Jewish students of the United Kingdom’s University of Exeter had to flee, fearing for their safety after their Israeli flag was splashed with red juice and their flyers ripped up by a crowd of dozens while they sat at an information stall on Wednesday, one of the students told The Jerusalem Post.
Third-year International Relations student Rojin-Sena Cantay was at a table on behalf of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) UK with six other students when a large crowd began to gather just after noon. She said that the booth had been approved by the university.
“It was a very violent and abusive environment; we weren’t protected at all,” said Cantay.
A heated debate ensued among the students about Palestinian rights, the legitimacy of the IDF’s operations in the Israel-Hamas War, and the right of Jews to have a state in the Levant.
'Jewish students are Israeli agents'
Cantay alleged that members of the crowd had said that the students were Israeli agents because of the CAMERA on Campus pamphlets. They also reportedly said that “Jews are the reason the Middle East is messed up” and “Jews don’t belong to Israel, they belong to Europe.”
“The students were questioning and picking apart our families, demanding to know where their parents and grandparents were from,” said Cantay, “to delegitimize us as being Jews and our connection to Israel.”
One woman grew irate over remarks about the treatment of LGBTQ+ people in the Muslim world and that the crowd was being intimidating. She accused the Jewish students of growing close to making Islamophobic comments.
“Do you know how violent it is for you guys to sit here with that flag?” asked one student.
Cantay said that red juice was thrown over their Israeli flag, which she assumed was to paint it to look like blood, but the liquid splashed on the Jewish students as well.
University security “watched it, so it was criminal activity that the security watched,” Cantay said. “They refused to call the police. They told us that there was nothing illegal being done, even though things were being thrown at us. They ripped up our leaflets.”
CAMERA UK said in a statement that the students had to flee the campus in taxis provided by the university out of concern for their physical safety.
The University of Exeter's response
A spokesperson for the University of Exeter told the Post on Friday, "University security was present throughout, and members of the police, who were present at the university as part of a separate meeting, visited the stall before the incident occurred.”
Cantay said they “won’t be returning to campus for a very long time, because we don’t feel protected, we feel unsafe, they have our pictures, the crowds were huge, and if security couldn’t protect us when they were right next to us, how are they going to ensure that they’re going to protect us when they’re not next to us?”
The student said that she had met with the university on Thursday and that they failed to take responsibility for the event and didn’t make a statement regarding protecting the Jewish student body.
The University of Exeter said it was investigating reports of the incident and was meeting with the students to ensure they were receiving appropriate support.
“As part of our investigation, we will review the full CCTV footage that is available,” said the university spokesperson. “The welfare and safety of all our students is our highest priority. The university is clear that there is absolutely no place or justification for any instances of discrimination, hate, or harassment, and we are committed to ensuring our campuses are safe and welcoming for everyone within our community.”
The university said that anyone who had experienced such discrimination or harassment should report it to the administration.
CAMERA UK said that the intimidation that had occurred at the University of Exeter was the culmination of many factors, of which misinformation and propaganda cultivated by the faculty and staff at the university had been integral in creating hatred for Israel and Jews.
These conditions fueled “the targeting of Jewish and Zionist students to silence them and deny their freedom to identify as Jewish and Zionist students, both on campus and in wider UK society,” said CAMERA UK Communications Associate Christina Jones.