The ongoing conflict in Gaza has had a significant impact on students at the University of Exeter, with Palestinian and Israeli students and societies reporting deep divisions, feelings of isolation, and concerns over academic freedom. A recent survey conducted among Palestinian and Israeli students at Exeter along with an interview with Friends of Palestine and the Jewish Society reveals how the crisis influences student experiences. At the same time, a discussion with Dr Nadia Naser-Najjab highlights concerns over how government policies and university decisions have shaped the broader climate.
In the survey, 100% of Palestinian students and 75% of Israeli students said that being in the UK had affected their perspective on the conflict. One Israeli student explained, “Being away exposes me more to narratives from the other side, but also makes me feel incredibly isolated”, they said. Another Israeli student pointed to the disparity between media portrayals and lived experiences: “The UK’s coverage is so different to what families are facing”. Although Palestinian students echo the sentiment of their perspective changing since being in the UK, they expressed a different kind of distance: “I feel like I’m able to escape the horror by being in the UK”, one student said. “I can choose to not watch the news and switch off. People in Gaza don’t have that privilege”.
Despite their differing viewpoints, both Palestinian and Israeli students overwhelmingly agreed that the wider university community lacks an informed understanding of the crisis, with 100% of respondents answering ‘No’ when asked if they felt their peers were well-informed. One Israeli student said, “The only narrative allowed in Exeter is an anti-Israeli one… the lack of open, respectful and academic conversation in an institution of education is so saddening”. Another explained that their peers are “hopping on the trend on social media” without genuine engagement. Meanwhile, a Palestinian student dismissed the student body as indifferent: “People are too privileged to care”. Others were more critical of what they saw as performative activism: “I hate woke people who pretend to care about Palestine when they don’t”.
One Israeli student said, “The only narrative allowed in Exeter is an anti-Israeli one… the lack of open, respectful and academic conversation in an institution of education is so saddening”.
The divisions extend beyond rhetoric and into students’ experiences on campus. When asked whether they had faced discrimination, 50% of Palestinian students said they had, while 50% said they had not. Among Israeli students, 50% reported facing discrimination, 25% said they had not, and 25% described their experiences as ambiguous. One Israeli student recounted, “I have been looked at and treated poorly by the protesters before. I have been ridiculed for stating opposing views. I was followed at one point by a group of protesters around Forum”.
The Jewish Society also described negative interactions with pro-Palestinian groups. “We had a memorial stall on the October 7th anniversary and were approached by Friends of Palestine members who lit a candle. However, when we offered to give them booklets we had made, they said no and laughed at us as we mourned and cried over friends we had lost. We also had photos of us taken by some other members of the society. So overall, I haven’t found any interactions between the societies to be positive but instead all rather false and mocking”.
Dr Naser-Najjab, co-director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at Exeter, highlighted the polarisation on campus, explaining: “there’s no cooperation between the Palestinian community and the Israeli group. There’s a lot of tension between the students”. She also noted targeted hostility during protests: “there were many attacks on the students during protests. For example, there was an article actually published about the pro-Palestinian community, accusing them of antisemitism, violence and so on. They were filmed, and their photos were published without their permission. Here, the university should take firm action against such a violation”.
“there’s no cooperation between the Palestinian community and the Israeli group. There’s a lot of tension between the students”.
Dr Naser-Najib
Friends of Palestine echoed these concerns, stating that Palestinian students often face intimidation and malice: “the reason Friends of Palestine is currently run by a non-Palestinian committee is because Palestinian students had concerns for their safety holding these positions. During our Welcome Fair stall in September, where our presence pertained to being a safe space for Palestinian students, students would often steal resources from our stall and run away giggling, as well as holding up signs calling us anti-semitic in our faces while feigning conversation. We have also had our faces posted onto zionist social media “CAMERA” accounts without our consent”.
The ability to freely express one’s identity and political beliefs has also been challenged. Among Israeli students, 100% said they did not feel safe expressing themselves. “The popular and viral narrative now is that Israel is a horrible and colonial state that is executing a massive genocide, and every Israeli is a colonizer. This makes my identity a liability, honestly”, one student said.
The Jewish Society also described how the conflict has affected students’ identity and mental well-being. “A lot of people misunderstand the conflict and equate the Jewish population with the Israeli government, when they are not the same. I have lost friends at University due to this misunderstanding. This makes us not want to share our Jewish identity, which we are so proud of. Having to hide an extremely important part of ourselves is incredibly difficult and isolating, and has definitely affected my well-being”.
