Antisemitism ‘normalised’ on UK university campuses, peers fear

Peers have raised fears that antisemitism is being “normalised” on university campuses after a report found a fifth of students do not want to share a house with a Jewish student.

Labour’s John Cryer raised research by the National Union of Jewish students in a House of Lords debate on 16 March.

It found one in five (20 per cent) would not be open to house sharing with a Jewish student, and that one in four students (23 per cent) have seen behaviour that targets Jewish students for their religion or ethnicity.

Cryer said that “antisemitism is being normalised on campus after campus, after campus, very often at the behest of wayward academics”.

The UJS report also claimed that the “glorification of terrorism is prevalent and unpunished”, with almost half of students (49 per cent) saying they had seen Hamas and Hezbollah glorified on campus, and a further 47 per cent have seen the 7 October attacks justified.

Ray Collins, the government’s spokesperson on equalities, noted that it was “investing £7 million in tackling antisemitism in education programmes to train university staff and support Jewish students, and last week we also announced plans to simplify the higher education complaint system, strengthening whistleblowing routes, and increasing oversight of prevent compliance with the new OfS [Office for Students] guidance from 2027”.

This will include additional non-statutory guidance on external speakers, which will be issued in the spring, and said “the department is working with the Union of Jewish students on new good practice training for universities”.

However, he added that “we have to be very clear about free speech and balancing free speech with addressing the horrible things that antisemitism can give rise to”.

People’s political views on the Middle East can be “used in a very abusive way”, Collins said, but he noted students have the right to criticise the state of Israel and debate the notion of Zionism.

“It's not illegal to express those opinions. What it is illegal, and very much illegal, is to incite the hatred that we’ve seen evidenced in this report, and that’s where we need to take clear action,” he said.

Luciana Berger, vice chair of the advisory board of the Union of Jewish students, called the report “shocking”.

“There are terrifying case studies in the report, including the experience of Jewish students in Birmingham who were followed home and whose pursuers lingered outside for several nights and told passers by to remember this address as ‘Jews live here’.”

She noted that there have been “a number of debates” on antisemitism in higher education in House of Lords, and “unfortunately, the situation is getting worse, not better”.

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com