Mick Hartley

Tali Smus, a Jewish student at King's College London, in the Times:

Students across the country are excited about the start of the new university year. One exception is Jewish students, many of whom are wondering: “Am I safe to return to campus?”

I should know. I have experienced crippling antisemitism in the past year, from threats to physically remove me from class to complete isolation. The trouble began after I asked members of a class group chat why they believed “Zionists need an education”, and because I had an Israeli flag in my Instagram bio.

I received messages on the group chat saying “ur indoctrinated” and “ur horrifically outnumbered here go to bed”. This continued: “is there a f***ing Zionist in this group chat” and “we’ve fished out a Zionist”. And threats: “As a group we should just band together and carry her out.”

Out of a class of over 100 students, only two or three still speak to me. The rest? Either turning a blind eye or shunning me and urging others not to associate with me. Things got so bad I missed most of the first term last year. When I eventually returned to campus, I never felt safe…

More of the same at the JC:

Brodie Mitchell, who studies politics, international relations and law at Royal Holloway, University of London, is not Jewish but openly supports Israel, and has witnessed numerous examples of antisemitism.

"Students have said 'Hitler was right, Jews control the world' – all this 1930s ideology. I never heard anything like it till I went to university.

"I feel like they can be open [in their antisemitism] at social events. Even when they know about my views, they will still openly talk about Hitler and how he should have ‘finished the job’.

"A lot of Jewish students are too afraid to speak up because they're such a small group."

Mitchell claims he has received threats because of his pro-Israel views.

Over the summer holidays, he visited Israel and after posting a picture online from his trip, a student wrote: "Don't let me catch you in Royal Holloway." Another student wrote: "Let's remove your dirty soul from this planet."

Asked if he feels the university does enough to combat antisemitism on campus, Mitchell says: "My university isn't doing enough for Jewish students and also for people like me.

"The university just turns a blind eye."