Jewish students are being followed home, screamed at and sent death threats by their peers at university, a report into anti-Semitism has revealed.
Students at University of Birmingham, University College London (UCL), Royal Holloway University and City St George’s, which is part of University of London, said they had faced a barrage of anti-Jewish hatred on and off campus.
The allegations form part of a wave of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate incidents that have swept across British university campuses since the Oct 7 terror attacks.
A dossier compiled by the charity StandWithUs UK and obtained by The Telegraph details an extensive list of incidents, as well as anti-Israel activities that have made life hostile for Jewish and Israeli students.
The report details the sustained campaign of intimidation against Evaldes Barstys, 22, a student at Royal Holloway, after he set up an Israel Society in his third year.
Shortly after the freshers fair, the history student said he started receiving anonymous phone calls from people saying they were watching him.
In one, callers made fun of his “funny little hat” (referring to his religious headcovering). In another, the caller allegedly threatened to attend Jewish Society events and beat up students. At one point, bullies read out his full university address and said “we are coming to get you”. The messages, which have been seen by The Telegraph, include: “calm yourself f—-t Jew bag”, “I am gonna murder this racist p—-k” and “tell me where he lives and where I can find it, leave it to me”. Mr Barstys also claimed that two girls left used pads and tampons outside his university bedroom, in retaliation for his perceived pro-Israel views.
Another testimony in the report was an incident at the University of Birmingham, where a kippah-wearing student and his housemates were reportedly followed home by four university-aged men.
The men allegedly climbed onto the railings outside his house and started shrieking: “Dirty Jews” and “Jews live here” to passers-by walking down the residential student hotspot of Selly Oak, according to the report. The next day, the men returned and chased the same group of students in their car.
Jewish students have also been told to “go back to America,” “go back to Poland,” and “go back to Auschwitz” and have been identified by their so-called “Jewish noses” while out at bars and nightclubs in the city.
Another was told by a lecturer that their name was peculiar and “very Jewish”. They even suggested the student shorten it.
As a consequence of this atmosphere, the Jewish Society operates with constant caution by refusing to publish the location of events and forcing students to register in advance for socials such as Friday night dinner, Jewish students said.
Hillel House, a Jewish leisure space and kosher accommodation, has installed new iron security gates “just to be safe”.
At UCL during freshers week, Mark, an Israeli student, was slapped in the face at Scala, a nightclub in King’s Cross. A few days later, while he was walking across campus with a Jewish friend who was wearing a kippah, they were stopped by a member of UCL campus security who told them it was unsafe to enter because of the larger pro-Palestine protest in the central quad.
Reflecting on the experience, Mark said: “It became clear that he [the visibly Jewish student] was being excluded, not protected.”
In another incident, pro-Palestine activists scattered leaflets across the building designed to resemble $100 bills with red stains symbolising blood. The leaflets read: “Israel kills, UCL pays! How many kids have they killed today?”
At City St George’s, footage has emerged showing a student chanting in Arabic “Al Yahud Bara Bara” which translates to “Jew, get out! Get out!” There’s a bit more to it than that, and a full translation is a lot nastier.
One Response
If, God forbid, we experience another Holocaust, history will record that a whole lot of university administrators on both sides of the Atlantic have blood on their hands. Here in the US, the resurgence in anti-Semitism sprouted from our university campuses, thanks to radical students, radical professors, and cowardly administrators who have stood by and done nothing. From the universities, it has metastasized into society at large.
In Europe and North America, we take great pride in our democracies and our “prestigious” universities, but if we refuse to protect our Jewish fellow citizens, we and our universities are not worth a dime.