Antisemitism on University Campuses

Question for Short Debate

20:17:00

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps are being taken to eliminate antisemitism on university campuses.

My Lords, I am very pleased to have secured this important debate. It is important because I think it is beyond dispute that antisemitism has been rocketing in recent years, not just in this country but across many parts of the globe—but, pertinently to this debate, in this country and across certain educational institutions. Sadly, on a personal note, I will say that the situation was made infinitely worse by the former leadership of my own party, which effectively invited racists into the ranks of the Labour Party and then protected them. Again on a personal note, I am very pleased to be here with my noble friend Lady Berger. She and I were Members of the other House for a long time, and I saw probably just a fraction of the titanic amount of abuse and threats that she received, very often from Labour Party members. I was born into the Labour Party and I will die in it—not just yet, but one day I will. I joined the party when Jim Callaghan was Prime Minister, which gives some idea of how long I have been in it, and the five-year period of escalating antisemitism in our ranks was far and away the worst I experienced as a Labour Party member. I come from a very anti-racist background, but I grew up in a world, as many of us did, in which there was a general belief—this was in the 1960s and 1970s—that antisemitism had been dealt with when the guns fell silent in 1945. How wrong can you be? If any noble Lords are not familiar with the work of the Community Security Trust, the CST, I suggest they read its reports and look at its website. It is one of the most important, if not the most important, anti-racist organisations in the country; it has maintained that position—a unique position, really—in anti-racist research for many decades. In December 2024, its latest report on campus antisemitism found that there had been a 117% increase in antisemitic incidents on campuses during the previous two academic years, from 2022 to 2024. The Union of Jewish Students, which also does much good research in this area, recorded a staggering 413% increase in antisemitic incidents from the academic year 2022-23 to 2023-24, with 53 incidents in the first year and 272 in the second. That is a staggering rise and gives some idea of the momentous challenge that we face in this country. The StandWithUs report, with which my noble friend Lord Turnberg is intimately acquainted, was launched, I think, this morning. It was covered in the press, if anybody wants to read up on it, with various reports in this morning’s newspapers and media outlets. The report looks at individual Jewish student experiences and student voices. Page after page of the report is littered with examples of loud and virulent support for Hamas and Hezbollah. It is worth bearing in mind, because it often gets lost in the debate, that both Hamas and Hezbollah are proscribed terrorist organisations. Expressing support for proscribed terrorist organisations should be met with the full force of the law, because it constitutes a criminal action. I will give a few examples from the StandWithUs report. At Queen Mary University, which I mention because it happens to be about a mile from the boundary with my old constituency of Leyton and Wanstead, in east London, some students decided, quite reasonably, to hold a silent vigil on 7 October 2024 to mark the year’s anniversary since the massacres, mass rape, torture and abductions in southern Israel. What followed was that the silent vigil, which was quite a small group, was surrounded by hundreds of students—and probably people who were not students—screaming and shouting slogans, and engaging in threatening behaviour. The university security staff then removed not the aggressors but the students engaging in a silent protest to mark the anniversary. At Birmingham University, a similar vigil was planned, but the university authorities would not even give it permission to go ahead. It had to be moved to a local synagogue, where people were followed and, again, threatened in the street and outside the synagogue. Many Jewish students bear witness in the report. A Jewish student at University College London, reported feeling unable to attend lectures and seminars due to threats and intimidation. That is a fairly extraordinary step in anybody’s university career. There is example after example, across many universities in this country, including threats, intimidation, physical attacks of Jewish students and Jewish students being ostracised by other students, while in many cases university authorities stand idly by or vaguely, tacitly side with the aggressors. The rise in antisemitism on campuses did not occur out of a clear blue sky. There are certain malign organisations which encourage antisemitism, whipping it up, and prey on perhaps relatively young minds. I will give a couple of examples—just to get one or two things off my chest, I suppose. The Stop the War Coalition is not called that anymore; I suspect that is because it put the word “coalition” in there as an act of irony and then took it out. Stop the War springs to mind because, on 9 October, within two days of the barbarous attacks on southern Israel on 7 October, it was outside the Israeli embassy in London, taking part in a protest. This is before the IDF was even really fully thinking about its response. It was hours after the massacre had stopped. Why would anybody engage in a protest outside the Israeli embassy after 1,200 Israelis had been murdered and Hamas had engaged in rape, torture and abduction? In my estimation, it was because it was engaging in the incitement of racial hatred against Jewish people. Stop the War, by the way, has strong links to Hezbollah and Hamas, and therefore, I feel fairly sure, Iran and the clerical fascists of Tehran. Stop the War was set up in 2003 in the run-up to the Iraq war. I was a Labour MP at the time, as I was until a short time ago, and I voted against the Iraq war probably seven times, as well as marching against it and speaking against it. I have never had any link with Stop the War and never will. Not to be outdone, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign applied for a licence to have a march in London on 7 October. The attack on southern Israel started, I think, at about 6.30 am. Within a few hours, the PSC had applied to the Metropolitan Police for a licence so that it could have a march in central London. Again, why would you do that, unless you are intent on whipping up racial hatred against Jewish people? My personal view is that membership of any democratic party, frankly, is incompatible with membership of Stop the War or the PSC. That may sound like it is largely directed at members of parties in the centre or centre-left, such as my own party, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens. However, when I marched in London against the Iraq war, all those years ago in 2003, I saw a banner—I thought at the time I might be imagining it—which honestly said, “Conservatives against the war”. It is not just the left who opposed the Iraq war. Underneath that banner there were some quite nervous looking people, but they were there to express their views, and I congratulate them on having the backbone to do that. I have a couple of final points I want to make to my noble friend, because I am almost out of time. I have two requests which I hope the Minister can take on board. First, I am certainly convinced that the Government should look at the possibility of holding an inquiry into campus antisemitism. That would be an important step towards combating it. Secondly, perhaps we could examine the possibility of the Department for Education expanding the section of the national curriculum which covers the Holocaust. I say that because the Holocaust and the Second World War are now slipping out of memory and into history, and therefore it is all the more important that we stamp on the collective consciousness of future generations exactly what horror happened. I finish with that, because I know I am out of time. We are certainly seeing a sharp and widespread increase in antisemitism. My fear is that, unless we take concrete steps to counter this on campuses and in institutions of education, some of those institutions could turn into incubators for virulent antisemitism.

