An open letter to the Vice-Chancellor, Deans, and Proctors of the University of Oxford

We are writing to you as a community of Oxford University students, affiliate researchers, faculty members and alumni, both Jewish and non-Jewish, Israeli and non-Israeli, who are deeply alarmed by the escalation of antisemitic and anti-Israeli incidents in the university since the 7th of October. 

We are grateful for the official statement released by the Vice-Chancellor, according to which “there is no place for antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian discrimination, or hate directed towards any faith, race, nationality or ethnic group at the University of Oxford”. However, there have been ongoing acts of aggression and racism against Jewish and Israeli university members. 

Since the 7th of October, many of us and our colleagues have been targets of harassment, bullying, and discrimination throughout the university and the colleges due to our Jewish and/or Israeli identity. The reality for us has been that during this academic year we have felt isolated, unsafe, targeted, stressed, disappointed, angry, and hopeless. 

The purpose of this letter is to communicate the frightening climate which has taken hold over Oxford since October from our perspective. It is a result of a series of meetings and conversations we have held with dozens of Jewish and Israeli people at Oxford about the atmosphere in the university. We are asking for the university to consider taking action to create a safe and protected environment for us to do our research. We support our request with a list of over 100 incidents that we have gathered over the last six months, which you can find enclosed at the end of this letter.

Lack of Aid and Sympathy

On the 7th of October we woke up to the deadliest attack in Israeli history. Many of us are from, and have loved ones in the area of the massacre, and for entire days we did not know whether anyone survived. As one can imagine, the nature and scope of the attack -characterised by crimes against humanity, including body and sexual mutilation, torture and kidnapping- has left all of us in a state of trauma, and has caused an aggressive deterioration of our mental health. Many of us have been, and are still personally impacted by war which ensued, including losing family members and loved ones who were brutally murdered, or some that are still held hostage. Some of us effectively have no place to go back to with our family members being displaced. 

While most of us received the initial letter sent by the university, addressed to all who may be involved in the conflict, only a handful of us have been personally contacted by the various welfare officers and advisors in our colleges and departments, and some staff members were not even contacted by their line managers. Most haven’t even inquired if we, or our families, were alive and safe. As some of the testimonies below demonstrate, several members took the initiative and shared their difficulties with welfare staff, supervisors and line managers, and were met with insensitive, unsympathetic and often outrageous responses which exhibited a bias against Israeli and Jewish people. One of the most telling examples is that of an Israeli student, whose family members were murdered, with one taken hostage, who shared their experiences with the welfare officer in their college only a few days later, and was told that “Oxford is often not a nice place for Israelis and Jews, and there is nothing we can do about it.” Several others who expressed their struggles to their heads of programmes, were simply advised to leave Oxford. This systematically harmful response from members of the university and/or its affiliated structures have left us feeling lonely, unsupported and isolated. 

Hostile Environment 

While struggling with our personal and national trauma, we came to realise that our reality at the university is a struggle of a different nature. Israeli university members, upon stepping outside of their houses or offices, face hundreds of reminders that their country does not deserve to exist. Oxford, whether on the streets, in faculty buildings, colleges, classes, lectures, mailing lists, is overflowing with calls to boycott Israelis, globalise the intifada, and eliminate Israel’s existence. Displays for the hostages, and vigils for the massacre’s victims, are constantly being vandalised by both individual students and some university groups. The Israeli member of the university, then, has to face rhetoric which de-legitimises his or her existence and diminishes the value of their humanity on a daily basis. It is inescapable for many of us. This has been our reality in Oxford since the first day of term, the 9th of October, only two days after the massacre. It is also this reality which impacts our mental health, and derails our ability to perform and conduct our research. Many students shared that they stopped attending classes, visiting their colleges, and studying in university libraries, just in order to escape it. 

This reality has been further worsened by hostilities shown against Jewish and Israeli members of the university, which more often than not are not in line with the university’s policy of freedom of speech. Multiple people shared that in conversations about the war, they were immediately labelled as ignorant, racist, and as defenders and supporters of genocide. Such conversations often escalated into racial tropes, with one Jewish student being told that the "antisemitic views of Hamas is a direct consequence of being oppressed by Jews", as well as that all Israelis hate Palestinians and are naturally racist. Two Israeli faculty members even shared how they were both aggressively confronted on Israel's part in the war on different occasions by their students. Moreover, numerous calls for discriminating against and boycotting Israeli people in the university were heard from both student organisations as well as faculty unions. Finally, when members of our community organised vigils for the Israeli hostages, students often shouted derogatory and violent comments at them and defaced the hostages’ pictures. We wonder if the university would have been as tolerant towards this racially discriminatory behaviour, had it been directed at students of a different nationality, religion, or ethnicity. 