“Having to hide an extremely important part of ourselves is incredibly difficult and isolating, and has definitely affected my well-being”.
The Jewish Society
Palestinian students were divided, with 50% saying they felt safe and 50% saying they did not. One student said they felt “comfortable around everyone aside from pro-Israeli-government people”. Friends of Palestine also described a lack of safety: “due to the intimidation faced on campus, including being consistently spied on and monitored by CAMERA-affiliated students, as well as the lack of any support or protection from the University, many Palestinian students feel they cannot safely express their views at all”.
When it comes to institutional support, both groups expressed disappointment. Every Israeli student surveyed said the University had failed to provide adequate support, with one student stating, “The University is under so much fire already for association with anything Israeli, so they avoid supporting us like the plague”. Another added, “They are too scared of backlash”. The Jewish Society echoed the lack of institutional support. “Flat out no, Jewish students are scared. We feel belittled and unsafe. We have spoken to the University, but the routes are all so impossible and lengthy to go down that it seems like no one cares, and there is no urgency. The Student Guild feels the need to regulate our events on campus, claiming it is to make us safe- we shouldn’t need to be kept safe. We should BE safe. If it’s known we require the extra safety, maybe we should look as to why”.
Palestinian students were split down the middle, with 50% feeling the University had provided adequate support and 50% disagreeing. Friends of Palestine were more critical: “The Student Guild has systematically failed to protect students from violently racist remarks, and the University has not even been able to provide adequate mental health support to Palestinian students, including those who have lost family to Israel’s genocide”. The Exeter Student Guild acknowledged the difficulties faced by students in a statement:
“We understand that this is an extremely difficult time that is impacting our diverse student community. The ongoing conflict and suffering have, understandably, brought intense feelings, which can be particularly hard for students affected by events in the Middle East, their families and loved ones here in Exeter and further afield.
You can access many different support channels, including the University Chaplaincy or Wellbeing services, for ongoing wellbeing support. We also have our Advice team, who can help if it’s impacting your academic studies—they’re always there to listen and offer confidential advice. Our Communities team has also maintained direct relationships with affected communities to ensure they are given the support they need.
This conflict has raised a number of student concerns that we have carried to the University. This has included the University’s investments and partnerships and ensuring it offers adequate support for rebuilding higher education in Palestine. Our Officers have been working with University groups on these issues alongside other students with experience and expertise in these areas. Additionally, the Guild supports student groups that run their own activities. This has included protests that allow students’ voices to be heard and educational events where students can learn from each other and discuss ongoing issues”.
Dr Naser-Najjab argues that decolonization must include mental health support: “You go and speak to a counsellor, but they have no background in what’s going on- it’s not going to help”. She added that many Palestinian students prefer to seek support from within their own community.
…many Palestinian students prefer to seek support from within their own community
Beyond the student experience, faculty members have also voiced concerns about academic freedom, particularly in light of government policies. Dr Naser-Najjab, highlighted how state intervention has shaped campus discourse. In February 2024, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak allocated an additional £3 million to enhance security for Jewish communities, including schools, synagogues, and university campuses.
The government also activated the Prevent strategy to combat antisemitism, a move that, while aimed at ensuring safety, has raised concerns about limiting political expression. In May, Sunak invited vice-chancellors from leading universities to a meeting at Downing Street, urging them to take stronger measures to protect Jewish students. However, no Palestinian representatives were invited to this discussion.
For Dr Naser-Najjab, the implications of such decisions go beyond security concerns- they shape the narrative of who is allowed to speak and whose experiences are deemed valid. “Immediately, as a Palestinian or a pro-Palestinian, you are accused of hatred, antisemitism, violence even”, she said. “What does that tell you? Me, as an academic, how would I feel? You, as a student doing research, how would you feel? Vulnerable”. She explains, “I expected Western governments to come and talk to experts like me about the situation, to give them advice about this, not to exclude us”. “My research should inform your foreign policies”.
She argues that government policies and foreign agendas have directly influenced university spaces, particularly regarding the limits of protest and academic discourse. “Western universities were entangled with the government’s foreign policies and agendas. Therefore, they wanted us to protest within the law. However, the law of these foreign policies is that we side with Israel basically”, she said. “Academic freedom is entangled with the definition of IHRA, the definition of antisemitism because it conflates antisemitism with criticism of Israel. IHRA was even challenged by leading scholars from various fields of study, including Holocaust history and Jewish studies. These scholars developed the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism as an alternative to the IHRA definition of antisemitism to protect freedom of speech”. She went on to explain how this affected freedom of speech, “there are some aspects you shouldn’t say, or you shouldn’t do. Otherwise, it’s going to be called antisemitism”. She also noted that the government threatened to cut funding from universities that did not align with its policies, creating a financial and ideological pressure point for institutions.
