Both antisemitic and islamophobic abuse is rising at universities, experts tell the BBC.
Jewish students are “deeply anxious” following an unprecedented rise in antisemitism at UK universities, BBC News has been told.
Edward Isaac, president of the Union of Jewish Students, said the current spike was like nothing the group had seen.
The Community Security Trust recorded 67 antisemitic incidents from 7 October to 3 November at 29 campuses, compared with 12 in the same period last year.
It comes as experts also warn of rising reports of islamophobic incidents.
Tell Mama, which monitors islamophobic incidents, says 31 incidents were recorded at UK universities in the same period, compared to three in October last year.
Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel one month ago, killing 1,400 people and taking 240 hostages.
Since then, more than 10,000 people have been killed in Gaza according to the Hamas-run health ministry, including more than 4,100 children.
Groups that monitor hate crimes in the UK say the conflict is now being played out on university campuses across the UK.
WhatsApp abuse
Jacob Lederman, a student at the University of Warwick, said he had been racially abused on a university Jewish society WhatsApp group. The incident “made me feel sick”, he added.
Freshers’ week was under way at the university and its Jewish society had set up a WhatsApp group for new Jewish students.
The group was advertised on the society’s website with an invite link, and on 12 October four new people requested access to the chat.
They started off asking standard questions for a new student, such as where they could find kosher meat in the area. One of the four infiltrators then sent a message saying: “Everyone agree with what’s going on in Israel right?”
Mr Lederman says that is when the abuse started. Several messages were then posted in the chat using offensive language and mentioning the Jewish religion.
“There were Jews who maybe had been at the university for two weeks and they were on a Jewish Society group and then suddenly they get attacked by this bile,” Mr Lederman said.
The 19-year-old said the incident had taken its toll on him and the wider community on campus.
“It made me feel sick because I think Jews in the UK, we’re used to a kind of undercurrent of antisemitism on social media. I see it all the time. I’ve never seen it this overt before.”
The incident was reported to West Midlands Police on 15 October and the force said investigations were ongoing.
There are more Muslim living in England and Wales than Jewish people. Nearly 3.9m Muslims make up 6.5% of the total population, while 257,000 Jews account for 0.46%.
Sahar Mulji, who is a Muslim university student, says Muslim students are also feeling ostracised on campuses. She said she knows people who have had “things thrown at them as they’re walking through the street”.
“They’re feeling scared, there’s a general feeling of anxiety and fear,” she said.
UK police forces do not routinely publish data on the number of antisemitic or islamophobic incidents, but London’s Metropolitan Police was one force that did.
The Met Police has published data on hate crime dating back to 2018, it reveals that October 2023 saw the highest number of both antisemitic and islamophobic incidents for the same month the force have recorded in the last five years.
The force says, between 1 October and 1 November, it saw 554 reports of antisemitic offences – compared with 44 in the same period in 2022.
There were 220 islamophobic offences for the same timeframe the force said, compared with 78 recorded incidents between 1 October and 1 November in 2022.
The government said it was in frequent contact with Tell Mama and the CST – and has provided £43m to protect interfaith communities in the current financial year. It said any perpetrators of hate crime would face the full force of the law.