Hostility to Jewish students at
British universities could escalate this week with moves by academics to
boycott Israeli goods and set up links with Palestinian organisations.
Luciana Berger, 23, a close friend
of Euan Blair, the prime minister's son, described last week how she had
been forced to resign from the executive committee of the National Union
of Students (NUS) after being abused and spat at by left-wing undergraduates
and Muslim activists because she is Jewish.
This week anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian
motions will be submitted for debate at the annual conference of the 48,000-strong
Association of University Teachers (AUT). A similar motion was defeated
by a vote of 2-1 two years ago. But other motions, including one deploring
a "witch-hunt" against people who supported the boycott, were passed.
There are fears that a "yes" vote
at the conference in Eastbourne will increase tension on campuses. The
move to sever links with Israeli universities and support Palestinian academics
comes from branches of the union at Birmingham University and the Open
University.
Sue Blackwell, a lecturer in English
at Birmingham and a leading member of the British Committee for Universities
of Palestine, said it was not possible to have links with both Israel and
the Palestinians.
"We cannot appeal equally to the
oppressor and the oppressed, the occupier and the occupied," she said.
"Palestinian academics are repeatedly prevented from doing their work.
Israeli forces have welded shut the gates to one Palestine university and
dug a trench around another. Jewish students should not be intimidated
in Britain, but it's not anti-semitic to criticise what the state of Israel
is doing."
One of her allies is Mona Baker,
professor of translation studies at Manchester University, who was the
subject of an inquiry in 2002 after she dismissed two Israeli academics
she had employed from the journals she published.
The sackings were part of a boycott
in protest at Israeli policies in the occupied territories.
Berger, who comes from a Jewish
family in north London and is studying for a master's degree in government,
politics and policy at Birkbeck College, London University, said opposition
to Israel was resulting in abuse of Jewish students.
She said she had resigned from the
students' union earlier this month because of its failure to stand up to
racism. "It says it is proud of its policy of diversity but it should be
ashamed. It has isolated the Jewish student community," she said.
"The situation cannot be allowed
to get worse. I have had e-mails calling me a dirty Zionist pig, but I
have never spoken on or talked about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
People have confused the issue."
She also criticised how prejudice
against Jews was seen by some on the left as "second-class racism".
Berger described her shock at experiencing
anti-semitism as a student. "Suddenly I was Luciana the Jew rather than
Luciana the British citizen," she said. On one occasion, she claimed, the
NUS failed to condemn a comment made at London University's School of Oriental
and African Studies that burning down a synagogue was "a rational act".
Berger criticised all parties for
their approach to race issues. She stopped short of attacking Tony Blair,
but did say she thought it had been "wrong" of Labour to issue posters
depicting Michael Howard, the Conservative leader and practising Jew, as
a pig.
"The insensitivity surrounding all
parties' approach to asylum and immigration has a lot to say for the rise
in not only anti-semitism but any form of racism directed at immigrants,"
she said.
Details also emerged last night
of a series of alleged e-mails exchanged between Muslim students prior
to Berger's resignation. The e-mails concerned a ban on Ken Livingstone,
the London mayor, from speaking at an NUS conference after he had compared
a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard. The ban followed a motion
put down by Berger.
According to the e-mails, the Muslim
students, who are member of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies,
thought they would be rewarded if they "nailed" Berger and her allies in
a bid to overturn the ban on Livingstone.
Berger would not comment on the
e-mails last night beyond saying she found them "disappointing". Livingstone's
office denied making any offers to the Muslim students.
Danny Stone, campaigns director
of the Union of Jewish Students, said academics were increasingly upsetting
Jewish undergraduates. He claimed lecturers at London, Sussex and Nottingham
had refused to give students leave from exams scheduled for the Jewish
sabbath. One allegedly told a student: "We can all think of silly religions
if we want."
Douglas Davis, author of a new book,
Israel in the World: Changing Lives Through Innovation, said: "Some British
universities are reminiscent of Germany in the 1930s. Let us not forget
that the first place Hitler had Jews banned from was the universities."
Additional reporting: Sophie Kirkham
