Daily Mail: More than a third of British university students see the Hamas attack as an act of resistance
The Daily Mail newspaper said, more than a third of students of Britain’s most prominent universities believe that the Hamas attack on the seventh of October is a reasonable act of resistance.
“Nearly 40% of students at Russell Group universities (a group of 24 universities seen as Britain’s best) believe that the terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7 were an understandable act of resistance,” the report said.
A poll of university students showed that only a third of them considered the Hamas attack, which sparked a new war in the region, a terrorist attack.
The findings come amid an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism, with Israeli students warning they are terrified of being targeted on campus.
Today, the University of Cambridge has been forced to move its graduation ceremonies from the university’s Senate building, where it has been held since the eighteenth century, to Downing College because of pro-Palestine protests.
The poll, commissioned by the pro-Israel charity StandWithUs UK and carried out by Savanta, surveyed more than 1,000 students across 20 universities, and was shared exclusively with the Daily Mail.
The poll revealed that 29% of students believe the Hamas attack was an understandable act of resistance, rising to 38% among Russell Group college students, who are seen as the best and brightest.
The poll also found that 38% of respondents agree that students who openly support Israel on campus should expect abuse, with only 31% of students explicitly disagreed.
In response to those findings, a spokesperson for the Community Security Fund, which works to keep Jews safe in Britain, said, “The idea that the Hamas attack is an act of resistance justified or understood in any way is disgraceful, and the fact that so many university students don’t seem to understand this basic fact is deeply troubling”.
Former Higher Education Secretary Robert Halfon said, “This is a deeply pessimistic survey… Students need more awareness not only to understand anti-Semitism, but also fundamentalism and radical Islamic terrorist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad”.
In the more than 20 pro-Palestine camps constructed across the country, students were heard chanting ‘intifada’ – an explicit call for violence – and ‘resistance justified if the people are occupied’, a clear endorsement of the Hamas massacre.
