Sickening’ protests planned for October 7 anniversary at UK universities

MPs and Jewish groups have condemned UK universities for hosting pro-Palestine events on the October 7 terror attack anniversary, accusing them of glorifying Hamas.

Fury is mounting over a wave of student events being held on the two-year anniversary of the October 7 terror attack, with universities accused of enabling the glorification of violence and fostering an “anti-Jewish culture”.

Dozens of student groups across the U.K. are planning rallies on the same day as the massacre that left 1,200 Israelis dead, making it the worst single atrocity against Jews since the Holocaust

At Sheffield University, the “Revolutionary Community Party” is set to host a rally for Palestine, promoted online with a vile accusation levelled at the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), which is called “Zionist lobbyists”. It blamed ‘printing costs’ for being unable to change the date of the event.

At King’s, an event titled “Why it didn’t start on October 7” is scheduled. In Birmingham the “Youth Front for Palestine” will stage a vigil “to honour the martyrs” away from campus, while Strathclyde’s society will protest, and Queen Mary’s Action for Palestine will mark “Two Years of Resistance” on campus.

Edinburgh and Liverpool societies will hold events on university property, and an inter-university march in London is being promoted with the slogan, “Our student intifada is still continuing.”

Students attending Goldsmiths in London will host one of the most controversial gatherings, a “Night of Remembrance and Resistance” co-organised by the ‘Feminist Library’. The same group occupied a campus building in 2023 demanding divestment from Israeli-linked firms. In May 2024, the university said it would consider altering its investment policy. Goldsmiths for Palestine has also called for severing all academic ties with Israeli institutions.

Critics have demanded action from University bosses, with Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick saying they “need to stamp out the virulently anti-Jewish hatred running amok on their campuses” and accusing the groups of “showing their true colours by holding rallies celebrating their heroes in Hamas two years on from the sickening murder of 1,200 people in what was the worst single massacre of Jews since the Nazi Holocaust.”

He called for students who attend the events to be removed from their courses. None of the Universities contacted by the Express indicated they would do so.

Earlier this year, the barrister Mohinderpal Sethi KC warned that a “culture has built up over the years” at Goldsmith University in particular, that “has resulted in Jewish students legitimately feeling significant discomfort on campus”. He added that it was “plainly not unique to Goldsmiths” and said the University had “not done enough as an institution to ensure its Jewish students and staff feel safe”.

There has been a meteoric rise in antisemitism across the country since the October 7 attack, and Isaac Zarfati, the Executive Director of StandWithUs UK said that Jewish students had been “subjected to two years of vile Jew hate”, including intimidation and even violent assault. They said that the “deliberate scheduling of ‘resistance’ events on the anniversary of Hamas’s 7th October terror atrocities is particularly grotesque”.

The President of the union of Jewish Students, Louis Danker added that whilst they “respect the right to protest” they question why protests would be scheduled to take place on October 7, a day they said “Jewish students seek the space to mourn their loved ones murdered in southern Israel.”

They said that “marking ‘two years of resistance’ on October 7th echoes the explicit justification and glorification of the Hamas terrorist attacks” and called on University authorities to “stand against the glorification of terror”.

Baroness Deech DBE KC, a former Principal of St Anne’s College, Oxford, said that it was “painfully clear that authorities have failed to tackle extremist events and ideology on campus.”

She added that “the tragic events in Manchester have shown us what can happen when such hateful, violent rhetoric is normalised”.

The recent synagogue attack in Manchester, in which an Islamist terrorist rammed a car into worshippers and stabbed people before being shot by police, has heightened fears across the Jewish community. Two people died and multiple victims were critically injured.

All of the Universities named have been contacted for comment. A spokesperson for Queen Mary University of London said they “do not tolerate antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, abuse, incitement or harassment of any kind, and have robust procedures in place to deal with any such complaints, including reporting to the police. As a university, we must work within the law and have a duty to uphold lawful freedom of speech. Since the beginning of the current crisis in the Middle East, we have consistently urged respect for each other’s different beliefs and points of view, and to support each other with compassion and empathy. The majority of our community of 38,000 student and staff continue to do just that.”