To hate Israel is simply part of the unofficial university curriculum, so embedded into our mainstream ideology it is about as universal as a student loan. At the University of Birmingham on the 12 November, the Socialist Society discussed ‘Hands off Palestine! Is a Free Palestine still possible?’ at the Food Hall.
On 27 November, The Revolutionary Communist Party debated ‘Free Palestine: A Revolutionary Solution’ in the Guild’s Green Room. On the 28, the Islam Society hosted ‘Institutional Islamophobia in a Time of Genocide: Entanglements Between Islam and Zionism on Campus’, at the University House.
These are not some clandestine meetings in a grotty student basement where young Marxists rub their hands together while plotting the downfall of the Jewish state. This is publicised hatred, unofficially endorsed by my Student Union. Meanwhile, both the JSOC and Israel Society are forced to use external venues to host events and only release the location of an event 24-hours prior.
To hate Israel is simply part of the unofficial university curriculum, so embedded into our mainstream ideology it is about as universal as a student loan. At the University of Birmingham on the 12 November, the Socialist Society discussed ‘Hands off Palestine! Is a Free Palestine still possible?’ at the Food Hall.
A recent StandwithUs event hosting two Nova survivors was met with a letter of complaint by the Friends of Palestine Society, calling for an investigation into the promotion of an “IDF soldier and war criminal”. We find ourselves routinely scanning RSVP lists, meticulously monitoring the Instagram follower requests, and permanently operating under institutionalised double standards.
This kind of bigotry is seeping into the wider community. Boys walking to synagogue with their kippahs heckled with ‘Free Palestine’ to the blasts of car horns, middle-finger salutes, ‘F*** you Jews’ as the front of antizionism slips to reveal blatant antisemitism.
Many religious and Zionist students are only waiting to graduate, get their degrees and make aliyah. I question how much of this is motivated by the desire to return to our native homeland, or escape this one.
During my interviews with fellow Birmingham Jewish students, I learnt of an Aston student surrounded on campus by an aggressive group chanting Free Palestine. Another described how his gap year in Israel was corrected to Palestine in conversation, another was assured by a peer that the terrorist organisation Hamas aren’t actually that bad.
This is unsurprising following the election of Antonia Listrat as the 2025-6 President of the Student Union. Her campaign, built on the condemnation of Israel, secured 93% of student votes.
The same Palestine Society that brandished placards declaring ‘Zionists off our campus’ now rushes to accommodate students trapped in Gaza, with one petition gaining over 500 signatures. To boycott Israel’s existence no longer represents an extremist stance; it is the status quo. Students like myself are forced to accept that suppressing our Zionist identities is simply part of the Birmingham student experience.
I deserve to study in the campus café without the barista’s badge waging war against an imaginary genocide; to interact in group seminars without tucking in my map of Israel necklace; to use the library toilets without being confronted by posters liberating Palestinians and conveniently excluding the mention of Israeli Jews.
I hold my breath when the professor mentions the Middle East; not because I am ill-equipped to fight back – the atrocities of 7/10 are etched into my mind, I know to inquire: ‘And which river? What sea?’ But because in the unshakeable victim-complex of these UoB students the rules of debate are immutable so long as they are built on the hatred of a Zionist state. Naturally, anything that deviates from the anti-Israel script is immediately silenced.
When misinformation is the mainstream view, internalising our Zionism no longer feels like a choice but a safety precaution. And here, at my research-forward Russell Group university, such an acknowledgement would be fatal against the current student groupthink.
Now more than ever, following the attacks in Manchester and Bondi Beach, we cannot afford to ignore the realities of globalising the intifada. However scary, we must embolden ourselves and utilise our campus rights to be unapologetically proud of our Jewish heritage and homeland of Israel.
This article was originally published in the UK’s Jewish News.