Harassment

However shocking the above-described phenomena are, the most urgent issue is the overwhelming amount of clear harassment incidents, directed at Jewish and Israeli university members. Many of us and our colleagues have faced all manners of antisemitic slurs, have been accused of being Nazis and child-murderers, and have been the targets of social exclusion campaigns simply for our nationality or ethnicity. One Jewish student was told that “Jews control the American government”, “Jews are everywhere”, and that they (the student) “have a Jewish nose”. Meanwhile, an Israeli student attests that students have attempted to pursue their friend to sever contact with them because they are “supporting genocide” by being an Israeli. Another one was called a “Zionist Nazi”. No one would feel safe, equal or respected after being subjected to such heinous slurs. 

This extreme climate caused numerous members of the university to hide their Jewish and/or Israeli identities in fear of being targeted for it, as indeed happened to many of us. Some students left Oxford during Michaelmas and Hilary terms, feeling unsafe and unwelcome, and many share that they have been considering permanently leaving the University if this atmosphere persists. 

Conspiratorial Narratives in University Forums

Equally alarming is the dehumanising rhetoric and the antisemitic tropes against Jewish and Israeli people expressed by faculty members, students, and guest speakers in university public forums, further normalising the use of racial slurs and hate speech in Oxford. In multiple events, teach-ins and classes, speakers, some of whom are faculty members, valorised the atrocities of the 7th of October and justified them as legitimate acts of violence. One Oxford professor, for instance, praised the massacre on video, calling it “a strong message.” That same professor has argued in the past that Israel was behind the massacre of Iraqi Jews in 1941. In a teach-in about Gaza, one Oxford professor remarked that “What happened on October 7th was justified, and I understand where it was coming from.” In another instance, members of one of the most prestigious scholarships in the university shared that scholars have argued that there was no sexual violence on the 7th of October, and that Israel planned the massacre as pretence for occupying Gaza. These comments, while publicly shared, have not been denounced by anyone - but indeed only hailed as truthful. Finally, one speaker was quoted at an event hosted by the Oxford Department of International Development, saying: "There is no such thing as antisemitism today, and if someone says that you are being antisemitic, ignore them” (Palestine Discussion Series, 15.11.23) Similar calls could be heard from various student societies and faculty members, who alleged that antisemitism was being weaponised as a "zionist plot". There is nothing respectful nor academic about having to listen to such racially discriminatory rhetoric, and the university should have been the first to denounce it and educate against it. Oxford's administration would be unlikely to turn a blind eye to faculty members who spoke about other minorities in such terms. There should not be a double standard for Jewish and Israeli people.

Failure in Reporting Procedures

Despite the university’s commitment to zero tolerance against any form of harassment and discrimination, our attempts to report incidents have been broadly ignored or diminished. Multiple reports have never been investigated, remaining  open and with no clarity as to when they may be officially addressed. Some reports have been dismissed outright by university representatives who did not “see their antisemitic nature”. Often it seemed to be the case that reports were dismissed due to an underlining misconception that Jewish and Israeli people cannot be victims. The lack of a single, transparent process of submitting incidence reports means that many students are feeling isolated and vulnerable, prevents the university from taking disciplinary actions against individuals breaking its policies, and is likely causing a great underestimate of the problem of antisemitism and anti-Israeli sentiment on campus. We would like to add that we are aware that our Muslim colleagues are facing the same issue. 

Suggestions

As one university welfare officer told an Israeli student: “Oxford is often not a nice place for Israelis and Jews, and there is nothing we can do about it.” Many of us justifiably feel that, had other vulnerable communities would have to undergo this systematic bias, the university would have reacted faster and more decisively. 

In order to assure the university's commitment to safeguarding all its members, we suggest that the university consider the following actions as a matter of priority: 

Protecting Jewish and Israeli University Members

• Safeguarding Policies: That the university ensures that university policies regarding harassment and discrimination are implemented, regardless of whether any given incident has been reported to the police.

• Reporting Procedures: We propose that the processes for reporting incidents of harassment based on faith or ethnicity be reformed in line with the system of reporting incidents of sexual harassment, meaning, the process must be anonymised, efficient and available to students and staff alike. In the interim, we suggest that existing procedures be clearly communicated to all the relevant members of the university. This will be a helpful way to rebuild trust in this system that left students and faculty feeling failed. 

