University of Oxford. Photo: Wikipedia.

In the wake of several widely reported allegations of antisemitism at British universities, a new report reveals that the phenomenon is, in fact, a longstanding and “serious problem which has various manifestations on campuses,” The Algemeiner has learned.

The report, prepared by campus watchdog group Student Rights, details numerous examples of antisemitic speech and behavior during British student society events and on social media since 2011. These include verbal and physical abuse directed at Jewish students and visiting Israeli speakers, such as:

At a debating society within Oxford University, a student allegedly shouted “slaughter the Jews” at Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon.

At an event at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, an anti-Israel activist allegedly said that the best thing Jews have done is “go into the gas chamber.”

A significant theme in the report, according to a summary provided by Student Rights, is that “a number of speakers with a history of making antisemitic remarks or recycling antisemitic tropes have been given platforms on several UK campuses.”

The report warns, moreover, that “too often student society social media pages have been ungoverned areas where antisemitic abuse or conspiracies are freely shared.”

Among the examples offered of problematic social media posts are these:

Posts complaining British politicians are “on the Jewish payroll”; that Jews control the majority of “western media”; and that Israel is “illegally harvesting organs”;

Videos titled “Jewish-Zionist Power in America” and “CNN, Goldman Sachs & the Zio Matrix,” the latter created by former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke;

A claim on the University of Glasgow Palestine Society that “the mainstream media is owned by rabid Zionists” and posts which referred to Israeli police officers as “filthy heartless pigs”

Posts on the University of Westminster Palestine Solidarity Campaign stating “the Zionist Israelis…are totally akin” to the Nazis and “I believe Zionist Israel is actually worse than the Nazis.”

Director of Student Rights Rupert Sutton said, according to The Daily Mail:

Too many campuses have seen a form of identity politics, which perceives Jews as privileged and powerful, combined with a virulent anti-Zionism fueled by one-sided speaker events and inflammatory social media posts.

This has led to a blurring of the boundaries between pro-Palestine activism and anti-Semitism, exacerbated by the failure of students and university authorities to challenge bigoted views…

Until this changes, and universities take disciplinary action against those students and societies involved, we will continue to see antisemitism on our campuses.

Student Rights, established in 2009 as a project of the Henry Jackson Society, is, according to its website, a “non-partisan group dedicated to supporting equality, democracy and freedom from extremism on university campuses.”

Allegations of antisemitism at British universities have arisen several times in recent weeks, many triggered by the sudden resignation last month of an Oxford student leader over alleged rampant antisemitism in the Oxford University Labour Club, as reported by The Algemeiner.