French far-right leader Marine Le Pen denied violating any rules as she and her National Rally party and two dozen others went on trial on Monday, accused of embezzling European Parliament funds, in a case that has the potential to derail her political ambitions.

Arriving at the court in Paris, Le Pen said, “we have not violated any political and regulatory rules of the European Parliament” and vowed to present “extremely serious and extremely solid arguments″ in the trial.”

The nine-week trial will be closely watched by Le Pen’s political rivals as she is a strong contender in the race to succeed Emmanuel Macron when the next presidential election takes place in 2027.

It comes as a new government dominated by centrists and conservatives just came into office in the wake of June-July legislative elections. Some observers expect the trial could prevent National Rally lawmakers, including Le Pen herself, from fully playing their opposition role in Parliament as they would be busy focusing on the party’s defense.

Since stepping down as party leader three years ago, Le Pen has sought to position herself as a mainstream candidate capable of appealing to a broader electorate. Her efforts have paid off, with the party making significant gains in recent elections at both the European and national levels. But a guilty verdict could seriously undermine her bid to take the Elysee.

The National Rally and 27 of its top officials are accused of having used money destined for EU parliamentary aides to pay staff who instead did political work for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. The National Rally was called National Front at the time.

Le Pen, whose party has softened its anti-EU stance in recent years, denies wrongdoing and claims the case is politically driven.

“Parliamentary assistants do not work for the Parliament. They are political assistants to elected officials, political by definition,” she argued in her defense. “You ask me if I can define the tasks I assigned to my assistants; it depends on each person’s skills. Some wrote speeches for me, and some handled logistics and coordination.”

If found guilty, Le Pen and her co-defendants could face up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to 1 million euros ($1.1 million) each. Additional penalties, such as the loss of civil rights or ineligibility to run for office, could also be imposed, a scenario that could hamper, or even destroy, Le Pen’s goal to mount another presidential bid after Macron’s term ends. Le Pen was runner-up to Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections.

She served as party president from 2011 to 2021 and now heads the group of RN lawmakers at the French National Assembly.

Despite her denial, her party has already paid back 1 million to the European Parliament, the Parliament’s lawyer Patrick Maisonneuve said. Of that amount, 330,000 euros were directly linked to Marine Le Pen’s alleged misuse of funds.

A longstanding controversy

The legal proceedings stem from a 2015 alert raised by Martin Schulz, then-president of the European Parliament, to French authorities about possible fraudulent use of European funds by members of the National Front.

Schulz also referred the case to the European Anti-Fraud Office, which launched a separate probe into the matter.

The European Parliament’s suspicions were further heightened when a 2015 organizational chart showed that 16 European lawmakers and 20 parliamentary assistants held official positions within the party – roles unrelated to their supposed duties as EU parliamentary staff.

A subsequent investigation found that some assistants were contractually linked to different MEPs than the ones they were actually working for, suggesting a scheme to divert European funds to pay party employees in France.

Alexandre Varault, a spokesperson for the National Rally who was elected to the European Parliament in June, told The Associated Press that Le Pen will attend the first day of the trial, adding that he hopes for the acquittal of all the defendants.

Misuse of public funds alleged

Investigating judges concluded that Le Pen, as party leader, orchestrated the allocation of parliamentary assistance budgets and instructed MEPs to hire individuals holding party positions. These individuals were presented as EU parliamentary assistants, but in reality, were allegedly working for the National Rally in various capacities.

The European Parliament’s legal team is seeking 2.7 million euros in compensation for financial and reputational damages. This figure corresponds to the 3.7 million euros allegedly defrauded through the scheme, minus the 1 million euros already paid back.

During the 2014 European elections, the National Front won a record 24 MEP seats, finishing first with 24.8% of the vote, ahead of the center-right and the Socialists. This surge resulted in a substantial financial windfall for the party, which faced severe financial problems at the time.

