Home Infra Revealed: Shocking extent of anti-Semitism at Oxford University as professors and students describe institution as a ‘hostile environment’ for Jews with more than 70 incidents recorded in the last eight months

Revealed: Shocking extent of anti-Semitism at Oxford University as professors and students describe institution as a ‘hostile environment’ for Jews with more than 70 incidents recorded in the last eight months

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Revealed: Shocking extent of anti-Semitism at Oxford University as professors and students describe institution as a ‘hostile environment’ for Jews with more than 70 incidents recorded in the last eight months

Jewish professors and students have revealed the shocking extent of anti-Semitism at Oxford University, with more than 70 incidents in eight months.

A dossier presented to the Vice Chancellor details numerous bullying allegations, including one student being insulted over their ‘Jewish nose’.

Meanwhile, attendees at a vigil for hostages of Hamas were branded ‘kid murderers’ and one academic supervisor is said to have told his student: ‘Israel is a terrorist state.’ 

Complaints have been ignored, with some advised to simply ‘leave Oxford’ if they felt uncomfortable.

It comes after Pro-Palestine protesters set up encampments at Oxford, demanding the university cut any financial ties with Israel.

Pro-Palestinian students from the University of Oxford take part in an encampment with dozens of tents outside the Pitt Rivers Museum to call for a full divestment from Israel

A passerby take pictures of pro-Palestinian's banner displayed at Oxford University, in Oxford

A passerby take pictures of pro-Palestinian’s banner displayed at Oxford University, in Oxford

A letter accompanying the dossier says: ‘We have felt isolated, unsafe, targeted, stressed, disappointed, angry and hopeless. Many of us have faced all manners of anti-Semitic slurs.’

One Jewish professor, who spoke to the Mail anonymously, said: ‘What was a hate-on-Israel movement has become a hate-on-Jew movement. A lot of students and lecturers feel very hurt – they have left or suspended their studies.’

The letter, which has not been signed because its authors are worried about their security, was the result of ‘a series of meetings and conversations we have held with dozens of Jewish and Israeli people at Oxford’.

It was sent last week after an encampment was set up outside Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum in which protesters agreed to a contract on ‘the right of colonised people to resist occupation’.

The letter describes a ‘hostile environment’ for anyone who believes in the right of Israel to exist with the university ‘overflowing’ with messages about plans to ‘globalise the intifada and eliminate Israel’s existence’.

‘Oxford’s administration would be unlikely to turn a blind eye to faculty members who spoke about other minorities in such terms,’ it added. The other 72 incidents of anti-Semitism included a professor telling students the October 7 massacre was ‘justified’ while another claimed it was planned by Israel.

Flags and banners hang from one tents and infrastructure belonging to pro-Palestinian protesters camping outside Manchester University on May 8, 2024

Flags and banners hang from one tents and infrastructure belonging to pro-Palestinian protesters camping outside Manchester University on May 8, 2024

When a student who had lost family in the massacre complained about intimidation on campus, they were told by a college official: ‘Oxford is often not a nice place for Israelis and Jews and there is nothing we can do about it.’

A week after the university received the letter, Oxford bosses agreed to meet with some of the students tomorrow. A spokesman said: ‘There is no place for anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or unlawful discrimination of any kind directed towards any faith, race, nationality or ethnic group at the University of Oxford.

Oxford has dropped plans to vet candidates for chancellor after being accused of trying to fix the process against white male politicians – by stipulating that vetting have ‘due regard to the principles of equality and diversity’.

It comes after senior government ministers branded the proposals ‘wokeism gone mad’. The post has so far only ever been held by male former politicians. The current Chancellor is former Tory cabinet minister Lord Patten of Barnes.