By Isaac Haigh, Investigations Correspondent
Several Jewish Bristol Uni students have alleged they were attacked and called antisemitic names by members of the public with Labour badges at a rally hosted by the party on College Green on 9 December.
Students claim Labour supporters said to them ‘F**k you, you filthy Jew’, ‘Who's funding you?’ and ‘I bet the Israeli Government has paid you to be here’. They also claim they were called ‘Tory operatives’ and that they were ‘selfish’ for ‘only caring about antisemitism’.
Seb Sultan a third year Politics student claims ‘twice someone tried to attack [him]’. Whilst Corbyn spoke, Seb held the sign behind him saying ‘CORBYN IS A RACIST’.
‘Twice somebody tried to attack me’
‘I was holding a sign at the beginning and someone tried to wrestle it for me. There was a big scuffle with about ten people, and it was a bit scary.
‘I think we need to recognise antisemitism on the left. There's a lot of good people here who simply want to hear about some of the antisemitic things Jeremy Corbyn is on and I want to draw their attention to it. A lot of people who are committed anti-racists were shocked by what I was saying. So it's good, we made them aware of the issues that the Labour Party has uncensored.’
Another Jewish student protestor, Chloe, in her third year Politics and International Relations degree, told Epigram she had been ‘hurled antisemitic abuse’.
‘Someone came up to me wearing a Labour Party sticker and just screamed at me, ‘‘you dirty, filthy Zio’’. [He] didn't engage with me and then walked away. I was engaging with other people. And I said, ‘‘look, I've just been hurled this antisemitic abuse’’, and I told them what was said and they said, ‘‘but that's not antisemitic’’. I was also called a puppet of the Zionist lobby. I haven't said anything in favour of Zionism or Israel. I've just been here as a Jew protesting against Corbyn.’
A video taken by Jewish students shows a member of the public claiming they were ‘friends with the media and siding with the Tories’.
The Labour Party South West were contacted for comment.
Featured image: Epigram / Patrick Sullivan