20:28:00

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Cryer, for instigating this debate and, in particular, congratulate him on that excellent opening speech. I pay tribute to all he has done in this area. I refer your Lordships to various Jewish community organisations where I serve as a volunteer, which have contributed to my thoughts, in particular the Council of Christians and Jews. Today, the StandWithUs report was issued, which confirms the terrible state we have come to, where high levels of antisemitic abuse seem now to be normal on campus. Antisemitism on campus is not new. It was there when I was a student in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but it has now grown to such a worrying level that Jewish students are actually frightened to go to a British university. It is not just those who are perpetrating attacks. It is the level of ignorance and hate on campus which is so depressing. If only 33% of students describe the Hamas attack as terrorism, we know we are in trouble. The implication is that 67% do not see Hamas as terrorists. How is it that so many students are so misinformed such that, as the noble Lord, Lord Cryer, mentioned, CST antisemitic incident reports rose 413% from one year to another? I appreciate that, with only some 250,000 Jewish people in a country of some 70 million, many, if not most, will never have met a Jewish person or heard their story. The roots of the problem, in my opinion, may well be found in schools, which most university students will have recently left. We have seen evidence of teachers in WhatsApp groups referring to ZioNazis, and National Education Union officials undertaking activities such as clearing Israeli-made food from supermarkets, filming themselves doing it and circulating those films. The NEU is preoccupied with anti-Israel resolutions. It is in schools where the prejudice can start and universities where it explodes. The Government have unparalleled relationships with the teaching unions. Are they talking to them about this? We have seen tough action in the States. No one, including me, likes all of Trump’s actions, but he has showed a decisive determination to deal with antisemitism on campus. Over here, the Union of Jewish Students—UJS—points out that campuses have become an increasingly hostile and exclusionary environment for Jewish students. I visited Cambridge University last year to see the camp and tents outside King’s College where the cry for the elimination of the Jewish people in Israel was made repeatedly. The UJS tells us that repulsive Holocaust inversion takes place, where the roles of victims and perpetrators are reversed. The Government know all this, but do they act? In September 2024, Keir Starmer gave a speech to the Holocaust Educational Trust—I was there—and acknowledged antisemitism on campus and promised to deal with it. In the very same month, the Minister made a seminal speech on education to the Universities UK conference in Reading. She covered nearly every aspect of education, including freedom of speech, but there was no mention of or reference to antisemitism on campus. Can we be assured that the Minister has read Sir Keir’s speech, which was delivered to a largely Jewish audience, and that there will be joined-up government action? Universities all need to be reminded of their duty to adopt the IHRA definition and police it. They need to understand that undue hatred of Israel is antisemitic. We need to know that the OfS produces guidance which ensures that universities intervene so that they carry out their duty of care. I know the Minister has great experience in the education sector and has done for many years. Will she commit personally to engage in this issue by talking to the universities in a clear and public way, which is disclosed to us all so that we can see what has been demanded? If they do not comply, appropriate penalties and actions have to be imposed, as Sir Keir Starmer promised he would do.

20:32:00

My Lords, I first spoke on this topic in this House in 2007. Even more sadly, we have just marked 80 years since the liberation of Belsen and there have re-emerged some of the same hatreds and moral inversions. By that I mean that the victims have been painted as killers and the tragedy of the Shoah is downplayed. I give a university example: 18 student bodies have decided to support the legal action to decriminalise Hamas. St Antony’s College in Oxford chooses to host a Mr Mishra, whose theme is that the underlying problem of the West is its sanctification of the Holocaust at the expense of colonialism. The lecturers and their union, the UCU, which should be supporting affected students, are themselves the aggressors. The local branch in Oxford voted for a motion calling for a third intifada until victory. Israel is not the problem, it is the excuse to persecute Jewish students. The situation is deteriorating, and no remedial action has been taken. I have little faith in inquiries. We know what the situation is; we know what the remedies might be, and we need implementation and enforcement. We need no more hand-wringing or robotic statements from vice-chancellors that “there is no place for antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian discrimination, or hate directed towards any faith, race, nationality, or ethnic group” at their universities. Dehumanisation of Jewish students in many campuses has now become so deeply embedded that people feel no shame in excluding Jewish students from gatherings, mocking them by reverting to centuries-old slurs and turning the Holocaust against them. Students in London have seen swastikas carved in front of them. At UCL, Jewish students were told that Israel killed its own people: a widespread reference to the lie that the 7 October massacre was staged to provoke a war against Gaza—or just staged. What is common is the universities’ failure to take action. They could rely on the Protection from Harassment Act, the Public Order Act, the Malicious Communications Act, the Terrorism Act and the Equality Act, remembering that freedom of speech ends where hate speech and incitement to violence start. The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act would at least help Jewish student societies’ speakers be heard and would not open the door to Holocaust denial and so on, because other laws do that. It is impossible to imagine that sanctions would not be imposed were the targets of these hateful actions black or other ethnic minorities. The Government and the Office for Students should not hesitate to fine universities that tolerate this hatred and break the law. Staff and students who behave like this should be expelled or suspended. Universities’ funding of student unions should be leveraged to ensure legal behaviour. The root of the behaviour is religious teaching that Jews are inferior. It demonstrates the failure of Holocaust education, which focuses on dead Jews as a feature of the past and has nothing to say about the long history of antisemitism and the focus of antisemitism today; namely, the State of Israel. As the late and much-missed Lord Sacks pointed out, hatred of Israel is today’s variant of antisemitism. That is what the students have not realised. They need education from school up and they need to know national and government disapproval.

