The British government is giving a £7m ($9.33m) funding package to a pro-Israel organisation to deliver antisemitism training in universities.
The Union of Jewish students (UJS) has links with the World Zionist Organisation, which funds illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Under the scheme, the UJS will offer some 600 training sessions to university staff over the coming weeks to help them “identify harassment and hate” and facilitate “open, respectful debate”, the Department for Education (DfE) said on Sunday.
The DfE warned earlier last week that universities could face action if they did not protect Jewish students from harassment.
Most British universities refer to the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism, which has been slammed by opponents as an attempt to impose censorship on valid criticisms of Israel.
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The British government’s announcement was in response to student protests against the genocide in Gaza on the two-year anniversary of the 7 October attacks.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the planned student protests were “un-British” and “lacked respect for others”.
The DfE said universities should ban repeated protests that are “intrusive or disprutive”.
‘Passionately’ engaging with Israel
The UJS describes itself as the “voice of Jewish students”, spanning “over 75 Jewish societies” at universities in the UK and Ireland.
But it has drawn criticism for its pro-Israel advocacy. An Al Jazeera documentary in 2017 revealed that the UJS had received funding from the Israeli embassy in London.
In 2021, then-UJS President Nina Freedman was filmed telling Israeli President Isaac Herzog that UJS alumni “are currently serving in senior positions in the Israeli government, the foreign ministry, the IDF [Israeli military] and even the president’s office”.
The organisation is a member of the World Union of Jewish Students, which is partnered with the Israeli foreign ministry and the World Zionist Organisation, which funds illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The UJS says it “passionately engage[s] with Israel, interfaith, and social action projects”, and offers its students “opportunities to strengthen, celebrate and explore a personal relationship with Israel as part of an evolving expression of Jewish identity”.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is expected to meet this week with university leaders, the Office for Students, the police and faith community groups as part of a drive to ensure “universities are taking proportionate and effective action to keep all students safe and supported”.
The new measures come against the backdrop of both antisemitic attacks and a wider crackdown on anti-Israel protests in the UK.
Earlier, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced fresh protest restrictions in the wake of a deadly attack on a synagogue in Manchester that killed two.
The new restrictions would enable police to consider the “cumulative impact” of frequent protests on local areas and require demonstrators to change location of a planned protest.
They have been widely criticised as authoritarian, including by Jewish pro-Palestine activists.
