Conservative Candidate for Mayor of London, Shaun Bailey, has pledged to fight antisemitism “wherever I find it, including on our university campuses”, writing in the Jewish Chronicle this week.
Drawing on his experiences growing up as a young black man growing up in London, and the shared experience with the Jewish community against racism, Mr Bailey writes: “This shared experience means that both our communities have faced similar struggles and have a shared understanding of how to overcome them. Being the underdog and/or the outsider in this way can build affinity and solidarity between communities”.
Mr Bailey says has a result of his experiences and visit to Israel he has an affinity with Jewish students on campus: “It is from this place of affinity that I now feel so much horror and anger at the sight of Jewish students being barred from forming Jewish Societies on campuses in this country. Or from hosting Israeli speakers. Or, for that matter, having to face chanting BDS protesters on the way to lectures”.
Condemning the rise in antisemitism across university campuses, he said that it is “deeply worrying that antisemitism is rising in our universities, our supposed bastions of learning and culture. This troubling trend must be confronted and stopped in its tracks”.
Click here to read Mr Bailey’s article in full.