An audit of the party’s accounts between 2013 and 2016 revealed that it was running a deficit of 9.1 million euros by the end of 2016. Yet, the party still had a cash balance of 1.7 million euros and had lent 1 million euros to Le Pen’s 2017 presidential campaign, while also holding 87,000 euros in loans to Cotelec, its funding association.

At the time, the party was also indebted to a Russian bank for 9.4 million euros, a loan taken out in 2014 for 6 million euros.

Suspected systemic practice

The investigation uncovered many irregularities involving prominent party members.

Thierry Légier, the long-time bodyguard of Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie, was listed as his parliamentary assistant. But his resume did not reference this role, and he made no mention of it in his 2012 autobiography. Légier admitted during the investigation that he was not interviewed and signed his employment contract without fully understanding his official role.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, who led the National Front from 1972 to 2011, will not appear in court alongside his former colleagues due to health concerns. Now 96, he was deemed unfit to testify by a court in June. He has 11 prior convictions, including for violence against a public official and hate speech.

He has denied wrongdoing during his time as party leader, stating that the “pool” of assistants was common knowledge. “I did not choose which assistants were assigned to me. That was decided by Marine Le Pen and others. I only signed the contracts,” he said.

The Russian government wants to earmark 32.5% of its spending for defense in 2025, a record amount and up from a reported 28.3% this year, as Moscow seeks to prevail in the war in Ukraine.

The government’s draft budget released Monday proposes spending just under 13.5 trillion rubles (over $145 billion) on national defense. That is about three trillion rubles ($32 billion) more than was set aside for defense in 2024, which was the previous record.

The Ukraine war is Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II and has drained the resources of both sides, with Ukraine getting billions of dollars in help from its Western allies.

Russia’s forces are bigger and better-equipped than Ukraine’s. In recent months the Russian army has gradually been pushing Ukrainian troops backward in eastern areas.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the United States last week in pursuit of continuing financial and military support as the war approaches its three-year milestone next February.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is also looking at how to sustain his war effort as military spending has placed a huge strain on the Russian economy.

Earlier this month, Russia’s central bank raised its key interest rate by a full percentage point to 19% to combat high inflation. It held out the prospect of more rate increases to return inflation from the current 9.1% to the bank’s target of 4% in 2025.

According to the draft budget, spending on defense should decline in 2026.

The proposed budget could still change as it goes through three readings in the State Duma, Russia’s lower parliament house, and then goes to the Federation Council, the upper house, before the Russian president signs it into law.

Meanwhile, on Monday Putin signed a call-up order for 133,000 conscripts in the autumn military draft, which is a routine number for seasonal conscription campaigns.

In September, he ordered the military to increase the number of troops by 180,000 to a total of 1.5 million. Overall military personnel would be about 2.4 million.

Overnight, Russia fired missiles and drones at 11 regions in Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said Monday, in a 33rd consecutive night of aerial attacks behind the front line and setting a new monthly record in drone barrages.

It was the first time Russians launched more than 1,000 Shahed drones in a month. It was also the first time the Iranian-made drones were used in every aerial attack on each day of the month.

Drone attacks

In Kyiv, multiple explosions and machine gun fire could be heard throughout the night as the Ukrainian capital’s air defenses fought off a drone attack for five hours.

No casualties were reported in Kyiv or elsewhere, though a “critical infrastructure object” caught fire in the southern Mykolaiv region, Gov. Vitalii Kim said, without elaborating.

Russia has increasingly deployed Shahed drones, rather than more expensive missiles, in its aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities since its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.

It launched more than 1,300 Shahed drones at Ukraine in September alone, the highest number of drone attacks in a single month since the war began.

Ukraine, too, has developed a new generation of drones for the battlefield and for long-range strikes deep inside Russia. More than 100 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia on Sunday, Russian officials said.

Also Monday, Putin released a video marking the second anniversary of the annexation of four Ukrainian territories and again accused the West of turning Ukraine into “a military base aimed at Russia.”