• Academic Events: We appreciate the difficulties in allowing an environment of free speech in the context of extremely sensitive subjects where many individuals have direct and personal exposure to the subjects debated. This does not mean, however, that university forums should be a space for conspiratorial narratives, hate speech and calls for violence and discrimination. Indeed, we feel that these polemics are at the very heart of the hostility that we face on campus. Other universities, such as the London School of Economics and Political Science, require that all university events be chaired by a neutral senior member of staff, who is not involved in their organisation. This has been highly effective in maintaining freedom of speech while ensuring that the contents of the events are held within boundaries of university policies and national anti-hate speech legislation. We propose that the university consider this model as a matter of priority and implement necessary steps to tackle the hate emanating from university events. 

We also ask that the university becomes more active in educating against misinformation and conspiratorial narratives. Some of the comments made by university members and mentioned above could have been avoided, or at least denounced by their audience, had it known that they are false or racially-motivated. The university's first priority is to provide its members access to knowledge. Why has it systematically provided them with uncritical, one-sided, and biased knowledge on this issue? 

Battling Antisemitic and Anti-Israeli Bias

• Training Welfare Units: We ask that the university’s welfare system receive mandatory training in recognising and responding to antisemitic and anti-Israeli harassment and discrimination. While the university has adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism in 2020, the divergent responses from university staff to incident reporting may be in part due to poor awareness of this definition. This can be addressed with dedicated materials and sessions. This should similarly be implemented vis-a-vis anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian discrimination. 

• Long Term Education: We ask that the university consider expanding Oxford's EDI to include resources dedicated to tackle racism against Jewish, Muslim, Israeli, Arab and Palestinian people. This should address the imagined allegiance of Muslim people with political “Islamism” and of Jewish people with political “Zionism”, and the deeply racist and offensive uses of these terms in Oxford indiscriminately. For instance, it is obvious from some of the examples that many people have been using "zionist" instead of "Jew" so as to not break any rules, but are equally racially motivated. This should be done in close partnerships with organisations fighting racism against these groups, for example via mandatory training modules for staff and students, as well as discussion series on racism and global conflicts. 

The university must cultivate an environment of civil discourse and provide the necessary educational tools for a more nuanced understanding of the conflict, as is appropriate for a world-class institution. In this context we also ask that the university consider hosting formal educational events on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which will deliberately seek to represent both sides. We know this has taken place on campuses such as Harvard and Yale. Could it happen here?

• Data and Transparency: We request that the university share its yearly statistics of reports of incidents of racism. This would be fundamental for both the senior leadership and other members of the university to track these trends and improve university policies accordingly.

Being Attentive to Local Communities

• Meetings: We are very happy to attend a meeting with the Vice Chancellor and other senior stakeholders to discuss in detail our issues and propositions.  

• General Assembly: We are also happy to organise a general meeting in which the Vice Chancellor and other senior stakeholders could hear from Israeli and Jewish members of the university about their personal experiences. 

As members of this institution we are taking this step as a sign of faith in Oxford’s ability to fight "antisemitism, islamophobia, anti-Palestinian discrimination" (March 4, 2024) and anti-Israeli discrimination. The university, as a world leading educational institution, to which many other bodies look for moral guidance, is a global example. We write to ask that the university take decisive steps to ensure the safety of all its members.

(note: we maintain our anonymity in order to avoid victimisation.)

___________________

List of Incidents

Here you can find testimonies of Israeli and Jewish members of the university, which were collected by us. They are left anonymous in order to keep the victims safe from any further victimisation and hostility, should their identities be exposed. The perpetrators' identities are also withheld to encourage the university to address this issue collectively rather than focusing on individual cases. Regardless, we hope that the university will address individual cases appropriately, even though it not the primary intention of this letter. While these are just a number of examples of what the Israeli and Jewish experience has been like in the university over the last seven months, we believe that it only represents a fraction. Many of them are in line with the IHRA definition of Antisemitism, to which the university is legally bound. 

Not all documented incidents are similarly severe. Not all of them merit disciplinary action. Some of them point at clear racial harassment, bullying, and discrimination. Some expose a racial bias which discriminates against Jewish and Israeli people in less lucid ways, such as a pointed lack of sympathy, or a tolerance of harassment and bullying. Others portray symptoms of an environment characterised by an one-sided, obsessive, unacademic, and dehumanising approach to the inhabitants of one particular country. All of the incidents -especially read together- demonstrate the racially-aggravated and hateful atmosphere that has been snowballing in the university since the beginning of the war. Even though not all incidents break the university's rules and regulations, they categorically undermine the access of many Jewish and Israeli members of the university to a safe and equal learning and working environment. 

