Jews Unwelcome on Campus
Bob Dillon
From the outside, Western faculties appear as genteel oases of wisdom and knowledge. In truth, institutions of higher education are becoming brutal offspring of anti-Jew hatred. Famous faculties that have been an historical cradle of European civilization are sacrificing freedom and Israel to barbarism and obscurantism.
Even in America the gloves are coming off. The Institute for Jewish & Community Research in San Francisco recently published a report titled “Alone on the quad: Understanding Jewish Student Isolation on Campus,” one of the most comprehensive surveys of its kind. More than 40% of students confirm anti-Semitism on their campus; some 41% of students have encountered anti-Israel remarks made in class by professors.
Numbers are also telling in Europe. While boasting large numbers of Muslim students and students from Arab countries, European universities count very few Jewish or pro-Israeli students among their population. Whereas 15-20% of young people matriculating in America’s top universities are Jewish, in Europe only a few faculties claim even a tenth of this figure.
Today, we are witnessing the worst wave of anti-Israel hatred since April 6, 2002, when 123 academicians signed an open letter, published in Britain’s The Guardian, calling for a moratorium on all cultural links with Israel.
Recently, the University of Paris VIII closed its doors for two days to avoid a harder stance about a planned conference against the Jewish State. Elsewhere, while septuagenarian Israeli novelist and Holocaust survivor Esther Orner has been banned from the University of Provence, Hezbollah officials spoke at the Sorbonne University.
Meanwhile, Rotterdam’s Erasmus University recently hosted events in which Israel was equated with South Africa’s apartheid regime.
‘Israel absolute taboo in Europe’
Frank says: