UK: York law student tells of antisemitic harassment, lack of university support against it

Via Legal Cheek (h/t CST):

A law student has gone public with allegations that antisemitism is rife in UK universities, and that he himself is a victim of shocking online anti-Jewish abuse.
Zachary Confino — a third year law student at the University of York — has revealed terrible incidents of name-calling and abuse that he and other Jewish students have received from anonymous trolls. He recalls that one told him that “Hitler was onto something”, while another called the Allen & Overy open day-goer a “Stupid Israeli Twat”.

Understandably, he was at first “shocked and overwhelmed” to receive these hate-fuelled messages — and they still make him feel “quite uncomfortable on campus” today. The aspiring commercial litigation lawyer commented:

I thought I was in a place where people were educated, a place where they are tolerant…essentially a place were people would never say ‘Hitler was right’. It was a big realisation to see that the world isn’t like that, and I’m surrounded by intolerant people. It made me extremely upset and angry.

Even more problematic for the student — who has completed a work placement at national outfit Bond Dickinson — is what he calls a “lack of support” from university services. Though he claims the attacks have continued and in fact intensified this year, Confino — who famously got into a very public spat with Jeremy Corbyn’s son earlier this year — says that both the uni and the SU have failed to support him and his fellow Jewish students. 

read more