Loading ...Allegations of anti-semitism at LSE
The London School of Economics (LSE) campus has been the scene of a number of anti-semitic incidents, students have alleged, as tensions surrounding protests at the conflict in Gaza ran high.
The LSE Students’ Union passed a motion last week condemning the Israeli offensive in the Gaza strip following a heated debate at a union general meeting, and 21 students occupied a lecture hall for six days to demand action from the school.
“The have been about a dozen complaints of anti-semitic incidents,” LSE Israel Society president Patrick Jones told London Student.
Jones said that there had been incidents of anti-semitic verbal and physical abuse, with a Jewish girl spat on, and another student physically assaulted.
“They don’t just target random people; this is endemic to the situation we are in”, Jones said, adding: “It’s not just random if someone is called an F***ing Zionist.”
He said it would not be entirely false to describe LSE as a highly anti-semitic environment, and that Israeli and Jewish students had in recent weeks felt intimidated.
LSE Students’ Union anti-racism officer Joseph Brown, who proposed the controversial motion condemning Israel, said that allegations of anti-semitism were without foundation.
“There has been confusion of criticism of the Israeli Government with criticism of the Israeli people, and hence of the Jewish people,” he told London Student, adding: “whether these incidents have been political or anti-semitic, I don’t know”.
President of LSE Jewish Society Debra Freedman said that while the situation on campus had been tense, she had not heard of any specifically anti-semitic incidents. The LSE is currently looking into the complaints.
As a member of the 7 day long occupation at LSE, I know from personal experience that we have faced abuse from the Israel lobby. Patrick Jones himself arrived with a friend at the lecture theatre that we occupied at the time of the first lecture and YELLED “you are all Hamas, you are terrorists” pointing at us violently and shaking their fists at us.
Members of the occupation have also had four cups thrown at them in the school bar.
I have been told that on two more occasions members of the Israel society were standing outside the occupied lecture theatre, and as members of the occupations that they recognised went in to sit on the stage, they told them “go away, what are you doing here?” in an aggressive manner.
Had any of these incidents happened the other way around, a massive fuss would have been kicked up. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these anti-semitic allegations were made up, as none of us have succeeded in tracing any of them. I recall Patrick Jones telling us “you will pay!” a day before the first ones emerged.
Patrick Jones is right in saying “you will pay!” to the occupiers. I certainly hope they will pay for the £10,000 cost incurred by their childish behavior. Because I’m definitely not subsidising it.
Whaa? Are you serious. Get this patrick jones. Report him. Im sure you have enough witnesses.
In the 1970s while living in Toronto, Canada, I witnessed Jewish students denying freedom of speech to a Palestinian man. The man had been scheduled to give a talk in a lecture hall, explaining the Palestinian point of view. A pro-Zionist organization on campus had arranged for students to picket in front of the lecture hall, protesting the engagement of this speaker. However, about 200 angry young Jewish students poured into the hall. Every time this middle-aged, mild looking Palestinian man started to speak, they would roar and shout, drowning him out. One particular group of young men near the stage were very enraged. I was convinced that if the man continued his attempts to speak that they would leap up on stage and beat him up. Sensibly, he shrugged his shoulders and gave up.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane Marilyn but this is not Toronto in the 70’s. What relevance does it have?
there will be a backlash, no doubt about that, if we cannot speak out against a fascist state like israel, then who can prevent their determination to invade iran, do we just sit on the sidelines and accept the bandage around our mouths that the zionists of the lse have used against us all, backlash, for sure
Sofia – how ridiculous can you get? Someone ‘pointed’ at you ‘violently’? How on earth can you point at someone violently – and even if you could, who would care? And people talked louder at usual during a tense time – oh no!
I particuarly like the idea that ‘members of the occupation’ were upset at the bar – obviously this was a pretty vague occupation if some of it took place in a student bar…
As for Marilyn, that’s a nice stream of thought – so you saw some Jewish people act one way in Canada before everyone in this current story was even born, and now you have decided all Jewish people act this way. What a tiny mind you have – please give up your prejudices based on one event a long time ago involving a handfull of the community.