20:36:00

My Lords, I reference my registered interests, not least as the Government’s appointed adviser on antisemitism. I have met representatives of every single university in the UK in the last three years. I have met Jewish students from virtually all the 85 Jewish societies across our universities. I have been, with Jewish students, to a very significant number of universities. I have met, and had discussions with, pre-student applicants from a vast array of schools applying for universities. There is a danger that Parliament and the Government do not do what the noble Lord, Lord Cryer, has asked in his debate—discuss the steps being taken and what should be done about antisemitism—but spend their time outlining the problem. I have spent the last 40 years dealing with antisemitism in universities, wearing one hat or another, and I could go through chapter and verse, including virtually every single incident in recent years, the most serious of which I have usually been involved in helping to sort out. But we need to remember two things. First, what happens in the United States in one week is worse than what happens in one year in the UK in the universities. That is a factual statement; it is not an exaggeration. Therefore, there are many things and many problems. I get enough of this nonsense directed against myself, both criminally and non-criminally, day in, day out. I listen to, hear and feel what Jewish students in this country, and academics and other staff in universities, are saying. But we are also getting a lot of things right. The biggest difference between the UK and the US is that we have one unified Jewish student body. The facts that I always rely on are the facts from the Union of Jewish Students, with its 85 Jewish societies. I can tell noble Lords that that organisation is dramatically stronger, braver, better organised and better trained than it was five, 10, 15, 20 or 40 years ago—far better. That is a huge success story for the Jewish community. In a terrible and traumatic two years in this country, the Union of Jewish Students is a beacon of what can be achieved. Of course there are difficulties, but its success in holding back in the universities and of getting its way in with every single university leadership —at the table, eloquently putting its case in detail, and often getting results—should not be overlooked in this. What should be done? We do not need any more reports—I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Deech. I have a detailed report that has been with the Government for two years, much of it not yet actioned. There is a lot in there. We have money waiting to be spent on antisemitism training in universities, which is desperately needed—but it should be good-quality training. The Government should do what is needed: give a lead and empower Jewish students but also recognise that the biggest single factor this academic year has been what has been happening to Jewish academic staff, who have been isolated and ostracised. That is hardly ever talked about because they do not have an organisation to go to and to represent them. That is the biggest single danger at the current time, and we are getting nowhere near it. Give the money and the backing to those doing the work. Listen to them, go through them and, when they do well, as well as saying, “This is terrible”, say to them, “Well done, well done, well done. We are with you Jewish students. We are with you, the Union of Jewish Students”.

20:41:00

My Lords, it is an honour to follow the noble Lord, Lord Mann, and such a powerful statement. With increased regularity, we are hearing many alarming accounts of antisemitic acts increasingly occurring at our universities. Often hidden behind apparent concern for what might be happening in Gaza, it does not take much analysis to realise that, in too many cases, this concern is just an excuse for outright antisemitism. It is old-fashioned Jew-hating of the worst kind, and it must be stopped. The key issue for me today is to understand what steps are being taken to eliminate antisemitism from university campuses. Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of academic life, but it must never serve as a shield for hatred. Universities must strike a careful balance, promoting free expression while standing firmly against antisemitism in all its forms. When lecturers or students cross the line, there must be real consequences. Disciplinary action must not only be robust but must also send a clear message: antisemitism will not be tolerated. So suggesting, as happened in one university, that a swastika carved into a desk was “probably an ancient Hindu symbol”, or failing to take action when a Jewish student’s personal, cultural and spiritual possessions were thrown on to the floor in their apartment, as happened at St Andrews University, is wholly unacceptable. Universities have to step up to the plate and take action. We know that over 200 institutions have adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism, but adoption alone is not enough. Too often it is symbolic, inconsistently applied or ignored when it truly matters. The CST has reported a disturbing 117% rise in antisemitic incidents on campuses over the last two academic years. These are not just numbers; they represent real Jewish students facing real fear and exclusion in what should be safe spaces for learning. The CST report found that these incidents occurred online and on campus, and in some cases were even perpetrated by staff or student union officers. Jewish students deserve better. Universities must implement the IHRA definition meaningfully, with proper training, swift disciplinary processes and independent complaint procedures. They must ensure that Jewish students feel seen, supported and safe. His Majesty’s Government have rightly taken some action, writing to universities and stressing the use of police referrals, disciplinary measures and even visa suspensions when necessary. The five-point plan and the proposed “tackling antisemitism quality seal” are welcome initiatives. However, as my noble friend Lord Leigh has said, it is not enough. It is to be applauded that the Government have recognised that leadership must also come from the top of every university. The Prime Minister has said that vice-chancellors must take personal responsibility for protecting Jewish students. What steps are the Government taking to ensure meaningful implementation of the IHRA definition? What assessment has been made of the increase in incidents since October 2023? Will the Government consider linking higher education funding to concrete action against antisemitism? Finally, will the Government withdraw visas from international students who incite racial hatred? We must ensure that our universities are places of light, not hate. Jewish students should never be left to walk alone.

20:46:00

My Lords, I commend my noble friend Lord Cryer for securing this important debate and for his powerful and meaningful messages of solidarity and advocacy for the Jewish community. I declare an interest as a member of the advisory council of the Union of Jewish Students—the UJS—the voice of nearly 10,000 Jewish students across the UK and a body that I proudly joined as a student. It is just over 20 years ago that I gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee in the other place about my personal experiences of antisemitism as a student on campus, and here we are discussing these very same issues. I shall not repeat the statistics. Jewish students across the country today are reporting sustained levels of abuse, intimidation and marginalisation on campus. We have also seen some violent attacks, and this we have never seen before. Since launching the service in October 2023, in just 19 months UJS’s 24/7 welfare support lines have received nearly 2,000 phone calls from Jewish students in need. We have not only seen an increase in incidents but are witnessing an atmosphere in which Jewish students feel the need to choose a different route through campus, to avoid specific spaces or even to miss certain lectures. A campus life where some students do not feel they can fully engage due to fear of hatred or attack is one we must urgently address. Yet I am pleased to learn that Jewish student pride is at an all-time high. For the vast majority of Jewish students, Jewish life rather than Jewish strife is defining their campus experiences, with UJS engaging over 8,000 Jewish students over the past year. Interfaith events have taken place on numerous campuses, ensuring that collaboration is still able to prevail, and UJS has provided antisemitism awareness training to over 5,000 student leaders, university staff and students. The resilience of Jewish students is born in part out of a necessity to create safe, supportive spaces in response to the exclusion and hostility they have faced elsewhere. These safe spaces are there thanks to the outstanding work of UJS students and the volunteer-led Jewish societies up and down the country. Since 7 October, UJS has been living up to the mantra of my dear friend, the late former president Alan Senitt: “More Jewish students doing more Jewish things”. This is how the history books will remember this period of campus life, not as one framed by the hatred that Jewish students are experiencing but as one framed in the pride that they have shown for their Judaism, no matter how they choose to live and express it. It is unacceptable to expect Jewish students to be constantly vigilant and to report incidents of anti-Jewish hatred while institutions continuously fail to act. Universities, colleges and student unions must take proactive steps to meet their duty of care. If universities continue to be slow to act—or, in some cases, refuse to act—the consequence will be that those campuses will become Jewish free. I have already heard parents in this country talking about a number of “no go” university campuses for their children. This is a reality that I think we can all agree is abhorrent. It is commendable that the Government committed £7 million to fighting antisemitism in our schools and at universities. However, other than a small percentage, this funding is still yet to be allocated to those on the front lines fighting antisemitism and representing the interests of Jewish students. Can my noble friend confirm when this support will be made available? University leaders must not be allowed to sit idly by while this, the oldest form of hatred, is allowed to continue in their institutions. I ask my noble friend: when will the Government convene university leaders, together with the UJS, to compel them to act decisively and proactively against anti-Jewish racism on their campuses? This is not just a matter of security. Jewish students being able to enjoy the student experience just the same as all their peers is a matter of justice, equality and the fundamental right to feel safe and to flourish in higher and further education.

