Unfortunately anti-Israel student organisations held demonstrations on 7 October featuring slogans such as globalise the intifada. That was on the second anniversary of the Hamas pogrom in southern Israel in which almost 1200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.
Despite appeals from Keir Starmer, the prime minister, and other government officials to postpone demonstrations and to respect the feelings of the Jewish community after the attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue demonstrations were held in London (on several campuses), Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds and Sheffield.
A few points are worth noting. First, hoping that describing anti-Israel activists as “un-British”, as Starmer did, shows a remarkable failure to understand the nature of protestors. They have consistently shown a lack of empathy for Israeli suffering. In this case they described calls for restraint in view of the Manchester attack as an attempt to weaponise it in order to suppress pro-Palestinian protest.
Second, the demonstrations were perhaps not as large as the organisers hoped, typical numbers being in the hundreds. These demonstrations were met with counter-protests and many universities did not see any protests.
Third, the government might finally be forced to get serious about tackling anti-Semitism on British campuses. The activities of the Trump administration have been judged to have contravened the law and not been motivated entirely by concerns over anti-Semitism. However, they have clearly had an effect.
For a while the British government seemed to be applying penalties. For example, it withdrew recognition from the National Union of Students because of its refusal to tackle anti-Semitism in its midst. Yet this was reversed and the feeling of late has been that governments have not grappled with the problem. Interestingly David Lammy, the deputy prime minister, was heckled on this point when he went to give a speech at the Heaton Park synagogue. He was forced to pause his speech on several occasions including when one of those present was heard to call out “they called for our death in the past. Have you walked past a university lately?”
Finally, some are beginning to speculate that a free for all attitude to such demonstrations and the anti-Israel marches typically held in London is no longer viable. In the latest episode of the Spectator’s podcast Quite right!, Michael Gove, the magazine’s editor, floated the idea of forcing repeat demonstrators to foot the bill of policing the demonstration. Another suggestion is that protest organisers who do not attempt to prevent violent slogans being chanted or displayed should also be made to pay damages. Such measures can already be applied to football clubs which face financial penalties if their fans indulge in racist chanting.
Awareness of the situation on campuses has gone beyond a few interested journalists and officials in the Department for Education. It has forced its way into the inboxes of the most senior government officials who can no longer claim to be unaware of the seriousness of the problem and the true nature of anti-Israel activism.
Guy Whitehouse is a member of the Academy of Ideas and the Free Speech Union. His views do not necessarily reflect those of those organisations.
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the Radicalism of fools project.
PHOTO: "Intifada stencil" by echiner1 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.