UK PM Sunak to call on university bosses to protect Jewish students

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will call on university bosses at a meeting on Thursday to protect Jewish students, saying a vocal minority of those protesting on campuses were propagating harassment and antisemitic abuse.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Pro-Palestinian student protests over the war in Gaza have become a flashpoint in the United States, where some demonstrations have been cleared from campuses by riot police.

Pro-Israeli counter-protesters have denounced what they see as antisemitism and anti-Jewish harassment

In Britain, protest camps have sprung up at several universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, in solidarity with Gaza and the US protesters. These demonstrations have not clashed with police, but have been criticised by local antisemitism campaigners.

KEY QUOTE

"Universities should be places of rigorous debate but also bastions of tolerance and respect for every member of their community," Sunak said in a statement ahead of the meeting.

"A vocal minority on our campuses are disrupting the lives and studies of their fellow students and, in some cases, propagating outright harassment and antisemitic abuse. That has to stop."

WHAT’S NEXT

Sunak, alongside his education minister and communities minister, will meet vice chancellors from some of the country’s leading universities, stressing the need for a zero tolerance approach to antisemitic abuse on all campuses.

Representatives from the Union of Jewish Students, which has said the encampments create a toxic environment on campuses, will also attend the meeting.

Reuters