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Saturday, May 21, 2005

JPost: UK student warned to stop protesting anti-Semitism

As students bought lunch and coffee at London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) campus, the Islamic call to prayer, "Allahu Akbar," blasted repeatedly through several speakers situated around the student union.

"If you want to work for Islam, you must give your heart, if you want to get to heaven, do what the prophet said, peace be upon him," bellowed a melody.

SOAS, scene to a growing number of anti-Semitic incidents in recent months, has issued a threat to one of its Jewish students to cease his protests against anti-Semitism at the university. Gavin Gross, an American, has been leading a campaign against the deterioration of conditions for Jewish students at SOAS, which is part of the University of London.

He recently received a letter from the school's director, Colin Bundy, threatening him with "an investigation under the disciplinary code."...

More in the extended entry.


Gross received the letter shortly after the Board of Deputies, the elected leadership of the British Jewish community, sent a dossier based on evidence Gross submitted documenting attacks on Jewish students at SOAS and threatening to take legal action if steps were not taken to address the problem.

The letter to Gross said his "conduct appears to contravene SOAS's disciplinary code of practice, warranting investigations as potential misconduct under the code."

In recent months, SOAS has witnessed an escalation of anti-Jewish activity, in both severity and frequency. At the beginning of this year, the Islamic Society screened a video which compared Judaism with Satanism. A recent article in the SOAS student union magazine, The Spirit, advocated suicide terrorism against Israeli civilians, and was entitled: "when only violence will do."

Earlier this year, the student union convened an "emergency session" in order to appoint London Mayor Ken Livingstone as "honorary president" of the union, following Livingstone's refusal to issue an apology after comparing a Jewish journalist with a Nazi concentration-camp guard.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Gross painted a bleak picture of Jewish student life at SOAS. "The school has been in existence for 89 years with no honorary president," said Gross. "Within 72 hours of being embroiled in a fight with the Jewish community, the union called an emergency meeting to create an honorary president post and elect Ken Livingstone to it. I proposed Nelson Mandela as president. For about an hour, I was subject to repeated attacks against Israel. I was told that Israel is an apartheid state, a terrorist state. People at the meeting said there was a Zionist Mossad conspiracy to damage the mayor.

"There was an article in the union paper, which was not even written by a student, but by an Egyptian lawyer, that said that all Israeli civilians, including children, are legitimate targets for murder, because they and their parents chose to live in a colonial state. It was pure hatred. What it was doing in a student union magazine, I have no idea. This is part of the pattern of behavior at our campus."

Gross said SOAS's administration has utterly failed to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitic attacks. "The school has walked away from its responsibilities."...

[via Dhimmi Watch]

More on SOAS here and here.

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