Jewish students tell Commons committee they're terrified by campus antisemitism

Jewish university students told a parliamentary committee Thursday their universities have failed to protect them from antisemitic incidents on campus since the start of Israel's war on Hamas.

«The consistent failure of our universities to take action against the hate taking place on our campuses has emboldened anti-Israel activists to become more radical,» said Nicole Nashen, a McGill University law student.

Nashen said her grandparents were proud of her when she started her studies at McGill, but they «are now horrified by the rampant antisemitism that I and my Jewish peers are experiencing on campus.»

She pointed to a sign at the pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University that reads «no Zionists allowed,» calling it antisemitic.

«Zionism should not be controversial,» she told MPs. «It is simply the belief of Jewish self-determination in our homeland, and it does not preclude the existence of a Palestinian state, too.»

Another law student, Rachel Cook of the University of Alberta, said she walked past an art installation at the school's Rutherford Library on Tuesday which had a swastika scrawled on it, along with a message praising the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, listed as a terror group by the Canadian government.

She said the installation also had a message on it reading «death to ZOGs» — a reference to an antisemitic conspiracy theory claiming some western governments are secretly run by Jews.

«I have been left after this year with the impression that the U of A is more interested in covering up systematic antisemitism on campus than addressing it head-on and working towards change,» Cook said.

University took action following complaint

CBC News reached out to the University of Alberta on Wednesday.