(Last Updated: 27 May 2024)

1. An Israeli student attests that university students in their prestigious scholarship have been petitioning for the scholarship to cut ties with the donors who fund the Israeli spots in the scholarship. 

2. In a Palestinian-themed event organised by one department, a speaker was asked about antisemitic tropes within the discourse about the conflict, to which they replied: “There is no such thing as antisemitism today, and if someone says that you are being antisemitic, ignore them.” 

3. An Israeli fellow was told by a colleague that Jews run all the banks in the world. 

4. An Israeli student shared that they were told by a number of students from their college, “you guys control the American government.” 

5. A student was told by their professor that it is impossible to speak about the war because the university is blocking the discourse, due to the fact that there are “too many Jews in the University.” 

6. A Jewish student was harassed online by a student who repeatedly called them “a zionist”, alleged that they “suck(s) up to Israel” and are “working for the Israeli gov(ernment)”. 

7. A college’s JCR Whatsapp group contained a discussion in which one student made statements comparing the Jewish members of the JCR to “Nazi settlers who opposed a ceasefire in occupied Poland” and in reference to them said “Zionists always seek to distance themselves from the truth.” 

8. An Israeli student shares that a colleague justified the attack on the 7th of October by claiming that the responsibility lies only with the oppressor.

9. A group of students told a Jewish student that “the Jews control the American government”, “Jews are everywhere”, and that they (the student) “have a Jewish nose”. 

10. When a number of Israeli students contacted their head of departments in mid October, sharing that it became unbearable for them to be at the university, as they are constantly being targeted and isolated for being Israeli, the head of department suggested they leave Oxford and come back in the next year.

11. An Israeli student shared that their flatmate (also a student at the university), has asked them not to put a Mezuzah on their door as it might attract unnecessary attention. 

12. A Jewish student shared that while selecting their examiners, they were warned against certain faculty professors, due to their being "most likely antisemitic". 

13. A Jewish student was told by a fellow student that they "wouldn't date a Jew".

14. In November, a Jewish student was tearfully sharing with their Director of Studies about the antisemitic environment in the university. The director told them to "get over antisemitism”.

15. An Israeli faculty member attests that one of their students harassed them due to their nationality, and would make jokes in the classroom about how “the conditions of the kidnapped Israelis are better than those of the Palestinian prisoners.” 

16. An Israeli student was told by a fellow student that they “should be ashamed of themselves” for asking their MCR to recognise the Israeli deaths in the war alongside with the Palestinian ones. The same student directly referred to them as ignorant, racist, and as defenders and supporters of genocide. 

17. An Israeli student attests that students within their college publicly watched the videos of the 7th of October massacre and remarked: “well deserved.” 

18. A Law Faculty DPhil student stated in conversation about the war, "we could solve this by dissolving Israel".

19. A student who heard that another student is Jewish, asked “wait, don't you guys control the banks?”. 

20. An Israeli faculty member attests that their child was told on the street that they “should die because” they “are a zionist”. 

21. An Israeli student attests that they were accused by another college student of killing children in Gaza due to their nationality.

22. A Jewish student shared that the mezuzah which was hung on his door was ripped off in the first week after the beginning of the war. 

23. In an Oxford scholarship mailing list, a student denied that women (and men) were raped and sexually mutilated by Hamas militants on the 7th of October. 

24. On the 8th of October, a member of St Cross college shared on their Instagram account that "resistance is always justified" and that "settlers aren’t civilians".

25. An Israeli faculty member was told by an affiliate scholar: "I can’t believe that you were so stupid to believe that Palestinians raped Jewish women. It was actually Palestinian women who were systematically raped for 75 years. And the IDF is covering it up by creating false narratives".

26. On the 9th of October, two days after the massacre, the Oxford PalSoc Instagram account published a post justifying Hamas offense. 

27. A Jewish student was told by a fellow student that all Israeli people are settlers, and that they get skin cancer “because they are white” and none of them are native to the Middle-East. The same student accused Jewish people of choosing “to be settlers” when migrating to Palestine/Israel in the 20th century. 

28. A student told a Jewish student that supporting Israel is supporting terrorism and war crimes. The same student denied Hamas’ terrorist actions, and supported their argument by alleging that Israeli hostages were treated well by Hamas. 