Putin was speaking to mark the annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine after a referendum held in 2022, which was denounced by the West as a sham. Russia also illegally annexed Crimea in 2014.

Since 2022, Putin said, businesses in the occupied areas are being “actively restored” and hospitals and schools are being rebuilt.

Thousands of Ukrainians have fled from the four regions as a result of Russia’s invasion, but Putin said Russia’s military operation in the country was to defend residents’ “well-being” and the “future for our children and grandchildren.”

Fans eagerly awaiting the return of Coldplay to India were shocked to find tickets being resold online for as much as $11,000, prompting police to seek a statement from the CEO of the shows’ vendor over allegations of fraud.

The British rock band is playing three shows in Mumbai in January as part of its hugely popular Music Of The Spheres tour, its first concerts in the country since 2016.

Tickets were scheduled to go on sale by the official vendor, BookMyShow (BMS), at 12 p.m. local time on September 22. But for many users, the website and app crashed amid the demand.

When fans were able to get into the virtual queue to buy tickets priced from 2,500 to 35,000 rupees ($30 to $417), they said they were behind hundreds of thousands of users.

Within minutes, the tickets were sold out and reappeared on other platforms for as much as 960,000 rupees ($11,458), sparking anger over the purchase process and the suspected use of bots to scoop up seats. To put that into perspective, the World Bank says India’s current GDP per capita is $2,500 a year.

Amit Vyas, a lawyer and founding partner of Mumbai law firm Vertices Partners, was among fans waiting for tickets on the vendor’s website when he was suddenly locked out.

He filed a complaint with police, alleging the online ticketing platform made tickets available to scalpers and third-party websites for resale on the black market.

On Monday, the founder and CEO of BookMyShow, Ashish Hemjarani, was summoned by Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing for questioning over the alleged black marketing of tickets for the concerts, a Mumbai police official said.

“Scalping is strictly condemned and punishable by law in India. We have filed a complaint with the police authorities and will provide complete support to them in the investigation of this matter,” the vendor said.

Arkatapa Basu, a 26-year-old journalist based in the southern city of Bengaluru, said she was waiting behind 130,000 people to buy tickets when she learned a third show had been added.

When she went to join the third show’s waitlist, she found there were 700,000 people waiting ahead of her. “That’s when I decided to give up,” she said.

Ishaan Jhamb, a 22-year-old engineering student from Delhi, said the tickets being resold were so expensive, he and his friends decided to fly nearly four hours to go see the band in Abu Dhabi instead, because it would be more economical.

The ticket-buying process for big concert events has often drawn angst from buyers globally.

Last month, the British rock band Oasis announced a reunion tour, sparking a frenzy of criticism over Ticketmaster’s so-called dynamic pricing, where businesses adjust prices based on factors such as demand.

Ticketmaster also faced public scrutiny in November 2022 for its handling of the massively popular Taylor Swift Eras Tour, for which the company says there was “historically unprecedented demand.”

Israel has launched what it called “a limited ground operation” across its northern border into Lebanon targeting the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, opening a new and dangerous phase in almost a year of war.

The incursion, which Israel’s National Security Cabinet has called the “next phase” of its war with Hezbollah, marks the fourth time that Israeli soldiers have publicly entered Lebanese soil in nearly 50 years, and the first since Israel’s 34-day war in the country in 2006.

Israeli troops laid the groundwork for the incursion in recent days, ramping up airstrikes that have killed hundreds of people, destroyed homes and displaced about 1 million people in Lebanon.

The latest escalation comes after Israel killed Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike on Friday and decimated the leadership of the most powerful paramilitary force in the Middle East.

Here’s what we know.

Extent of incursion unclear

Israeli officials have characterized the incursion into southern Lebanon as limited in scope, saying there will be “no long-term occupation.”

