An ‘apartheid wall’ at Cambridge University. Photo: CU Palestine Society/Facebook.

“Anti-Zionism has become a fig leaf for ugly Jew-baiting,” a recent graduate of the University of Oxford wrote on Thursday.

In an op-ed in the UK’s The Telegraph, Richard Black attributed the “barrage of verbal, physical and visual onslaughts” against Jewish students to the content and spirit of programs such as those currently taking place across campuses worldwide as part of “Israeli Apartheid Week” (IAW).

Ahead of events like IAW — which includes mock Israeli checkpoints and boycott campaigns — Jewish students “probably [feel] not at all dissimilar to how Medieval Jews felt when they dreaded the prospect of an irate Mendicant friar expounding on Jewish iniquities in the days leading up to Good Friday,” he wrote.

This week, the UK’s Jewish News reported, a bishop from the Church of England called IAW “neither helpful nor constructive,” saying it has “become a source of great tension between Jewish students and others on UK campuses” — leaving the former “feeling intimidated, vulnerable and insecure at a time of rising antisemitism in the UK and beyond.” 

On Wednesday, as reported by The Algemeiner, in response to concerns raised about IAW, British Prime Minister Theresa May called on her country’s universities to “investigate and swiftly address” campus antisemitism.

Members of leading advocacy groups in the UK recently told The Algemeiner that they were gearing up to “proactively” counter these events, and the country’s former chief rabbi, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, released an animated video on Monday to arm students with tools to confront anti-Israel trends.