29. Students were invited to a Holiday themed bop in their college and were asked to contribute songs from their own winter holidays. A Jewish student was not to play a proposed Hanukkah song because of the situation in Israel. 

30. A college's "Faiths and Beliefs" JCR representative asked if a student was Jewish, and after they said yes, the representative said "What about Israel?”. 

31. An Israeli student reported that in their class one student remarked that "obviously Jewish pride is a bad thing". 

32. A Jewish student reported that a faculty member who has been checking up on them to make sure that they are doing okay told them "I could never said these things in public or I will be canceled". 

33. A Jewish student shared that a specific professor in their department "continue to like and retweet various posts including rhetoric like: 'it seems as if Hitler has won', long threads downplaying antisemitism (for example, by resharing photos of fringe extremist groups like Neturai Karta in central London), ‘Israel does not represent Torah Jews’ and, most concerning, ‘Palestinians should not be forced to pay the price for Europe’s persecution of Jewish people. This burden was unjustly thrust on Palestine with the arrival of wester-aback Zionist occupiers…’." This professor is non-Jewish. The same professor on the 7th of October "liked tweets about Palestinians having a ‘right to defend themselves’ as well as striking maps of historical revisionism."

34. As Israeli faculty member kept getting harassed by a student who asked them to "admit" that they are "performing genocide". 

35. A Jewish student's presence at a BAME formal was questioned because "Jews don't count". 

36. A Jewish student was bullied online by a fellow college student, who serially laughed at their “Jewish nose”. The student complained about it to their representative in the Student Union, who told them that they do not understand the antisemitic nature of the incident and dismissed the student’s claim. The student reported that they felt shocked and embarrassed, and felt that they would be equally dismissed if they reported the incident to the university. The same student was also advised against reporting, as it would only invite further victimisation and present the student as a “victim of the zionist silencing”. 

37. Oxford Palestinian Society’s instagram account was seen to share many caricatures of antisemitic nature. One depicted a hand with a star of David bracelet pouring the blood of Palestinians into a Starbucks cup. 

38. An Israeli student shared that students have attempted to pursue their friend to severe contact with them because they are “supporting genocide” simply by being an Israeli. 

39. A Jewish student reported that a student at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies referred in a conversation to all Israelis as having "a complete and utter lack of humanity". 

40. An Israeli student attests that a large number of students spread misinformation about the events of the 7th of October in their scholarship’s mailing list, just a few days after the attack. One colleague apparently claimed that Israel knew of the incoming attack by Hamas before it had happened, and deliberately used it in order to have a justified opportunity to erase Gaza and perform genocide. 

41. A Jewish student attests that their department held a teach-in about the war in Gaza, and one of the faculty members who were attending said: “What happened on October 7th was justified, and I understand where it was coming from.” 

42. An Israeli student attests that they were attacked online by another college student who found out they were from Israel. The student blamed them for the murder of innocent children. 

43. A member of the Law Faculty has spoken about "the Israeli control over the media".

44. A student alleged that Palestinians “welcomed Jews before they stole all their land” and that “they used to live there peacefully until Zionism came along.” 

45. A Jewish student was harassed online by another student, and was told that all Israelis are “spiteful and hateful”. 

46. An Israeli student was told that Jewish and Israeli money controls the UN, the reason why the body is reportedly legitimising the attacks on civilian population in Gaza. 

47. An Israeli student reported that their classmate said that "zionism is racism". 

48. An Israeli fellow was told that they should not be entitled to grieve over the 7th of October attack, claiming that having access to shelters (as opposed to people in Gaza) makes them privileged. Which is painfully ironic, as shelters were exactly where large numbers of people died on the 7th of October, being burnt alive, exploded by hand grenades, or simply shot dead. Furthermore, many people do not have access to shelters in the area surrounding Gaza. 

49. A Jewish student was told that "every Israeli in culpable". 

50. A Jewish student was told "Zionist crazies should go back to America".

51. An Israeli student reports being repeatedly told by several classmates that she “must be a Mossad agent”. 

52. In a conversation about the Holocaust, a student told another Jewish student, that “everyone suffered during WWII.” 

53. An Israeli student attests that they were told that all Israeli people wish to “cleanse Arabs”. 

54. An Israeli student was told by their college warden that they are “uncomfortable” about hosting a meeting in the college in order to tackle antisemitism. 