The Israeli military said it was focused on removing “immediate threats” from Lebanese villages along the border, including Hezbollah’s ability to infiltrate northern Israel.

But officials have declined to say how deep Israeli troops would venture into the country or how long the operation is expected to last.

Israeli leaders have hinted that further action would come. On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops near the Lebanese border that the assassination of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah was “a very important step, but it is not the final one,” and that “we will employ all the capabilities at our disposal.”

While the extent of Israel’s military plans inside Lebanon remain unclear, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become increasingly defiant of international calls for restraint and de-escalation, as well as widespread outrage over growing civilian casualties in Lebanon and Gaza.

Previous military operations initially declared by Israel to be limited in their goals have proved to be anything but.

Examples include Israel’s years-long occupation of southern Lebanon that began in 1982 with the stated aim of a brief and limited mission to destroy the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in the country.

More recently, Israel’s military declared a “limited” operation in Rafah, southern Gaza that has left the city in ruins.

What happened ahead of the incursion?

Shortly before the incursion, Israel’s National Security Cabinet approved the “next phase” of its war with Hezbollah, according to Israeli media.

In preparation, the Israeli military launched small raids and artillery fire across the Lebanon border, and sealed off several communities in northern Israel, limiting the movement of civilians there.

The Lebanese army had also evacuated observation posts at the southern border and moved to barracks in the border villages, according to a Lebanese security source.

Meanwhile, Israel’s air force once again bombed the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut, predominantly Shia neighborhoods where Hezbollah has a stronghold.

It follows Israeli airstrikes that hit inside Beirut’s city limits early Monday for the first time since the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel.

Isn’t Israel fighting Hamas in Gaza? Why are Israeli troops now in Lebanon?

Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah have been engaged in a tit-for-tat escalation since the war in Gaza began following Hamas’ attack on Israel last October. Hezbollah has said it will not stop striking Israel until a ceasefire is reached in the Palestinian enclave, much of which has been reduced to rubble by Israeli bombs and fighting.

In recent weeks, Israel has refocused its military objectives north with a new war aim to return displaced residents to their homes along the Lebanon border. About 60,000 Israeli civilians have been forced from their homes by Hezbollah’s rocket attacks.

What’s unfolded is some of the fiercest fighting between the two longtime foes since the 2006 Lebanon war, which killed 1,100 in the country. Nearly 50 Israeli civilians and 121 Israeli soldiers were also killed.

Last month, pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members exploded across Lebanon in a coordinated Israeli attack that killed dozens of people and maimed thousands, including women and children.

Israel has also stepped up a relentless bombing campaign across Lebanon targeting Hezbollah’s infrastructure and leadership, but the strikes have also decimated homes and neighborhoods in densely populated areas. Massive airstrikes in southern Beirut have killed a string of Hezbollah leaders, as well as more than 1,000 people.

The Iran question

The latest developments raise questions about how a weakened Hezbollah will respond, and the extent to which its backer Iran could get involved, once more ratcheting up fears of a wider regional war.

Hezbollah is part of an Iran-led alliance spanning Yemen, Syria, Gaza and Iraq that has attacked Israel and its allies since the war with Hamas began.

In a fiery speech on Sunday, Netanyahu said one of Israel’s goals is “changing the balance of power in the region” and that “there is no place in Iran or the Middle East that the long arm of Israel will not reach.”

Killing Hezbollah leader Nasrallah and wiping out the group’s capabilities to launch a large-scale attack on Israel were “necessary” conditions to achieve that goal, he said.

Israel has also ramped up attacks on multiple fronts against other Iran-backed militants, including launching strikes targeting the Houthis in Yemen.

But despite the recent Israeli strikes on its proxies, Iran has appeared wary of moving into direct conflict with its longtime enemy, even as their decades-long shadow war has been pushed further into the open. Many observers fear any direct Iranian retaliation could draw the United States further into the conflict.

How has the US reacted?

