University academic faces ‘daily threats’ from Hamas-supporting students
Israeli lecturer Dr Amira Halperin, assistant professor in media and communications, says: "There is no one to complain to.”
Jenni Frazer is a freelance journalist
An Israeli academic has complained of “daily threats” from both students and staff in the wake of the war with Hamas — including one occasion in which she claims a senior lecturer, who she did not identify, interrupted one of her classes “and started shouting about the occupation”.
But Dr Amira Halperin, an assistant professor in media and communications, declined to amplify her claims or specify the name of the university in a lengthy interview with Ynet, the English-language portal of Israeli paper Yediot Achronot.
Dr Halperin told Ynet: “It’s not just a feeling, it’s threats. We call it antisemitism, and in simple terms it means daily threats from people. I’m talking about a large community of Hamas-supporting students who can come in the morning and make threats, send emails.”
The emails, she said, “say that Israel must be destroyed, because this is actually their solution — a one-state solution, meaning the complete destruction of Israel. Other issues that are discussed, of course, are the claim that Israel is committing ‘genocide’. It all starts with a very large BDS movement that has existed in universities for a long time in Britain, and not just there. I know this from my research”.
She said that she felt physically threatened by the atmosphere on campus and was “calling here for help. I’m alone. There is a large community of Jews and Israelis in the UK. I’m threatened, I’m afraid, I’m worried about the possibility that some student will come tomorrow morning with a weapon and I don’t know what could happen next. As soon as a student who knows you are an Israeli lecturer, sits next to you and sends you these messages, and actually threatens you, there is certainly a personal threat here.”
Dr Halperin told Ynet that “a senior member of staff entered my class in the middle of a lesson and started shouting against the occupation. Maybe students then feel it’s legitimate to act in the same way. If the administration does it, then they also have legitimacy, and then they act. They send emails or shout that we killed people and that’s why we deserve it.”
Asked by Ynet if she had brought her concerns to the university authorities, Dr Halperin said: “The universities share the same values as the students. There is no separation here between students and lecturers or professors. Everyone is against us, there is no one to talk to, no one to complain to.”
She said that even “explicit threats” were “completely ignored. There is a law according to which we are supposed to report students who engage in radical actions and support terrorism. We have a law in the country and it is valid for the university, that we are supposed to report if we encounter such a thing — but my reports are completely ignored, they say there was nothing to the threats and they do nothing.”
An Israeli embassy spokesperson told Jewish News: “The increase in cases of antisemitism in the UK in general and on campuses in particular is very worrying. During this period, the Israeli Embassy is working more closely with universities and relevant bodies to deal with antisemitic incidents. The events described by Dr. Halperin are very serious and we are in contact with her in order to examine the best course of action”.
Attempts to contact Dr Halperin directly failed. It is understood that — despite her interview with Ynet — she had not yet decided whether she was willing to speak to journalists.
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