Protect Jewish Students on Campus, Sunak Tells Universities

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The meeting came amid a rise in anti-Semitic attacks on campus and the growing presence of pro-Palestinian protests since the start of the Israel–Hamas war.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has met with university chancellors to call on them to take a “zero tolerance” approach to anti-Semitism and protect Jewish students amid concerns that campuses could become “unsafe environments.”

Mr. Sunak held the meeting at Downing Street on Thursday following a rise in anti-Semitic abuse on campus and disruption to students’ learning as a growing number of protests have appeared on campuses across the country since the start of the Israel–Hamas war.

Mr. Sunak said in a May 9 statement ahead of the meeting that universities “should be places of rigorous debate” but also “bastions of tolerance and respect for every member of their community.”

The prime minister went on to criticise a “vocal minority” on campuses who are “disrupting the lives and studies of their fellow students and, in some cases, propagating outright harassment and antisemitic abuse.”

Ministers met with leaders from universities including Cambridge, Exeter, Leeds, Bristol, Middlesex, Sussex, and Queen Mary University of London to discuss how to take disciplinary action against students found to be inciting violence or racial hatred. Jewish organisations also attended, including representatives from the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) who shared their experiences and perspectives.

The UJS criticised the “toxic environment” faced by Jewish students across the UK. Edward Isaacs, UJS president, said, “The burden is now on vice-chancellors to ensure we don’t see scenes in the U.S. replicated in the UK.”

Pro-Palestinian Student Camps

The meeting came as pro-Palestinian student groups have set up encampments at more than a dozen universities in the UK, including at Cambridge and Oxford, replicating the phenomenon which has taken place on campuses across the United States where there have been instances of violence.

Ahead of the Downing Street meeting, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan warned against universities in Britain becoming “unsafe.”

Ms. Keegan told Sky News, “What we don’t want is our campuses becoming unsafe environments for students or staff and going down the route that you see in other places like the U.S.”

The minister said that there was always a “contagion fear” that tensions seen on American campuses could be replicated in the UK, claiming that “some groups that are encouraging this as well.”

The minister told the broadcaster there were “rumours” that people in the United States were talking to British student groups.

Universities Have ‘Moral Duty’ to Keep Students Safe

Ahead of the meeting, Mr. Sunak said that it was universities’ responsibility to “take a zero-tolerance approach to antisemitism and keep Jewish students safe on our campuses.”

Writing for The Times of London on Wednesday, Mr. Sunak said that students and academic staff were “being targeted, threatened, and assaulted simply for being Jewish.”

“There can be no appeasement or pandering to absurd demands from protesters,” Mr. Sunak wrote. “Nor can we put up with a kind of passive tolerance of words and actions that go against what we stand for as a country ... That means zero tolerance of antisemitism and indeed any form of hatred, prejudice or discrimination.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak chairs a meeting with vice chancellors from some of the country's leading universities and representatives from the Union of Jewish Students in Downing Street to discuss efforts to tackle anti-Semitism on campus and protect Jewish students, in London on May 9, 2024. (Carl Court/PA)

“Keeping all students safe and ensuring they feel at home in our institutions is a moral duty for those leading our universities,” he added.

In March, former universities minister Robert Halfon feared that “ghettoisation” would occur on campus, where Jewish students would no longer feel safe or enjoy the university experience.

Earlier this year, the former minister announced the creation of a universities anti-Semitism tsar who would liaise between government and universities to ensure that higher education institutions were handling cases of anti-Jewish hatred properly.

Mr. Halfon said the government was compelled to establish the post because of a failure of universities to deal with the issue, alleging that some institutions had either turned a blind eye to anti-Semitism or had appeased it because they did not know how to deal with it.

PA Media contributed to this report.

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