55. An Israeli student shared that a student said in their classroom that she does "not want to sit with zionists in the same class". 

56. An Israeli student shared the story of their acquaintance who was kidnapped by Hamas and was released, and a colleague told them that Israeli people cannot be counted as victims as they are oppressing everyone. 

57. An Israeli student was told that the antisemitic views of Hamas is a direct consequence of being oppressed by Jews. 

58. An Israeli student shares that they were told by a colleague that all Israelis hate Palestinians and are naturally racist. 

59. Several Israeli fellows come across stickers on around the city and campus which reads “Israel Loves Genocide.” Some even described how their children had come across the sticker outside of their house. 

60. A student in a prestigious scholarship remarked that "Zionism is a death cult". 

61. In a facebook group of university students, there has been constant acts of delegitimization of Israelis’ right to a country, calls for violence and conspiratorial narratives presented as truthful. One post was inviting people to a lecture titled: “Palestine: is one state possible?” together with the map of Israel covered with the Palestinian flag. In another post, one of the moderators posted: “From today, I stop using the term Israel and instead refer to that country as the Occupied State of Palestine. Let us all change the narrative and delete their name forever.” In April 2024 a video was posted calling “Intifada, Intifada, long live the intifada”. In one example, they posted a video blaming Israel for the attack on the al-Alhi hospital, even after it was proved (as was reported in all media channels) that it was a failed rocket launch from Gaza. Even though being a group of students and recognised society, it turns out that it has strong ties with powerful political groups in Oxford. They often organise events together, as can be seen from the advertisements, and non-students who belong to those groups are active members in the society’s social media channels. 

62. An Israeli student shared that they complained to their college about derogatory remarks made out to them by other students, and the college administrator told them that there is nothing to do. The same student then pursued the case with their faculty, which did not handle their report. 

63. A Jewish student shared that their non-Jewish friends have been warning them against telling people that they are Jewish, and against openly wearing his star of David necklace. They share that their friends once told them that they are "glad your'e not in the room half the time, the stuff people say is completely unhinged". 

64. Several Israeli fellows and students reported having regular Anti-Israeli protests outside their faculty buildings. In at least one case one Israeli fellow tried to have a dialogue with the protesters, and in response they were being threatened and were called a “Zionist Nazi.” The following day, the faculty outside of which the protest took place circulated an email which described the protest as an act of “freedom of speech”, without giving the students and fellows an opportunity to first explain their experience of being harassed in their workplace. Several people complained about the specific incident to the Vice Chancellor. From her office’s response, it was clear that the university was not willing to get involved and simply referred them to the police. No harassment advisor has contacted the fellow since, and it is evident that the university made no effort to find who the student was, and to begin its usual Harassment Procedure. 

65. An Israeli student was asked by a fellow classmate if they are experiencing any difficulties from faculty members due to the situation. They responded by explaining that they have been suffering from antisemitism, and another student interrupted them, shouting “but you can’t ignore what’s going on in Gaza.” 

66. In the week after the beginning of the war, an Israeli student met with the head of the Academic Office of their college. The student told them in the meeting that their relatives had been murdered and another taken hostage, and they shared how they felt just passing through a protest on their way to class. The college official then told them that “Oxford is often not a nice place for Israelis and Jews, and there is nothing we can do about it.”

67. When realising that a student is an Israeli national, the professor who led the class singled them out in front of everyone in the room and asked them about their opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. During the week of the massacre, social media posts of some university members, faculty and students alike, were seen praising Hamas’ actions. Examples include “victory for the Palestinian resistance,” and “we stand with the Palestinians, who have every right to fight the brutal Israeli occupation”. 

68. A university professor said during an interview on social media: “By launching the attack on Israel at the 7 of October, Hamas sent a powerful message: that the Palestinians will not be sidelined, that the palestinian resistance is not dead…”, suggesting that the horrific massacre of October 7 by Hamas is legitimate resistance. 

69. Within a university property (leased by a company), an Israeli worker who asked their colleagues to approach them with sensitivity on the 8th of October -as their family members in Israel were unresponsive, and she was afraid for their lives- was blamed of breaking the neutrality of the workplace by introducing political matters into it. The person who blamed them was a coworker, who in the meantime organised relief fundraisers for Palestians within the workplace and handed out watermelon stickers (a common symbol of Palestine). The Israeli worker shared that following that co-worker’s response to their request, they felt a lot of hostility within the office. 