Attention has focused on how the once-mighty US is increasingly powerless to rein in its ally or to influence other major belligerents in a fast-worsening regional crisis.

The White House on Monday said Israel has the right to defend itself, but warned of the risk of “mission creep” in a ground operation that could ultimately broaden in scope and turn into a longer-term incursion.

President Joe Biden last week unveiled a 21-day ceasefire proposal, backed by other US allies, that was almost immediately rejected by Netanyahu – to the frustration of the White House.

The US is a key provider of Israel’s weapons — it likely supplied the 2,000-pound bombs  used to kill Hezbollah’s leader — but Biden and his advisers have continued to call for a diplomatic resolution.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping reiterated his pledge to achieve “reunification” with Taiwan on the eve of Communist China’s 75th birthday, as Beijing flexed its military might in the run-up to the national holiday.

At a state banquet celebrating the founding of the People’s Republic on Monday, Xi used his address to underscore his resolve to achieve the “complete reunification of the motherland.”

“It’s an irreversible trend, a cause of righteousness and the common aspiration of the people. No one can stop the march of history,” he told the thousands in attendance at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.

China’s ruling Communist Party claims Taiwan as its own, despite having never controlled it, and has vowed to “reunify” with the self-governing democracy, by force if necessary.

But many people on the island view themselves as distinctly Taiwanese and have no desire to be part of Communist China.

The two sides have been ruled by separate governments since 1949, after the end of the Chinese civil war. The communists took power in Beijing and founded the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949, while the defeated nationalists fled to Taiwan, moving the seat of the Republic of China from the mainland to Taipei.

Successive Chinese leaders have vowed to one day take control of Taiwan, but Xi, China’s most assertive leader in decades, has ramped up rhetoric and aggression against the democratic island – fueling tension across the strait and raising concerns for a military confrontation.

“Taiwan is China’s sacred territory. Blood is thicker than water, and people on both sides of the strait are connected by blood,” Xi told the banquet attended by more than 3,000 people, including officials, retired party leaders and foreign dignitaries.

He also called for deeper economic and cultural exchanges across the Taiwan Strait and promotion of “spiritual harmony of compatriots on both sides.”

“(We must) resolutely oppose ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist activities,” Xi said.

Beijing has labeled Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te a “dangerous separatist,” and tensions have ratcheted up since Lai’s inauguration in May, during which he called on China to cease its intimidation of Taiwan.

Taiwan officials say Beijing has intensified military activities around the island in recent months, including drills in May that the Chinese military said were designed to test its ability to “seize power” over the island.

On Sunday, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it was on alert after detecting “multiple waves” of missile firing deep in inland China.

The missiles were fired by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Rocket Force in the inland regions of Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang, the ministry said in a statement, adding that Taiwan’s air defense forces have “maintained a high level of vigilance and strengthened their alert.”

It comes just days after China fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean for the first time in 44 years, in a rare public test that analysts said was meant to send a message to the United States and its allies amid heightened regional tensions.

The issue of Taiwan has become a major point of contention between China and the US, which maintains close but informal relations with Taipei and is bound by law to supply the island with weapons to defend itself.

On Sunday, US President Joe Biden approved an additional $567 million in military support for Taiwan in the largest aid package America has granted the island. The funding will cover defense articles as well as “military education and training,” the White House said in a statement.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has made his first public remarks since his release after he struck a deal with the United States, saying he is free because he pleaded “guilty to journalism.”

The 53-year-old on Tuesday traveled to the French city of Strasbourg to appear before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and provide evidence on his detention and conviction, and on their effects on human rights.

“I want to be totally clear: I am not free today because the system worked,” Assange told lawmakers. “I am free today after years of incarceration because I pled guilty to journalism.”

Assange was released in June after agreeing to plead guilty to a single felony charge in exchange for time served. The deal was finalized in a remote US court in the Pacific before he flew on to his native Australia.