20:51:00

My Lords, I declare my interests in the Union of Jewish Students, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Chief Rabbi’s advisory board. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Cryer, on this debate and on his excellent introduction. The integrity and inclusivity of higher education in this country is under threat. UK universities no longer feel like safe places or inclusive spaces for the 9,000 Jewish students on our campuses. They are reporting sustained levels of abuse, intimidation and marginalisation. We have heard from the StandWithUs report, CST and many other organisations just how serious this issue is. Jewish students are continuously facing hostility and are being blamed for the Israeli Government’s actions, even when many of them do not necessarily support the Israeli Government. They have, it seems, no right to free speech and even, as the noble Lord, Lord Cryer, suggested, no right to silent protest either. They are facing the glorification of terrorism not just by student union officers or fellow students but by academic staff as well. It feels as if Islamist groups have infiltrated our universities at all levels. They seem to be working to normalise support for terror. Does the Minister share my concerns at attempts, supported by British students at universities across the country, including those at leading Russell group universities such as UCL, Edinburgh and LSE, to de-proscribe Hamas? To Jewish students and most Jews, the suggestion that Hamas is not a terrorist group is truly frightening. After the actions that it perpetrated—beheading, rape, kidnapping and ongoing terror—it is, I believe, the duty of many of our universities to wake up to the threats that are all around them. Would the Minister consider fines for universities that tolerate antisemitism and removing student union funding from those that are peddling hate? Rising antisemitism is rarely the lone or the last expression of intolerance in any society, but I am grateful to the many noble Lords who are supporting this debate tonight and who support the cause of fighting antisemitism on our campuses. I thank the noble Baroness and the Government for taking this issue seriously. As Lord Sacks said, “Jews cannot fight antisemitism alone. The victim cannot cure the crime”.

20:55:00

My Lords, I too thank the noble Lord, Lord Cryer, for introducing this debate and giving us such a wonderful opening address. Conor Cruise O’Brien said that “anti-Semitism is a light sleeper”. Well, it was woken with a bang on the morning after the devastating slaughter of men, women and children by Hamas on 7 October, when the blame for that act of terror was soon placed on the victims—Israel and the Jews. The marchers in London and even, I am afraid, Amnesty International, stated as much on 8 October, well before Israel reacted. It is no surprise then that university campuses across the country became hotbeds of antisemitism and anti-Zionism. The report published today by StandWithUs provides the verbal testimony of students from a wide range of universities and it makes devastating reading—I should declare an interest as a trustee of StandWithUs. I will not repeat the many uncomfortable student statements that we have already heard, save for one: “I was targeted not for what I said, but for who I am—a Jew”. Another student had a swastika carved into her desk, as we have heard, and there are many more such descriptions from desperate students. Worst of all is the fact that, despite the complaints many students made to university authorities, they have, by and large, been ignored or worse. As one university said: “There are no further steps or actions related to this matter”. It is often said that criticism of Israel is valid; indeed, more than 50% of Israelis are vehemently critical of their Government, but that is not anti-Zionism. It becomes anti-Zionism only when it is taken to mean antipathy to the very existence of the State of Israel. The definition of Zionism is simply the desire to support the only Jewish state in the world, and it is far from implying approval of one or other of the Israeli Government’s actions. What Government in the world are immune to criticism, even our own? But no matter how badly behaved they are, we do not deny their existence. On campuses, just as the strong criticism of China’s treatment of the Uyghurs has not led to the persecution of Chinese students, and just as American students have not suffered a backlash from the behaviour of President Trump—unless they happen to be Jewish—so one may ask: why is it only Jewish students who suffer? It is hard to escape the conclusion that, as Jonathan Sacks said, “Anti-Zionism is the new antisemitism”. So, my question to my noble friend the Minister is: when will the promised meeting between Ministers and university vice-chancellors take place? What pressure will be brought to bear on them to support their Jewish students and stop their persecution? Will vice-chancellors be brought to recognise that calls for equity, diversity and inclusion should, in all fairness, be applied to all excluded groups, including Jewish students?

20:58:00

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Cryer, and agree with him in endorsing, as so many other noble Lords have done, the StandWithUs UK report and its important implications for the leadership of our universities. Like many academics, I am uncomfortable with the Trump Government’s current conflict with Harvard. But Harvard is on a much firmer footing in this conflict with its president saying—in a way that our vice-chancellors are reluctant to do—that antisemitism is a serious problem on campus and acknowledging the depth of the problem. The noble Lord, Lord Turnberg, mentioned Conor Cruise O’Brien and one of his many brilliant, insightful comments. In the period since 7 October, one moment stays very much in my mind. For over 10 years, I was chairman of the Anglo-Israel Association. We tried to bring some victims of 7 October and their families to Ireland. To a degree, we succeeded. There were some radio interviews and so on, but we were told that you cannot bring them on to university campuses. These were the victims of this horrendous assault, but we could not bring them on to university campuses. We do not want to reach such a point in this country —that is the message of the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Turnberg, and of so many other speeches tonight.

