Masked demonstrators at Cambridge University burned flares and screamed Hamas slogans during the Israeli ambassador’s visit on Tuesday – prompting outraged government ministers to demand action.
The shameful scenes at one of the country’s top universities came in a torrid week on British campuses. At Sheffield Hallam University, Jewish students branded the institution a “hostile environment” after it employed Palestinian activist Shahd Abusalama to teach a course on “post-colonial media culture”, despite her praise for terrorists and provocative statements about “Zionists”.
Protesters at the Cambridge Union event holding signs saying 'Zionist scum not welcome here' (John Nguyen)
And a report by the Community Security Trust revealed a record 128 antisemitic incidents at British universities in 2021.
The 100-strong mob gathered outside Cambridge Student Union on Tuesday, chanting “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”. Last month, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi told the JC that universities must alert police if they hear the chant. But in Cambridge, officers looked on.
Police at the Cambridge protest (John Nguyen)
Demonstrators also called Israel an “apartheid state,” echoing last week’s inflammatory claims by Amnesty International. The crowd lit flares, blew whistles and beat pans to intimidate Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely and drown out her speech.
Andrew Percy, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism, said he would raise the incident with university officials.
“Cambridge University needs to investigate the use of this to determine if any of their students were involved and, if so, what action they plan to take against students using a slogan so beloved of terrorists,” he said.
Amid the growing crisis, Universities Minister Michelle Donelan told the JC: “Universities should have a zero tolerance attitude to anti-Jewish racism on campus. At our antisemitism summit, we set out clear actions, including spotting patterns of incidents, spreading good practice and training from the Union of Jewish students and I urge the higher educations sector to take forward these commitments so they have the right tools to tackle these issues.”
In a statement, the University of Cambridge said: “The University of Cambridge supports the right to freedom of speech and protest, but does not tolerate racism or harassment. The police attended the protest and are therefore best placed to determine if laws were broken. We would encourage anyone with evidence of criminality to report it to them.”
"If there is evidence that students have broken the University’s code of discipline then this will be investigated”
