Joelle Reid speaks at an event for the CAMERA media watchdog’s new UK. division. Photo: Facebook.

JNS.org – More than 50 students and professionals attended the launch of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America’s (CAMERA) new division for UK students at the Centre for Jewish Life in London on Tuesday, amid an uptick in antisemitism and anti-Zionism in that country.

“CAMERA inspires students to speak up, and that’s exactly what is needed in the UK right now,” said Daniel Kosky, a student at Nottingham University. “Too often students are intimidated, because anti-Israel activists are so loud and hostile.”

In August, a poll commissioned by the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism and conducted by YouGov found that one in three British Jews have considered leaving the UK due to safety concerns related to antisemitism. In July, police data acquired under British freedom of information laws detailed a 45-percent increase in antisemitic hate crimes in the UK, including verbal and physical abuse as well as vandalism.

Last year, dozens of police officers were called to a CAMERA event at University College London to protect Jewish students who were barricaded inside a room after a screaming anti-Israel mob burst into their private event.

Aviva Slomich, international director for CAMERA’s campus arm, said that British students will now have access to factual information and other resources in variety of languages, including Hebrew, Arabic, English, Spanish and French. Students will also have access to the latest research from CAMERA’s two British media departments, UK Media Watch and BBC Watch.

“Because CAMERA is an international organization, we have staff from all over the world with a wide range of experience and scholarly expertise,” Slomich said. “Our global network…is a tremendous resource.”