21:00:00

My Lords, first we should ask, what are the universities doing? Amid the deeply concerning increase in incidents of antisemitism on university campuses, what I have found perhaps most shocking are the reports of antisemitic behaviour by academics. The Community Security Trust reports academics as well as students with “limited” understanding of what constitutes antisemitism. How can this be so? It is not for lack of clear-cut practical advice. While some universities have strong and effective procedures for dealing with antisemitism, others have been equivocal. Recent evidence from the educational charity StandWithUs UK suggests that antisemitic attitudes and behaviours are actually worse in supposedly elite Russell group universities. So, we have a twin problem: of ignorant or bigoted academics, and vice-chancellors too scared to face down the mob on campus. The CST reports a large rise in antisemitic incidents during the period following the unspeakable massacre of Jews by Hamas on 7 October 2023, and during the subsequent ferocious and relentless military conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Emotions have of course run very high on campuses. It may be that young people who have not been taught to make the distinction between legitimate criticism of the policies of the State of Israel and illegitimate slurs against Jews generally—or who have simply been carried away by passion or pro-Palestinian rhetoric—have transgressed into the latter. I do not know. But what has been happening strengthens the case made by my noble friend Lord Mann for better education in schools about antisemitism and justifies the Education Secretary’s recent grant of funds for this purpose. Yet however fallible some academic leaders may be, it goes against the grain for me to look to government, or any government-appointed agency, to regulate the internal affairs of universities. I do not like to see the Office for Students tasked with policing academic freedom; it should be the other way round. Public intellectuals, securely based in universities, should be articulating the principles that matter, leading public debate and invigilating the politicians. Nigel Farage brags that he will be the next Prime Minister. When that great day comes, do we want it to be normal that a government agency lays down the law to universities in sensitive matters of policy, with power to fine them when it disapproves of their conduct? We are at a crisis in western history. The growth of antisemitism in our universities and elsewhere is one manifestation; the rise of neo-fascist parties—Trump’s Republicans and other parties across Europe—under- pinned by a new indifference among young people to democratic values, is another. While we may deplore the attack on academic freedom and the rule of law by the Trump Administration, let us not overlook the attrition of university funding and the justice system by successive Administrations in our own country. The collapse of the western alliance and the global trading system—and the suffering and impoverishment that will follow—at the hands of a wicked ruler, elected to power through democratic process, leaves us on the edge of an abyss. It is, first of all, the responsibility of our universities themselves—all of them—to ensure that they are islands of rationality, where research, teaching and the fearless exchange of ideas can flourish, free of the horror of antisemitism.

21:04:00

My Lords, how did we get here? It has been 19 months since the 7 October massacres in Israel and the slaughter of hundreds of men, women and children. Some 250 hostages were taken, and 59 are still held in the underground tunnels of Gaza by Hamas psychopaths and their cohorts. On the streets of London and the UK, we have witnessed antisemitism on a level that I thought I would never see—especially 80 years since VE Day. Islamic extremism is on the increase. Bullying and harassment of, and attacks on, our Jewish friends and their supporters are rife. Intimidation outside synagogues and other meeting places is a daily occurrence. The call for the extermination of all Jews and the destruction of an ally state is ignored by those who are elected to protect our very being. It was only a matter of time until it would spill over on to the university campuses. Rent-a-mob is always predictable: they set up camps and continue to vandalise buildings and attack Jewish students and their friends. They disrupt lectures and do not hesitate to threaten anyone who stands up to them. Some of us here have called on the police and Home Secretaries to intervene, but to no avail. The hate protests continue unabated on our streets and on campuses. At the University of Leeds, the Jewish chaplain Rabbi Deutsch and his family were forced into hiding, with threats of rape and murder, before leaving the country. But it is not only Leeds; other world-class British universities are as culpable. Their chancellors, vice-chancellors and administrations have not lifted a finger to stop this abuse. Numerous examples are outlined in the excellent report by StandWithUs, which has already been mentioned. We, the taxpayers, fund our universities to the tune of £24 billion a year, yet we are expected to turn a blind eye to what is happening. Those in charge have deliberately ignored the fact that they are answerable to us, and to the parents and students who expect the authorities to ensure that their safeguarding and security are always paramount. The fact that they have abrogated this responsibility should preclude them from being anywhere near the education system, and they should be removed immediately. One of the reasons for their actions is because they receive millions in overseas funding and do not wish to offend their donors, some of whom openly support the actions of terrorists. Let us be absolutely clear: Hamas is a proscribed terrorist group, which, along with others, is being openly supported. It is an illegal and criminal offence to ignore those supporting its actions. I therefore call on the Minister to put in place steps to revoke the visas of foreign students carrying out these acts and deport them immediately, and, for those who are British citizens, to invoke the full force of the law by removing them from the universities they attend, as is happening in the USA. Finally, with rights come responsibilities, and those bringing our fantastic universities into disrepute should not be allowed to do so. Mixed messages on Israel do not help, so it is time that this Government stopped pussyfooting around and put a stop to this. History has ways of repeating itself—and, in this case, that cannot be allowed to happen.

21:09:00

My Lords, a headline in today’s Times states that antisemitism on UK campuses is getting out of control. This is hardly news—it has been out of control for many years, it is just that events in Gaza have made what was already a bad situation even more toxic and often terrifying. I speak with some experience. For five years I chaired and financially contributed to an organisation called the Coexistence Trust. Our remit was to bring Muslim and Jewish students into positive social contact with each other, and we had some success. We were a joint Muslim and Jewish organisation. Our two CEOs were from both communities. We were jointly financed by Muslim and Jewish private sources. Typically, four Jewish and four Muslim peers would visit campuses together. We kept the brief tight, with no references to the Middle East; we judged that there was nothing we could do or say that could make any difference. Where we could definitely make a difference was through reference to our common UK experiences and our heritage. I think we made progress. We held joint social events and spoke about common worries on campus, including issues to do with food—halal and kosher—and the non-recognition of religious holidays by university administrators. Seared in my memory is one Muslim woman wearing a hijab saying to an Orthodox Jewish woman: “I do not understand why we can’t be friends just because of what is happening 2,000 miles away”. It was shocking to see the institutional ignorance of the beliefs and traditions of our two great religions. I always felt that the issue of antisemitism on campus did not emanate solely from the students. It also came from the laissez-faire attitude of the faculty. From the chancellors and vice-chancellors to the professors, lecturers and administrators, many of whom were worse than indifferent, it is they who permitted antisemitism, and indeed Islamophobia, to fester unchecked. Why should it be permitted? Why should my or anyone else’s grandchildren be subjected to abuse and violence merely because of their birth? Just imagine what would happen if we were to substitute the word “Jewish” with the word “black”, “gay” or “trans”. There would be a national outcry. Will we now see Indian and Pakistani students being harangued on campus for what is happening in Kashmir? There is no need to answer that question, but, for the record, the answer is no. What is happening to Jewish students is pure and simple antisemitism. How should we deal with this problem? Yes, through more interchange, as we had at the Coexistence Trust, but clearly that is not enough. University leaders need to be cajoled into changing their lazy indifference and reminded that they have a duty of care to all students. Why should faculties be allowed to permit casual and not so casual racism against the Jewish community when they would fight tooth and nail to protect other groups?

