UK: Some of Britain's top universities are becoming no-go zones for Jews, Baroness Deech claims

Interestingly, one never hears anything about anti-semitism at universities in other European countries and nothing about not wanting to offend alleged Gulf states benefactors!

Via The Telegraph:

Some of Britain's leading universities are becoming no-go zones for Jewish students because anti-Semitism is so rife, the first ever higher education adjudicator has warned. 

Baroness Ruth Deech, a cross-bench peer who formerly held the highest office dealing with student complaints, said that institutions may be failing to combat hatred against Jews as they “afraid of offending” their potential benefactors from Gulf states. 

Her comments come after a series of high profile incidents at top universities where Jewish students claim they were verbally abused or physically attacked. The academic community is at the forefront of calls to boycott Israel. 

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Baroness Deech said that the extreme levels of hostility towards Israel at universities across the country can at times go so far as to equate to anti-Semitism. 

“Many universities are in receipt of or are chasing very large donations from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states and so on, and maybe they are frightened of offending them,” she said. “I don’t know why they aren’t doing anything about it, it really is a bad situation.” 

Baroness Deech, a former senior proctor at Oxford University and Principal of St Anne's College, said that a handful of universities are now gaining reputations as institutions where Jews are unwelcome. 

“Amongst Jewish students, there is gradually a feeling that there are certain universities that you should avoid,” Baroness Deech said. “Definitely SOAS, Manchester I think is now not so popular because of things have happened there, Southampton, Exeter and so on.” (...)

Over the past decade, Saudi Arabia has been one of the largest source of donations from Islamic states and royal families to British universities, much of which is devoted to the study of Islam, the Middle East and Arabic literature. 

In 2005, Sultan bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, the late crown prince, gave £2m to the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University. 

Meanwhile, Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad al-Qasimi, the ruler of Sharjah – one of the most conservative emirates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – has given more than £8 million to Exeter Univeristy over two decades. Sheikh Sultan was described as "the university's single most important supporter" in its 2007 annual report. 

Baroness Deech, who was the first ever independent adjudicator for higher education before retiring in 2008, said she was also dismayed by the inaction of Oxford University after complaints about anti-Semitism, despite the proctors being handed a dossier which detailed a catalogue of incidents where Jewish students were harassed.

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