70. Multiple Jewish and Israeli people affiliated with the university attest that they have seen people within campus tear down and deface flyers of hostages, and often they would be replaced with pro-Palestinian stickers. In consequence, people felt like their (a-political) voices were erased, and their freedom of expression was aggressively taken. 

71. A number of JCR and MCR statements brought to our attention spell out misinformation, and systematically dehumanise Israelis and their loss and sufferings in the course of this war. One such statement completely erases and disregards the suffering, death and displacement of Israeli people, and stands in solidarity strictly with Palestinians. It also justifies the massacre of the 7th of October by it “being a part of a history (of) 75 years of occupation of Palestine by Israel”. 

72. In October, an Oxford professor has remarked in a public event that "zionism is racism". 

73. A Jewish student attest that their classmates wear a pin, on which is written: “Intifada until victory.” 

74. A Jewish student attests that they met with their academic supervisor and told them about their feelings regarding their department and its one-sidedness, to which the supervisor responded: “There aren’t two sides, Israel is a terrorist state and there’s nothing else.” 

75. In a private conversation after class, a professor compared the lack of criticism towards Israel to the silence of the villages surrounding the Auschwitz death camp during WWII. The same professor then continued to remark that he can understand Hamas terrorists “because many of them have lost their parents during the conflict.” 

76. A Jewish student was told by two fellow classmates that Hamas is a part of the resistance. 

77. A Jewish student attests that they have received multiple derogatory comments about their nose from other college students. 

78. An Israeli student shares that they reached out to their college provost to report hate speech they have received from other students at the college, to which the provost replied by copying the university’s official statement. The provost also shared the student’s message (without their consent) with their college advisor, who did not care to respond to the student afterwards. 

79. An Israeli student attests that a college student spread misinformation about the war on the college’s MCR group. The student referred to the attack as “justified”, and claimed that “it was an operation by Palestinian liberation fighters.” 

80. An Israeli student shared that a number of students refer to them as an “ultra Zionist”.

81. The local branch of UCU voted for a motion calling for a third “intifada until victory”. While the motion was withdrawn due to legal concerns, university media platforms and faculties distributed the motion. The university has not made a single comment in response. 

82. Violence calls, and calls for violence are constantly heard in Pro-Palestinian protests in Oxford, such as calling for the elimination of the Jewish state, “Palestine from the river to the see”,  “Intifada”, “the resistance is justified”, “globalise the Intifada”, “Israel is a terror state”, “From Oxford to Gaza: long live the Intifada”, “Israel, Oxford, USA, how many kids did you kill today?” are only a few examples. Those places at the university, sometimes during working hours, became a no-go area for most Israelis and Jewish for 7 months now.

83. In vigils for the hostages held by Israelis in the university, university members, mainly students, shouted at us, told us we are kid murderers, that we are spreading conspiracy theories and “Zionist propaganda”, and they vandalised our displays for the hostages. In fact, almost every time we did such a display, it was vandalised by organised groups from the university.

84. On one occasion, when two Israeli volunteers went to take off the display for the Israeli hostages, as was coordinated with university security, they met with a group of people who mistakenly thought that they came to destroy the display. They talked to them and said that they are part of an organised group that are coordinating to destroy those displays. There was a combination of older and younger people in this group, mostly students at the university. Then, a group of about 10 students joined them, with their faces completely covered with Kafiyes. 

85. In October, a university department hosted a pro-Palestinian event, at which one speaker (a fellow at an Oxford college) claimed in one of their latest articles that Israel is responsible for the rise of Neo-Nazism in Europe. The same speaker has denied in the event that the 7th of October massacre took place. In another public context, the same speaker has expressed misinformation about the Jewish population of Israel, giving voice to an antisemitic conspiracy theory, according to which “European Jews” were intentionally transferred to the land of Palestine in order to replace its indigenous population. The same speaker has argued that Jewish people are “white”. 

86. New Israeli members of the university shared that since November, the Oxford University Newcomers' Club’s mailing list has been grounds for harassment of Israeli people and misinformation since the beginning of the war. In a sequence of emails reaching hundreds of the club’s members, sent by various people, Israeli members shared that they were called “ignorant”, “racist”, “pathetic”, and referred to as “colonial” members of an “occupant terror state”. Another person in the group referred to the “Israeli’s [...] terrorist behaviours”. Other people in the forum valorised and justified the attack on the 7th of October under the pretence of it being the rightful expression of oppressed people. 

87. Events “for Palestine” in university departments are advertised with a picture of the state of Israel merged with the Palestinian territories, entirely covered with the Palestinian flag, or with Kafiye. For example, the event “Bakesale for Palestine” organised by the department of International development, at the end of October. 