21:13:00

My Lords, I too thank the noble Lord, Lord Cryer, for securing this debate. I declare an interest as a past trustee for the Council of Christians and Jews—the CCJ—a wonderful interfaith organisation established by the then Archbishop of Canterbury and the Chief Rabbi in 1942, as the tragedy of the Holocaust unfolded. A core part of the CCJ’s work is on campus. Through its campus leadership program, which is currently training 12 students across seven UK universities, the CCJ is empowering Jewish, Christian and students of other faiths to be the interfaith leaders of tomorrow. Since its launch in 2016, more than 80 students have been trained by the CCJ to stand up to antisemitism and Islamophobia, and, crucially, to conduct balanced and mutually respectful debates. I applaud them for their courage in what is clearly an increasingly febrile and hostile climate. I commend the Union of Jewish Students on its work, and those students who contributed testimonies to the StandWithUs UK report, already mentioned by other noble Lords. I commend them for their courage and for their admirable forbearance in the face of, at best, institutional indifference and, at worst, outright racism. I commend them for standing up for British values: the values of tolerance, interfaith dialogue and free speech. Those values are absent from the appalling and shocking treatment meted out to those cited in the StandWithUs report. What is not absent is the vile, divisive, un-British poison of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood from whence they came, which, like the IRGC, as we have already heard earlier today, bizarrely remain unproscribed in the UK. Hamas may not be winning the war in Gaza, but this report shows that their viciously distorted and fundamentally racist propaganda is helping them win the battle of ideas and the battle for hearts and minds on our campuses. I fear that we are letting them do this. The law is being broken, as we have already heard, in plain sight, while the authorities—the universities, the police, the Government—might as well shrug their shoulders and wring their hands. Surely this report should leave us all holding our heads in our hands. I close with one question for the Minister: unless urgent action is taken, how long does she think it will be before one of our students is killed for the crime of being Jewish?

21:17:00

We have heard many harrowing accounts today. Of course antisemitism has existed for millennia, long before the Hamas atrocities on 7 October, and it is a privilege to be in the presence today of so many people who have literally dedicated their lives, and have had to do so, to fight antisemitism. I add my praise, love and respect for the Union of Jewish Students. It was amazing to work with those students back in the day when, among the many things they were doing, they supported one particularly talented young student to be elected on to the block of 12, I think it was—my noble friend Lady Berger, who sits on these Benches today. The Union of Jewish Students clearly has an even harder job today, given what is happening. Of course antisemitism existed long before Hamas’s atrocities, but it is deeply disturbing that the extremist ideology of those hateful terrorists has been seemingly so willingly adopted by many students at our country’s universities. The examples of antisemitism identified in today’s report by StandWithUs UK are notable both for their volume and for their consistency. I will briefly share a couple more examples. A student at Queen Mary University of London was shouted out as they walked past the library; in front of campus security, students filmed themselves as they yelled, “There’s a Zionist there, so you need to shout as loud as possible”. An Israeli flag was burned at a student event arranged by Jewish and Israeli societies that was supposed to be a moment of solidarity and celebration for young adults traumatised by the events of 7 October; it was turned into the opposite of that. As others have said, the antisemitism by university staff is the most shocking thing here. Consider the example of the professor at the University of Leeds who posted on their personal social media account that the local Jewish society is “virulently Zionist” and declared that there is “no space for Zionists on campus, not now or ever”. I believe that no disciplinary action, according to the report, was taken after the posts had been deleted. Can you imagine that happening if it had been a white supremacist who had revealed themselves? Of course it would not happen, but it slips by, and university life is allowed to go on as if nothing has happened. When university administrators fail to enforce adequate sanctions and some university staff even feel emboldened to participate in this festival of hate, is it any surprise that anti-Jewish racism and intolerance have spread so widely among the student body? I am afraid that many Jews feel that they are being sent the unmistakable message, “You are not welcome here on campus”, and it is hard not to escape the echoes of a period in the 1930s that led to the darkest moment in human history. I implore the Government to read carefully the recommendations in the StandWithUs UK report and those that have been made over the years by the Antisemitism Policy Trust, which has been dedicated in this area for many years. As a democracy founded on the principles of equality and freedom of religion, we can ill-afford to allow this crisis to continue.

