LONDON — “We will win!” some 200 supporters of an Israeli victory in its war against Hamas chanted at a spirited rally here April 2. The chant was led by the speaker, Yoseph Haddad, an Israeli Arab, who joined the rally with a group of 35 Israelis — including Christians, Druze and Muslims — who came to stand shoulder to shoulder with Jewish students against rising antisemitism on college campuses in the U.K.
The rally was called by “Stop the Hate” and sponsored by a range of organizations, including the Campaign Against Antisemitism and a number of Jewish Societies at London University colleges.
It was held outside London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies, known as SOAS, where pro-Hamas students brag they have organized the longest anti-Israel encampment at any U.K. university. The encampment has been described by one anonymous former participant as a “cesspit for antisemitism and ignorance” in SOAS Spirit, the student paper. Rally participants carried placards that dubbed SOAS the “School Of Antisemitism Studies.”
Speakers included Sabine Taasa, part of the Israeli delegation, whose husband and son were murdered in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, pogrom; and Max Royston from Stop the Hate. He welcomed the anti-Hamas protests now being organized by thousands in Gaza as pointing to a new future in the region.