While some universities have struggled to balance these constraints, Dr Naser-Najjab has found the University of Exeter to be more open to dialogue. “The University was very good, and they were very tolerant”, she acknowledged. She described the administration’s willingness to engage with Palestinian academics, highlighting that the Vice Chancellor had been accessible and receptive to faculty concerns. “One of the wonderful things the University is doing right now, which I, myself, am involved in with the senior management, is helping to rebuild higher education in Gaza”, she explained. Exeter has taken steps such as granting research access to an MA student from Gaza and exploring medical school collaborations to support Palestinian scholars. “It is in progress, and it’s working. It’s moving forward”. The university’s recent commitment to helping rebuild the higher education sector in Palestine was a result of the 50 days of ELE4Pal encampment that took place between May and July of last year.
“One of the wonderful things the University is doing right now, which I, myself, am involved in with the senior management, is helping to rebuild higher education in Gaza”
Dr Naser-Najjab
However, she insists that more must be done, both at Exeter and across Western institutions. “The University can do a lot more, can challenge the government’s policies, and can benefit from the scholarship of the European Centre for Palestine Studies more,” she said. “Although I know that the Vice Chancellor really appreciates our scholarship, it’s always constrained by government policies. We, as academics and students, should not accept this excessive interference with our research and our academic inquiry.” She called for structural changes, particularly in decolonizing education.
Beyond the institutional constraints, Dr Naser-Najjab faces the daily struggles of being a Palestinian academic in the UK. “You are thinking of your family, and at the same time, you’re thinking about what the government is going to do to you because you protest”, she said.
“Because you are asking for the liberation of your land”. She described the emotional toll of constantly having to defend her position, knowing that criticism of Israeli policies could be interpreted as antisemitism. “It’s hard. It’s terrible. You are worried about your family, and then you are preoccupied trying to defend yourself- that you are not antisemitic, that you don’t hate Jews. And you’re scared of the laws, so it’s very, very hard for Palestinians”.
Friends of Palestine also provided a statement from a Palestinian student at Exeter who wished to remain anonymous: “Israel is a settler colonial project in Palestine, and as long as the University of Exeter is not dealing with its Palestinian students based on this fact, it is indeed complicit in all of the Zionist crimes against the State of Palestine. We, as Palestinian students and academics at the University of Exeter, expect to at least have our collective trauma, triggered by the Israeli settler colonial project, addressed by our University.”
Dr Naser-Najjab also seeks to challenge misconceptions about the pro-Palestinian movement, particularly the assumption that it is inherently anti-Jewish. “One of the biggest misconceptions is that the Palestinian and pro-Palestinian communities are anti-Jewish, which is not true”, she said. “Jewish students and Jewish groups have been our alliance for a long time because they agree they are against oppression; they are against colonization”, she said. She pointed to the European Centre for Palestine Studies, which she co-directs alongside Israeli historian and political scientist Ilan Pappé, as an example of meaningful academic collaboration. She briefly explains their current work, “we are looking together at how Palestinians and Israelis can live together based on equal rights without the system of oppression and the colonial system. We are together”. “Our centre is looking through academic research and trying to find an alternative solution to the issue of Palestine that is good for everyone, not just for one group at the expense of the other group. It is based on equal rights, not exclusive. It has to be inclusive.”
Friends of Palestine also addressed a common misconception: “That a “ceasefire” means this is over…”
Friends of Palestine also addressed a common misconception: “That a “ceasefire” means this is over. International law was and still continues to be broken, Palestinians in the West Bank are still being murdered by settlers, and the right to self determination for Palestinians is still under threat daily. We’ve found that our collective student action has greatly improved the conversations we have as a student community about our university’s values and how greater transparency between a university and its students stands to benefit us all”.
However, Dr Naser-Najjab believes that attitudes have shifted over time, with support for Israeli peace groups diminishing. “I don’t see the same support I used to see before from Israeli society”, she said. “I worked with Israeli peace groups all the time; I was invited to their homes to explain about occupation- you don’t see that now”. While some activists remain, she noted that their numbers have decreased significantly.
The broader climate of campus dialogue remains fraught. In the survey, Israeli and Palestinian students were evenly split when asked if there was space for healthy discussion. One Israeli student noted, “I think those who have actually been to Israel or Palestine could have the conversation, but all of the political warriors who jump on causes wouldn’t listen”. A Palestinian student, however, argued, “It’s a genocide; there is no major discussion to be had”.
