UK universities must show leadership on Gaza protests, says Gillian Keegan | university

University vice-chancellors must show leadership in response to student protests against Israel's military action in Gaza, the education minister has said.

Gillian Keegan told the BBC Radio 4 Today program that we want our campuses to be safe places where students feel welcome and where they can express diverse views.

Students from more than a dozen universities across the UK opposing the war in Gaza have set up pro-Palestinian encampments, including in Cambridge and Oxford.

Referring to the encampment, Keegan said: We've seen how this can scale very quickly in other countries. Pro-Palestinian student protesters clash with police in the United States.

Keegan's comments came as Rishi Sunak hosted a meeting in Downing Street with vice-chancellors of Britain's leading universities addressing the issue of antisemitism. Vice-chancellors from Leeds, Bristol, Middlesex and Sussex were the first to arrive at the meeting, followed by around a dozen university leaders who remained silent as they entered Downing Street.

Students from the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas) in London are camping in solidarity with Palestine. Photo: Tolga Akmen/EPA

The Union of Jewish Students (UJS) criticized the camp protests for creating a hostile and harmful atmosphere on campus for Jewish students.

In an article published in the Times, the prime minister criticized extremists in the National Union of Students who sought to eliminate UJS for its support of the existence of the state of Israel.

UJS and the Community Security Trust (CST) are among the groups that will attend the summit in Downing Street on Thursday.

Sunak wrote that students and staff were being targeted, threatened and assaulted simply because they were Jewish, and that discussions with the vice-chancellor would focus on keeping Jewish students safe.

Keegan told the BBC: Some university vice-chancellors have taken firm steps and others believe there is a need to share what others have been doing to figure out how to tackle this problem.

She cited Community Safety Trust research which suggested there was a 203% increase in university-related anti-Semitic incidents in England between 2022 and 2023, and said there had been instances of violence on campuses.

Keegan told LBC he had heard directly from Jewish students who felt tense and threatened at university. What we need to do is show real leadership and de-escalate the situation, she said.

Sunak wrote in his article: I understand the power of emotion over recent events in Israel and Gaza. No one is saying that students should not be able to express the very human anxiety that many feel about the terrible suffering of war.

We will always protect freedom of expression and the right to protest, and our universities are natural places for expression because they are institutions of learning and inquiry where challenging ideas are rigorously debated.

But just as importantly, universities have a profound obligation to remain bastions of tolerance. Such discussions are conducted with respect for others, and are a place where all students feel safe and comfortable, regardless of their faith or background.

Ministers will call on university leaders to take immediate disciplinary action if students are found to be inciting racial hatred or violence and to report to the police if criminal activity has been committed.

Mark Gardner, chief executive of CST, said: “The rise of antisemitism on UK campuses is appalling and an affront to the fundamental principles and values ​​of university life.”

Everyone has the right to protest, but not to disrupt the learning of other students, to harass or threaten Jewish students, to call for resistance or to use other extremist language to spread hatred against Israel.

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