21:21:00

My Lords, I will quickly soon turn to the topic of this vital debate, for which I thank the noble Lord, Lord Cryer, but I hope that noble Lords will indulge me if I make reference to our late colleague Lord Etherton, whose sad death at only 73 was announced today by the Lord Speaker. Joshua Rozenberg reports that, when Lord Etherton gave a lecture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, “in confident, fluent Hebrew, he told the story of his grandparents, arriving in the East End of London from the pale of settlement in Russia during the early years of the 20th century only to find more antisemitism in Britain. ‘My paternal great-uncle persuaded his parents to change the family name,’ he said. ‘And so Schliama Borrenstein became Seddon Llewellyn Delroy Ryan Etherton.’”— at least it was not Del Boy. “His great-grandparents, he added, would have been dumbfounded to see him delivering a lecture in Israel as the second most senior judge of England and Wales”. So we have had some great progress in our country and society, which actually makes it even more shocking that, following the horrendous terrorist attack on 7 October perpetrated against Israeli victims by Hamas, a dramatic further increase in antisemitic incidents was seen in the UK as well as elsewhere. We have heard the figures tonight given by the noble Lord, Lord Cryer, and others, recorded by the Union of Jewish Students, the Community Security Trust and the report today from StandWithUs UK—all of them very valuable. Some of the antisemitic behaviour was associated with pro-Palestinian marches, with one of the most common forms of antisemitic harassment being students experiencing intimidation around protest events on campus. Expressions of support for Hamas and other proscribed terror organisations have been routine, with students being told, “Hamas had their reasons”, “If I was Palestinian, I would join Hamas”, and, “There is no space for Zionists on campus, not now, not ever”. Some were even told, “Your people should not be alive” —I think that by “your people” they did not mean Israelis but Jews. There has been some criticism of the definition and examples of antisemitism produced by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The Jerusalem declaration was drafted in response, with the assertion that because the IHRA definition was “unclear in key respects and widely open to different interpretations, it has caused confusion and generated controversy, hence weakening the fight against antisemitism”. That declaration, which has academics in UK universities as signatories, asserts that neither “Criticizing or opposing Zionism as a form of nationalism” nor supporting “arrangements that accord full equality to all inhabitants ‘between the river and the sea’”, are antisemitic. That is already arguable, but when marchers shout, “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free”, this is not some calm academic dialogue about constitutional arrangements; it is an intimidating call for the destruction of the State of Israel. The IHRA definition stresses that “criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic”, giving ample scope for criticism of any current Government or their actions. The bottom line is that freedom of expression is not a justification for harassment and that all points of view should be able to be expressed even when there is strong political disagreement relating to Israel and the Middle East. Can the Minister say whether her discussions with vice-chancellors will result in serious and determined action to eradicate antisemitism on campuses while championing academic freedom—including in discussing Israel, the Middle East and Gaza, which I believe is absolutely possible?

21:26:00

My Lords, if you were a student attending Bristol University on 20 March this year—I pick a date more or less at random—you would have had the usual cornucopia of choices as to how to spend your evening. These were just a few of your options. You could have attended the French society’s games night and pub crawl, meeting at the Steam pub at 7 pm. The Christian union was holding a prayer hour at the Bristol International Student Centre and then its annual general meeting at Alma church at 6 pm. The Jewish society was holding a film screening at 6.30 pm at the JSoc house. However, unless you knew where that is, you would not have known where to go. That is because addresses for the meetings of the Jewish society, unlike those of other societies and groups, are not publicised in advance. You will not find the address on the website of the student union or on Instagram, as you would all the other locations. Instead, to get the address of the Jewish society meeting, you would need be on a private, by invitation-only WhatsApp group. It is private so that the members of the Jewish society know who is coming. That is not because they are doing anything nefarious—they were watching a film—but simply because they want to be safe. Yes, this is life as a Jewish student at our universities in 2025—addresses for meetings passed around on a need-to-know basis. I have seen that done before when I was at university, but not at the university I attended. I saw it when I travelled as a student to visit Jewish students and dissidents—they were called refuseniks—in the former Soviet Union. They too passed around the addresses of where they were going to meet on a need-to-know basis—Moscow University 1988, Bristol University 2025. While I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Cryer, for initiating this debate with a very fine speech—we have heard many good speeches—I am afraid that we have made many of these points before. Here we are again, with the situation getting worse and not better. I know that we have heard these points before because my first speech in this House as a Minister was in Grand Committee replying to a debate on the same topic. While on one footing it is better that we are now doing it in the Chamber and not in Grand Committee, I would far rather that we did not need to have the debate at all. As a number of noble Lords have pointed out, we do need this debate because, as today’s StandWithUs report makes clear, the position faced by Jewish students at UK universities is getting worse, not better. The University Jewish Chaplaincy provides excellent pastoral care, and the Union of Jewish Students does fantastic work, but they are literally on the front line, day in, day out. When a Jewish student sees a banner, “No Zionists on campus”, she will read it as “No Jews on campus”, because the overwhelming majority of Jews in this country, and therefore the overwhelming majority of Jewish students, are Zionist: they believe, as I do, in the right of Jewish self-determination, which, as the noble Lord, Lord Turnberg, reminded us, is the only thing that Zionism actually means. When Jewish students have to run the gauntlet of a protest camp, as they did at Cambridge, and they see the university authorities doing absolutely nothing for far too long, they will draw the obvious conclusion. If noble Lords will allow me a very short digression, what really annoyed me about that protest camp at Cambridge was the sheer ignorance on display. They thought they were being clever by having a big sign in Hebrew and English with the famous words from Deuteronomy, chapter 16, verse 20: “Justice, justice thou shalt pursue”. They obviously did not read the second half of the same verse. It carries on: “that you may live and possess the land”— we all know what land is being referred to— “which the Lord your God is giving you”. Let me be clear: denying Jewish students the right publicly to identify as Zionists, when, for many, Zionism is a core part of their Jewish identity, is a form of religious and cultural discrimination. It is also probably illegal, but this should not be a question of legal compulsion or demanding special treatment. I would simply like to see a day when Jewish societies can publicise the addresses for their meetings in the same way that everyone else does. It boils down to this: a university where Jewish students are not welcome, or are made to feel that they are not, is an institution that has entirely forfeited its right to call itself a university.

My Lords, may I apologise for not having mentioned my interest as a member of the UJS advisory council? I am sorry; I should have done so.

