67 Winter 2025 foreign scholars and higher education institutions. The ongoing development of academic research is grounded in the free exchange of ideas and debate between scholars, regardless of location or the political situation in which they find themselves. As with academic freedom generally, the standard of judgment for participation in academic discourse is one which resides within the discipline itself, rather than being imposed from outside. Boycotting individual scholars because the politics of the state in which they reside or the leadership of the university in which they work is to punish them for policies for which they cannot reasonably be held responsible. Applied consistently, boycotting scholars because of their nationality or the country in which they work would lead to boycotts against scholars in a long list of countries and the collapse of academic collaboration. There may be extreme cases where a university itself poses a threat to academic freedom – where the entire institution, or a significant number of its staff, decisively contribute to repressive government conduct which itself poses a threat to academic freedom, or where the university has become nothing but a mouthpiece for the government. Since no mechanical rule can apply, countryspecific or institution-specific analyses must be undertaken to determine whether academic cooperation serves an overall goal of promoting rather than undermining norms of academic freedom and knowledge production. In the case of Israel, insufficient evidence exists to suggest that these criteria are met. To the contrary, there is ample evidence that Israeli universities remain sanctuaries for critical scrutiny of, and, at times, fierce dissent from government policy. 4. Student Experiences of Antisemitism There are approximately 250,000 Jews in the UK (0.4% of the population).34 Jewishness falls within the protected characteristics of “religion” and “race” under the Equality Act 2010. There is no single universally accepted definition of antisemitism, but over recent years there has been far greater understanding of how it is manifested and how it may be combatted. The Intra-Community Professorial Group (ICPG),35 which was formed in the face of the attacks and harassment against Jews on campuses, and the hostile environment for them in academia, conducted a survey of Jewish students’ experiences on campuses since October 7, 2023.36 The dataset allows us to understand how antisemitism is manifested and is experienced across the sector. The survey was conducted between May 29 and July 3, 2024. Inclusion criteria included selfidentifying as Jewish and attending a UK university as a student during the 2023-2024 academic year. In total, there were 497 participants from 84 universities. There are approximately 9,000 Jewish university students out of 2.86 million UK students. Of the 141 universities on the UK list, a small number of universities have more than 150 Jewish students and many have few or none. About a third of UK universities have a formal Jewish student society, or a connection to one (e.g. shared ones in cities such as Nottingham, Liverpool and Leeds). The survey and the report on those results is not based on a probability statistical sample of the Jewish student population, and as such the results should be used with caution. Nevertheless, the survey captured a substantial number of responses within a short time frame, approximately 1 in 18 Jewish students. The number of responses suggests how engaged many students are with this problem. The geographical and disciplinary distribution of the survey responses demonstrate that the participants are broadly representative of Jews on campuses, with large numbers coming from major cities, where there is a larger Jewish presence on campus, as well as others at universities without Jewish societies, infrastructure, or often even other Jews. A wide range of views were captured within the responses and free text boxes, which are cited in the report.37 When asking about experiences of antisemitism, the questions broadly focused either on manifestations from other people (such as through harassment, discrimination, intimidation, exclusion, demonization, or attacks) or modifications to their own behavior due to fears, concerns or worries arising from a hostile environment within the universities. We asked questions about different spaces, including the classroom, the physical campus, shared living spaces, online or virtual learning spaces, social media, and social spaces. We repeated some key questions on student experience before and after October 7. In three 34. Globally there are approximately 15 million Jews in a world population of 8 billion people (0.2% of the population), living in 98 of 193 countries in the world. See https://www.jpr.org.uk/reports/jews-britain-2021first-results-census-england-and-wales 35. See “Home,” INTRA-COMMUNAL PROFESSIONAL GROUP, available at https://www.icpg.org.uk/ 36. ICPG Report, supra note 3. 37. Id.
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