88. An Oxford college cancelled its participation in a co-organised yearly Hanukkah party, explaining that conducting it this year will be too explosive due to the war. 

89. An event organised by a faculty hosted a speaker who justified the massacre of the 7th of October, and claimed that it was simply an act of “armed resistance”. 

90. A student-organised protest against Nancy Pelosi (SU, 25/4/24) featured chants such as “London to Gaza, long live the intifada.” 

91. On the 6th of May, 2024, a student group called “Oxford Action for Palestine” began encamping on the lawn of the Pitt Rivers Museum. They also released a statement which dismisses Israel as a 75-year colonial state (which is the duration of its existence) and delegitimises the right of the Jewish people to a state which defends them, completely ignores the victims from the Israeli side which led to the war and systematically presents a one-sided narrative, and calls for a general boycott of Israel. Their demands also include boycotting Israeli institutions, which will de facto lead to a wide-spread institutional discrimination against Israeli academics. Furthermore, in their obligatory sign-up manifesto, the organisers of the protests use the term "zionist entity" (as distinct from Israel), which is a long-standing antisemitic term used in order to denote an imagined network of global Jewish money which controls governments world-wide. Some faculty members have released a letter in support of the encampment, as well as the local UCU branch. 

92. On the 11th of May, six men attacked members of the encampment and “particularly targeted Jewish students, using antisemitic language”, in addition to xenophobic and transphobic slurs. 

93. The form dedicated to reporting incidents on this website was answered anonymously with antisemitic answers such as "Criminal Zionazi, Professor of Genocide" and "criminal.zionazi@fuck.israel.com".

94. An Oxford professor was recently interviewed about campus antisemitism and was quoted saying: “So I think that as far as Oxford is concerned, there is absolutely no basis for claims of antisemitism or students feeling uncomfortable, let alone threatened.”

95. One of the National Union of Students nominees from Oxford had overtly antisemitic statements in his manifesto about the war. A student reported it to the harassment team, and explained what was antisemitic about it, as well as pointed to the IHRA definition that the university subscribes to. The officer dismissed the student's claim and referred them to the Students Union, who went on to ignore the report altogether. The student has since learnt that the officer who was contacted originally should have been the one to deal with the report. 

96. On the 6th of May, an admin of a college MCR chat advertised the encampments. One student has spoken against the relevance of the advertisement in the MCR chat, and in response received "several antisemitic messages, repetition of blood libels (including term accusing Israel of being mass murders and baby killers)" and other messages "arguing about the definition of antisemitism". The student was told that they are "gross" to be concerned about antisemitism, and it was implied that they are not "one of the good Jews who stand on the right side of history".

97. An MCR of a college motioned to release a statement which included a point about justifying the atrocities of October 7th as "resistance" and “events ... must be understood within the context of 75 years of occupation and settler colonisation”. The motion is also filled with antisemitic tropes and false information. 

98. JCR and MCR motions on the conflict show the extent of misinformation there is on the matter, which remains uncorrected by the academic system in Oxford. A Jewish student was involved in amending a JCR statement in support of Palestine. In one of the meetings, a discussion was had on whether to condemn Hamas in the statement. This discussion lead to fellow students alleging that Hamas "has nothing to do with the genocide", even though it was pointed out to them that it is in the organisation's charter to call for the ethnic cleansing of all Jews. Other students stated in respect to Hamas that, they wouldn't "expect the oppressed to agree to a ceasefire", and that "Hamas originated because of Israel". In another instance, when some students asked for a line mourning the deaths of the civilians in Israel, they were answered that those deaths were irrelevant because there are "no two sides in a genocide". 

99. On May 22nd 2024, a number of swastikas were carved into toilet doors in Regent's Park College. The Dean of the college had excused it as an act stemming out of "feelings (are) running high in College". 

100. On May 23rd 2024, in the protest organised by the “Oxford Action for Palestine” group outside and within the university administration building, protesters were heard chanting "Israelis are terrorists and Israel is a terror state". 

101. On an emergency motion put out by students in the Wadham College Student Union regarding the protests and arrests made out on May 23rd 2024, there was a section dedicated to the "tokenisation and weaponisation of Jewish identity", and the two students who composed the letter seem to be under the notion that they represent all Jewish and Israeli life in Oxford. 

102. Students in Worcester college have been petitioning to halt funding from a scholarship meant for Israeli students.