Pernicious 'anti-Zionism' is driving a racist horror show in modern Britain

Students recently dispersed around the country for the start of the new university year. After months cooped up at home, they can smell the freedom and excitement in the air with the start of another academic term. Unless you happen to be Jewish, that is. These students were welcomed on campus by a string of anti-Israel events ghoulishly timed to coincide with thesecond anniversary of October 7 - the worst mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust.

Events 'honoured the martyrs' and called for 'resistance'. The unsubtle nature of this sinister rhetoric is breathtaking, made all the worse in the immediate aftermath of the terror killing of Jews at a synagogue in Manchester for the crime of being born Jewish. Hot on its heels, Oxford University student Samuel Williams was filmed on October 11 boasting how he'd "workshopped" a chant calling on Gaza to "put the Zios in the ground".

This is far from an isolated incident. When British students celebrate a massacre, it is first and foremost a national problem. It is not just a Jewish problem. A society that rejoices in the murder of human beings is a society in moral collapse.

Generations of students have been sold the idea that university is where young people go to open their minds, interact with people from different backgrounds, and engage in healthy intellectual debate. For Jewish students, their contact with reality means that such naivety doesn't last long.

Jewish students entering university are like any other. They are not outwardly political nor looking to stand out, but their religious identity makes them a target whether they like it or not.

The hatred of Israel - and by extension all Jews - has become a source of social capital among students. The racist idea that Jews are the only people in the world with no right to self-determination is now mainstream. 'Anti-Zionism' is a corrosive badge of honour.

Sympathy and even support for terrorism is rampant on campus. Polling commissioned by StandWithUs UK last year among 1,000 students at British universities revealed 29% saw October 7 as an "understandable act of resistance" - rising to 38% among students at Russell Group universities.

Is it any wonder that anyone expressing a pro-Israel view will be silenced? Some Jewish students are no longer able to attend classes. Many hide their religious identity for fear of discovery.

Harassment and intimidation have become part of the landscape and, on occasion, even violence. As one anonymous student at City St George's University of London put it to me: "It's like walking on eggshells in seminars. Question the 'right' narrative, and you're labelled a bigot."

Scrutiny has revealed years of public expressions of sympathy for terrorist movements in university environments. The impression, whether intended or not, is that the line between scholarship and advocacy for violence is negotiable. That message, once absorbed by students, is difficult to contain.

British Jewish students do not have confidence that if they report an incident to university administrators, they will take the right action. Earlier this year, StandWithUs UK published the Voice of Students Report which featured harrowing testimonies from Jewish students about the abuse - and the woeful 'support' - they had received.

Complaints to senior leaders are routinely ignored. Shamefully, welfare officers encouraged some Jewish students to try to understand why other students felt that way - an unmistakable case of victim blaming.

After a summer of hostile headlines against Israel, online misinformation, and the normalisation of calls for the death of Israelis at concerts across the country, it feels as if Jewish students are in the most toxic environment imaginable. And yet, all they want is to be treated with the same respect as their peers.

Universities and the Government have been warned for years that the situation is spiralling beyond control. One day it will be more than just anti-Israel chants - someone on campus is going to get seriously hurt.

The Prime Minister's recent comments about the need for a national effort to fight antisemitism are welcome. The legislation to counter this hatred exists, but it requires the Government to accept it is the pernicious 'anti-Zionism' ideology which is driving this racist horror show. On this, the well-being of Jewish students rests.

• Isaac Zarfati is executive director of StandWithUs UK, a registered charity that supports students against antisemitism