Community Security Trust: The data should “ring alarm bells.”
By World Israel News Staff
The number of antisemitic incidents on British college campuses has surged by 59%, according to data reported by the country’s Community Security Trust via the London Jewish Chronicle.
There were 111 incidents so far this academic year compared to 70 last year, the report said, adding that this is the highest number of total cases recorded by the charity in a given year since it began collecting data in 2002.
The organization told the Chronicle that the data “should ring alarm bells.”
The majority of cases were reported in May during the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas. A CST spokesperson said that “the fact that this record total coincided with the recent conflict in Israel and Gaza shows yet again that wherever extreme anti-Israel hae is found, anti-Jewish hatred surely follows.”
The campuses with the most cases were the University of Bristol and the University of Warwick.
The majority of incidents were verbal, written or online abuse. There was only one alleged assault.
It is “incredibly worrying to see how positive and active Jewish student life is being tainted by the growth of anti-Jewish hatred across campuses in the UK,” a spokesperson for the Uniion of Jewish Students told the Chronicle. “It is vital that institutions, student unions and the wider community are active in calling out anti-Jewish racism.”