21:31:00

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Cryer for securing this important debate and, in so doing, bringing the attention of this House back to the critical issue of antisemitism on university campuses. As others have referenced, the Community Security Trust report, Campus Antisemitism in Britain 2022-2024, published at the end of last year, sets out the scale of this issue within higher education. Let me say very clearly that this Government utterly condemn antisemitism in the strongest possible terms. More importantly, we are actively taking steps to prevent and tackle it at university, as in all parts of society. In setting the context for that work, it is right that I take this opportunity, as others have in this debate, to recognise the organisations that play such a crucial role in supporting our Jewish students across the country. The Community Security Trust, providing essential security advice, monitors antisemitic incidents and collaborates with universities to ensure a safe campus environment. Its invaluable, if shocking and disturbing, data helps us understand the evolving picture of antisemitism as it affects not only students at university but Jewish communities up and down the country and across the world. As several noble Lords, including the noble Baroness, Lady Foster, made clear, the context in which we speak of antisemitism on university campuses is one of antisemitism more broadly across our communities. That is why the £72 million made available over the coming years to the Community Security Trust—as it has been in recent years, including when I was home Secretary—is an important contribution to the vital work that CST does in safeguarding our community sites. As others have done, I pay tribute to the Union of Jewish Students for tirelessly advocating for Jewish students’ interests and ensuring that their voices are heard. My noble friend Lord Mann rightly focused on its enormous contribution. Although I am slightly older in my period of student politics, I understand and remember the enormous significance of the UJS. I am sure that it is ably supported not only by the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, but by my noble friend Lady Berger, who, more than many people in this Chamber, understands the personal impact of antisemitic abuse. The University Jewish Chaplaincy, which I was able to meet at a reception in Portcullis House, also offers spiritual guidance, pastoral care and a sense of community, providing essential well-being support. Many noble Lords have referenced the StandWithUs report today. I was fortunate to be able to attend the event organised by my noble friend Lord Turnberg and hear directly the testimony from those students. It was both shocking and affecting, reflected as it is today in this report. I was fortunate to be able to join the Friday night dinner of the Birmingham University Jewish Society. Its members told me that it was the largest in the country, where, as my noble friend Lady Berger outlined, there is an emphasis on Jewish life as much as there is on Jewish strife. I welcomed and enjoyed their hospitality and education. Interestingly, that was an interfaith night, in which they had successfully brought together students from across the university. There can be no doubt that the terrorist attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 acted as a catalyst for an unprecedented increase in appalling antisemitic incidents on campuses. Those incidents, including calls for violence against Jewish people and Holocaust denial, are utterly unacceptable and must be addressed decisively. We are committed to ensuring that universities take concerted action to prevent and tackle antisemitism and all other forms of harassment. As noble Lords have emphasised, that action needs to be led from the very top of our universities. To emphasise the significance of that, the Office for Students introduced a new registration condition in July 2024 that will come into force on 1 August this year. The new condition is designed to trigger a cultural shift in attitudes and behaviours across the higher education sector. It will establish, among other things, regulatory requirements around training, reporting mechanisms and the provision of support. I was taken by the testimony that I heard from students that they felt that there was no appropriate mechanism to report their concerns, and suitable action was not taken by the leadership of their universities. This condition will require universities to develop the capability and resource capacity to implement the provisions, and the OfS will be able to take action against providers where there is or has been a breach of the condition, including, as several noble Lords have asked for, the ability to fine universities where they fail to take this issue seriously. I should highlight, as others have done, the £7 million that the Government have allocated to tackling antisemitism in education. Of that amount, £500,000 has already been awarded to the University Jewish Chaplaincy to support student welfare on university campuses. On the work in higher education, increasing the confidence and capability of university staff to recognise and tackle antisemitism is, as we know, critical to improving the experience of Jewish students on campus. That is why a key part of the tackling antisemitism in education procurement is focused on finding suppliers to deliver training and resources for key university staff, including campus security and student union staff. Training will also support staff in facilitating difficult discussions and tolerant debate between students on the Israel-Palestine conflict, as well as tools to support students in spotting and challenging mis- and disinformation, such as antisemitic conspiracy theories. In addition, we are launching an innovation fund, providing opportunities for more creative methods to tackle antisemitism in universities, schools and colleges. This could include, for example, opportunities to strengthen students’ critical thinking and media literacy skills, as well as student-facing workshops on tolerant debate and interfaith collaboration to tackle antisemitism. I understand the impatience of noble Lords. An announcement regarding the outcome of the procurement and the launch of the innovation fund will be made as soon as possible. On the issue of handling encampments, raised by the noble Lord, Lord Leigh, and others, I know that noble Lords have expressed concern about encampments. I wholly understand the chilling and frightening impact on Jewish students of the way in which those encampments developed on campuses. So far this academic year, relatively few encampments have been established. I believe that universities have learned from last year’s experiences how to de-escalate tensions where possible and, where that does not work, to take formal measures to resolve the situation. A number of universities, including Birmingham and Nottingham, took legal action to remove unauthorised encampments that were causing major disruption to teaching and learning. I think that was important, and their learning was important for other universities. Nevertheless, we remain vigilant, and are particularly keen to ensure that any future protests do not disrupt student life and cause fear and concern in the way that happened in places last year. Several noble Lords raised the issue of free speech. Let me be clear: higher education must be a space for robust discussion, intellectual rigour and exposure to new ideas, but that in no way can excuse a failure to act on antisemitism. It was with respect to some elements of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, particularly in relation to the tort, where concern was expressed to us, including by Jewish students, that the impact might be to enable or to lead some higher education providers unduly to prioritise protecting speech that is hateful or degrading over the interests of those who are at risk of being harassed and intimidated. That was part of the reason why we paused the Act. I think the new way in which we are now delivering that Act will help to alleviate some of those issues. Let me be clear that Holocaust denial, while not unlawful, is, nevertheless, not protected speech. I would most certainly not expect to see anybody expressing Holocaust denial having a place on our campuses. The Act does not protect unlawful speech, including some of the horrifying harassment, discrimination and antisemitic abuse we have seen on campus. On Hamas, of course Hamas is a terrorist organisation. Support for it is criminal, and action should be taken where that occurs. On Holocaust education, a point raised by my noble friend Lord Cryer, the Holocaust is the only historic event that is compulsory in the current national curriculum for history at key stage 3. It will remain a compulsory topic in the reformed national curriculum. We support it by funding teachers’ professional development. We made an additional £2 million available, committed in the 2024 Autumn Budget, for Holocaust remembrance and education. On the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition, the Government are unequivocal in their backing of that definition of antisemitism. Finally, in closing this debate, I think it important to recognise the efforts that have been made to foster cohesion on campuses across the country, including by university vice-chancellors and their staff, working closely with Jewish societies and the Union of Jewish Students. But, of course, there is more to do and my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education is looking forward to hosting a round table with leading vice-chancellors to discuss what more can be done, collectively and at institutional level, to make this happen. We will continue to work closely with and to challenge university authorities and others to ensure that we create a campus culture that upholds the values of tolerance and respect for all.