been rejected.
“Jewish students at Bristol have been clear that they expect their university to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, in full and without amendments.
“This attempt to pass an amended definition of antisemitism is a slap in the face to Jewish students who for months have been calling on the University to take action against antisemitism. We urge the University of Bristol reverse their current course and instead adopt the IHRA definition.”
The University of Bristol said its senate had recommended that the university should adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism “as one of our reference points”.
A university spokesman added: “We are meeting with the President of the Jewish Society ahead of the Board of Trustees meeting to discuss their concerns and to outline the rationale behind Senate’s recommendation.”
In September, a row broke out over a lecture linking the Community Security Trust to the spread of Islamophobia, after the university declined to consider taking disciplinary action against the offending academic.
And in April, Omar Chowdhury, the student union’s black and ethnic minority officer, was investigated after telling a Jewish student he should “be like Israel and cease to exist”.
V A TEENAGER who plotted to attack synagogues as part of a “race war” has been convicted of six terror offences.
The 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, searched online for shuls in the Durham area to target and wrote a manifesto, inspired by the one written by far-right Norwegian terrorist Anders Brevik.
Its title was “Storm 88: A manual for practical sensible guerrilla warfare against the kike system in Durham city area, sieg hiel”.
“Once we get study leave, those glorious 12 weeks of freedom, it’s showtime,” he wrote in January. When he was arrested in March, he was carrying a piece of paper that said: “Killing is probably easier than your paranoid mind thinks. You’re just not used to it … good hunting Friday.”
The boy denied the charges, claiming he adopted the persona for its “shock value” but was found guilty of all of them at Manchester Crown Court on Wednesday.
Prosecutor Michelle Nelson QC told the court that attacking people “who had no place in the new world order” was something the defendant “saw as part of generating race war and chaos”.
He will be sentenced on January 7, 2020.