Jewish Daughter Of British Defense Secretary Drops Courses Due To ‘Antisemitic’ Campus Rhetoric

NEW YORK (VINnews) —The Jewish daughter of UK Secretary of State for Defense Grant Shapps dropped a course on Israel and Palestine after she claimed she feels unsafe at the University of Leeds where she is studying. Shapps said that she is surrounded by “antisemitic” chants at protests across the university campus following the October 7 massacre, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Tabytha Shapps said she felt uneasy after witnessing “From the river to the sea” chants and holding posters saying “End Israeli state terror” on campus. Shapps said that during the module, some students discussed “Israeli apartheid” and “Israel’s agenda as a genocidal state,” making her feel uncomfortable.

She said, “As the only Jew in the class… I’m sitting there and I’m thinking, what about the injustices of the 1,200 Israelis killed on Oct 7?”

In an interview with the British-based Daily Telegraph, Shapps emphasized that she appreciates the right to protest from a pro-Palestinian perspective, having visited the West Bank city of Ramallah last year. Despite this, she said that she cannot see how Jewish students can expect to feel safe on campus” when they are confronted with “antisemitic” slogans.

The British government’s independent counter-extremism commissioner, Robin Simcox, suggested that the chant “from the river to the sea” is genocidal in nature, arguing that at this moment in time if you chant the phrase “you have forfeited your right to the benefit of the doubt about what your intent is”.

Shapps argued that the university has allowed extremist attitudes to fester at an already scary time for Jewish people.

In response to complaints, the university said it has a “legal duty to support free speech”, but will not tolerate “antisemitism or Islamophobia of any kind”, adding, “We do not support any views or actions which make others feel unsafe or unwelcome on campus.”

Tabytha’s mother, Belinda, has tried to contact the university to address her daughter’s fears with the university directly, however her calls remained unanswered for a week, after which she received a generic response regarding the importance of free speech, with no mention of antisemitism.

These incidents silhouette the massive surge of reports of anti-Jewish hate at UK universities since the October 7 massacre. Students are covering kippahs with baseball caps and hiding Star of David necklaces

A Jewish student from Oxford reported some of the ant-Jewish hate rhetoric in an article in the Guardian. She stated that the antisemitism was rife in all campuses. In Manchester, posters with the words “kill more Jews” and “Yids” have been displayed. On Instagram, a university Jewish society was sent the message: “Wherever you are in the world, we will take you out of your homes and perform a dance of victory and happiness over your bodies”; another was sent a threat, accompanied by a video of beheaded babies, reading: “You must be killed all of u till the last naziest of you” [sic]; a university rabbi received a direct message that said: “You massacred innocent Muslims, I hope you die too.”