Friends of Palestine described their experience with dialogue on campus, stating: “at Palestine Action events, we have always remained open to constructive dialogue with the public. However, the majority of this comes from non-affiliated students who either want to get involved or understand our motives and message. It is rare that we have been approached by zionist students for anything other than crude and offensive remarks. Whether it be from jeering at lists of martyred children, walking over a banner that reads “Stop supporting genocide”, or CAMERA-affiliated students filming our faces, it is clear that zionist societies have little interest in making us feel welcome on campus”.
When asked if they believe there is space for healthy dialogue, they responded: “we will continue to stand for a constructive conversation between students at this University. What we will not do is platform or condone the rhetoric of zionism, an ideology which the UN General Assembly decreed “a form of racism and racial discrimination” in G.A. Resolution 3379. Just as we ardently oppose the University’s support for fascism on campus through Freedom Soc, we reject the platforming of zionism through the Zionist Society, and all others which subscribe to its hateful doctrine or are supported by the CAMERA organisation”.
Dr Naser-Najjab sees these tensions as a reflection of deeper power structures. Efforts to encourage dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis have historically faced challenges; she recalled the “People-to-People” program initiated as part of the Oslo Accords, which aimed to foster connections between the two communities. “It did not work”, she said. “The donors of the program insisted that they do not speak or talk or refer to the political reality that Palestinians experience every day”. Instead, she insists that genuine dialogue requires a recognition of power dynamics, referencing the book The Colonized and the Colonizer by Albert Memmi. “The colonizer needs to work with the colonized on changing the reality. But if an Israeli comes to me to justify the privileges he has, this is not healthy dialogue”.
Members of the Jewish Society explained how they discuss the conflict within their group. “I guess we converse as one would talk about the Nazi regime- the inhumanity of hostages and kidnapping, and the backwards way that Gaza is run by Hamas, who also treats Palestinians terribly. The conversations we have are not about hatred of any particular people; our conversations regard hatred towards the loss of life on both sides and how Hamas is a terrorist organization. In our society, we have no hate towards Palestinians or Muslims. We all want the safe return of hostages and for this war to be over”. They also highlighted the difficulty in separating Jewish identity from political affiliations. “We discuss often the inability for people to separate being Jewish and being a Zionist. Whilst often they are believed to be the same, just because I am Jewish does not necessarily make me a Zionist. The blur between religion and politics is so harmful”.
Friends of Palestine, meanwhile, emphasised the need to prepare their members for difficult interactions on campus, explaining, “all members of our community are regularly offered non-violence and de-escalation training; this prepares us very well for the regular occurrences in which people engage us with opposing viewpoints, often aggressively and in bad faith. We are trained to not react emotionally, to calmly explain our motivations, to empathise with disruption and distress experienced – and if our safety cannot be guaranteed, to back off. Using these tactics, we have de-escalated situations where members of the public have threatened physical violence and stolen our materials. Safety is our number one priority when it comes to interacting with opposing viewpoints, especially those fuelled by the violence of zionism”.
Looking forward, Dr Naser-Najjab emphasizes the role of universities in shaping future discussions on Palestine. “Pro-Palestinian communities are led by Palestinians who themselves and their families are impacted by colonial repressive policies. In Western democracies, these communities should be allowed to express their views and participate in debates to discuss their demands”, she said. She believes universities must create safe environments for open discussion, where students and scholars do not fear repercussions for their views. “Academics have a moral responsibility to contribute to this change and not to remain in ivory towers detached from students, civil society, and communities”.
“Academics have a moral responsibility to contribute to this change and not to remain in ivory towers detached from students, civil society, and communities”.
Dr Naser-Najjab
Ultimately, she argues that universities risk becoming complicit in institutional biases if they fail to challenge government narratives. “Western universities need to ensure protection for all communities and consider decolonizing education seriously to help in countering the unjust power relations and injustices”, she said. “If government guidelines contradict freedom of education and freedom of speech, they should be challenged. Otherwise, academic institutions will end up perpetuating biases and conforming dominant knowledge rather than upsetting it”.
Meanwhile, Friends of Palestine have been active in raising awareness: “Friends of Palestine organised movie nights screening award winning Palestinian documentaries such as “five broken cameras”, the society explained. “This gives people a chance to see what life has been like following the founding of a Zionist state and show how the fundamental culture of Palestine continues to thrive despite the oppression its people face”.
