“You’re obsessed with Jews” I was told over the phone by a Pro-Palestine student harassing me via private calls at Royal Holloway, University of London.

But it did make me question myself. 

Why do I care about antisemitism and the Jewish community? Instead of backing down, I doubled down on my support, and now some call me an activist, and here’s why. 

I’m a non-Jew. Born and raised in the North of England, attending Christian, Catholic, and secular places of education in semi-rural villages, it was never diverse. I had no Jewish friends, no Jewish family, no Jewish connections. The first time I ever saw Jewish people was when I was about 10 years old, traveling through Manchester with my family, and I’d be confused by the men passing by with big furry hats on. We learnt about Judaism in Religious Education lessons in secondary school, but I only remember watching an outdated documentary. I’d never been to or even seen a synagogue. Realistically, I had no reason to care. But since moving to a London-Based University, I’ve seen what antisemitism looks like, and trust me when I say this: Antisemitism is not just a Jewish problem. 

I didn’t find antisemitism. It found me.

I chose to study Politics, International Relations, and Law at University, and so, rightly, I expected to have my politics challenged. But before lessons had even begun, the confrontations had already started. It was Freshers Week, a time for socializing and getting to know people in your year group. But something stood out to me: the confrontations had gone from “Brodie, are you a Tory?” “Well, what do you think about immigrants?” “Are you racist?” to “What’s your opinion on Palestine?” 

I’ll be honest, I had no clue. I wasn’t educated one bit on the conflict; I had only seen devastating headlines from Sky News, and I knew that my Political Party at the time, the Conservative Party, had always supported Israel. I used to answer, “Both sides are bad; it’s really upsetting what’s happening in the region”. It wasn’t long before I realized that that wasn’t good enough. You were either fiercely Pro- Palestine, or if you appeared neutral, you supported a genocide. 

As I started to learn, watching documentaries and reading the history, as well as looking at the atrocities that broke out on October 7th 2023, I knew where I stood. I stood against Islamist extremism and terrorism. But this had a new name: antisemitism. In my second week of being at the University, I reposted a statistic about the record rates of antisemitism on my Instagram story. Only to be told I’m a ‘genocide supporter’ by a fellow student who later in the conversation suggested she supports Hamas. The terror group responsible for launching the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. I was stunned, to say the least.

Messages from students started with things like the denial that Hamas is a........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)