UK Conservatives call for tougher measures on antisemitism, including deporting foreign students involved

British conservative lawmakers say the rise of antisemitism in the United Kingdom is “deeply troubling,” in a joint letter addressed to the British Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson. 

“Too many institutions that have spent years suppressing legitimate free speech and debate in the name of ‘diversity and inclusion’ have decided to turn a blind eye to genuine harassment and intimidation when it is directed against Jewish people,” the letter warned. 

“Failure to act sends a dangerous message to Jewish students and academics that their safety is not valued, and to perpetrators that they can harass Jewish students and staff with impunity... We can, and must, do better. Enough is enough,” the lawmakers demanded. 

Phillipson and other conservative lawmakers met with British Jewish officials to discuss campus antisemitism. 

“We thanked the Conservative front-benchers for their allyship and asked that the party adopt and advocate for the community’s comprehensive plan for action on antisemitism,” said the president of the Jewish Board of Deputies, Phil Rosenberg. 

“The harrowing antisemitic experiences recounted by Jewish students demand a response. We face a must-win fight for the soul of our nation against a growing extremist threat from Islamists, far Right & far Left,” the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) announced. “There needs to be a cross-government effort to deliver meaningful change so that Jewish students and staff can be on campus without having to face abuse and discrimination."

Anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incidents have increased dramatically in the United Kingdom since the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. 

British Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp vowed to combat antisemitism in the country. 

“We must stand with this country’s Jewish community and fight with all our resolve and energy the ancient evil of antisemitism wherever it is found,” Philp wrote in a post on 𝕏. He further demanded that “anyone expressing extremist views or racial or religious hatred of any kind, including antisemitism, who is not a British citizen, to be removed from this country.”

Like in much of the Western world, Muslim radicals and far-leftist activists have played a central role in the rise of Jew-hatred in the United Kingdom in the past two years. The UK is home to some 300,000 Jews, the second-largest Jewish community in Europe after France. Britain is also home to one of Europe’s largest Muslim communities, numbering some 4 million people. 

On the holy Jewish day of Yom Kippur in October, Jihad al-Shamie, an Islamist British citizen of Syrian descent, murdered two Jews at a synagogue in the British city of Manchester. 

The British Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis condemned the lethal antisemitic attack while stressing that he was sadly not surprised by its outcome. 

“This is the day we hoped we would never see, but which deep down, we knew would come,” Mirvis wrote on 𝕏 following the attack. 

He stressed that the attack on the synagogue in Manchester did not happen in a vacuum. 

“For so long we have witnessed an unrelenting wave of Jew hatred on our streets, on campuses, on social media and elsewhere – this is the tragic result. This is not only an assault on the Jewish community, but an attack on the very foundations of humanity and the values of compassion, dignity and respect which we all share,” Mirvis said.

Following the Manchester synagogue attack, Philp vowed to deport extremists who support terrorism and spread racism, including hatred against Jews. 

“If a foreign citizen expresses racial hatred, including antisemitism, or supports extremism or terrorism, I’ll tell you this as shadow home secretary, I’ll deport them," he said.