Antisemitism on University Campuses

Baroness Altmann Excerpts

Wednesday 7th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Altmann (Non-Afl)]

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”.