19 Spring-Summer 2017 ntroduction There has been a rise in campus antisemitism in the UK since 2001, when the UN Conference against Racism in Durban accused Israel of the five cardinal sins against human rights: racism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, attempted genocide, and crimes against humanity. Since then, campus antisemitism has been cloaked in the language of human rights and promulgated in the socalled “fight for Palestine”; and student supporters of Israel have been labelled as “Nazis,” “apologists for racism,” “apologists for apartheid” and “racists” by student supporters of Palestine. Although student supporters of Palestine may not intend to be antisemitic, and vehemently deny their antisemitism, the effect of their rhetoric has incited harassment of students who support Israel, the overwhelming majority of whom are Jewish, and some of whom are Israeli. The creation and maintenance of a hostile campus environment for Jewish and Israeli students inevitably harms the quality of their student experience and jeopardizes their educational opportunities, because it causes them to suffer emotional distress and anxiety and puts them in fear of physical harm. Campus antisemitism is especially acute in the aftermath of armed conflict in the Middle East, and the period following the start of Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014, particularly spurred increased demonization of Israel and Israelis by student Palestine societies. In this context, a campus antisemitism case involving a university in the north of England was referred to UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI).1 Although the university concerned cannot be named, we may refer to it as "Any University UK," because the circumstances that gave rise to the complaint, the nature of the complaint, and the university’s response to it, represent a fairly typical picture of the situation facing Jewish students in the UK university sector. Accordingly, this article will use the antisemitism complaint against Any University UK, the University’s response to it, and the appeal decision by the Office of the Independent Adjudication for Higher Education, for illustrative purposes in order to shed light on the problem of campus antisemitism in Britain, and to place it in the context of the relevant law and the wider political issues. I worked on the case along with a retired former solicitor named David Lewis who, like me, was affiliated with UKLFI at the time the antisemitism complaint was brought.2 Brian, a disabled student who identifies as Jewish, submitted a complaint to Any University UK in June 2014, concerning the social media activity of the student Palestine Society, which is approved by, and affiliated to his Students’ Union. He complained that the University tolerated social media activity on campus that "crossed the line" from legitimate criticism of Israel into antisemitism and harassment. The University referred Brian’s complaint to the Students’ Union for resolution and the Students’ Union dismissed it in November 2014 without any written reasons. Brian submitted a second complaint to Any University UK in May 2015. In that complaint he repeated the allegations in his original complaint and made it clear that he would not accept another referral to the Students’ Union. Any University UK dismissed Brian’s complaint in February 2016. Brian appealed to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education, known as the Office of the Independent Adjudicator or the "OIA," in May 2016. The OIA is a charity whose purpose is to review a student complaint against a university to decide whether it is "Justified," "Partly Justified," or "Not Justified." In October 2016 the OIA upheld Brian’s complaint against Any University UK as "Partly Justified." The Lack of a Working Definition of Antisemitism In its October 2016 Report, the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee on Antisemitism in the UK (“Select Committee”) acknowledged that it “it would be extremely difficult to examine the issue of antisemitism Contemporary Antisemitism on the UK University Campus: A Case Study and Context I LesleyKlaff 1. UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) is a voluntary association of lawyers who support Israel and seek to ensure the proper application of the law in matters relating to Israel. 2. A detailed outline of the antisemitism case against Any University UK is presented in the fuller version of this article which is available on the IAJLJ website.
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