He had been locked up in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison for five years and sought refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in the British capital for nearly seven years before that, in a bid to avoid potentially spending the rest of his life behind bars.

Before his deal with the US Justice Department, the Australian had been facing 18 criminal charges related to his organization’s dissemination of classified material and diplomatic cables, and a 175-year jail sentence.

Assange, accompanied by his wife Stella and WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, appeared calm and at ease during his roughly 20-minute statement on Tuesday.

Taiwan has put its military units on standby and closed schools and offices across several counties on Tuesday, as the island braces for a powerful typhoon set to make landfall in the next couple days, after bashing the Philippines.

Super Typhoon Krathon, equivalent to a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane, is currently situated in the Bashi Channel in the northern part of the Luzon Strait, between Taiwan and the Philippines. As of 11:30 a.m. local time Tuesday, it had winds of 240 kph (150 mph), according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC).

It is expected to weaken slightly before making landfall near Taiwan’s major port city of Kaohsiung on Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning local time, as it moves northeast across the island, bringing heavy rains, strong winds and storm surge.

The storm, known locally in the Philippines as Julien, has already lashed the country’s northernmost islands, prompting evacuations and severe flooding in coastal communities. Rainfalls of up to 100-200mm (4-8 inches) have been recorded across the northern Batanes islands.

Nearly 23,000 families in three regions have been affected by the storm, the Philippines’ national disaster agency said Tuesday, according to the Philippine News Agency, as authorities work to assess the damage.

On Tuesday, Taiwan’s president warned of the “catastrophic damage” that the storm could impose on the island and warned “everyone must be particularly vigilant.”

“Typhoon Krathon has intensified into a strong typhoon with strong wind, heavy rain and high storm surge, and it is set to bring catastrophic damage,” Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Tuesday during a visit to the Central Emergency Operations Center, which was set up over the weekend to coordinate response measures to the typhoon.

Taiwan generally has a strong track record of responding to major typhoons though remote villages in more mountainous region can be particularly vulnerable to landslides.

Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration (CWA) has issued a sea and land typhoon warning for southern and eastern parts of the island, warning the typhoon could pose a significant threat due to its slow speed and bring torrential rains to parts of the southeast.

In Kaohsiung, the biggest city in southern Taiwan with a population of 2.7 million and a major cargo port, emergency responders have already evacuated 1,690 people from high-risk areas, according to city mayor Chen Chi-mai.

More than 15,000 Taiwanese soldiers are on standby across different parts of the island to assist with evacuation and rescue efforts, Taiwan’s defense ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang told reporters on Monday.

Krathon is set to be the second typhoon to make landfall on Taiwan this year, after Typhoon Gaemi struck the island in July, killing 11 people.

Some train services in eastern Taiwan have already been suspended, and a highway in eastern Taiwan’s Hualien county has partially closed due to landslides, according to transportation authorities.

Up and down the United Kingdom, parents have been packing their cars with bedding, crockery and much more as they hold back the tears and drive their children to university.

But the usual concerns about how they will fend for themselves have taken on an added dimension for some.

As a new academic year begins, many Jewish students and their families are apprehensive about a worsening climate of antisemitism on British campuses after Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel last year, which triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.

The latest report from the Community Security Trust (CST), a charity that protects the UK Jewish community, revealed a 465% increase in reported antisemitic incidents in higher-education settings in the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2023.

In total, 96 university-related incidents were reported to the CST, compared with 17 in 2023. There were reports of assaults, threats, damage or desecration and abusive behavior, both in person and online.

Another mother, who also asked to remain anonymous and did not want to identify the university concerned, said: “We’ve told our daughter not to wear any jewelry that shows her Jewish identity because we don’t believe it’s safe for her to do so.”

That would not have “crossed our minds before October 7,” she added. “So many people are now so unashamedly vocal and confident in expressing their antisemitism that it fills us with the deepest fear that our child could be exposed to this on campus without our protection.”

These are not merely over-anxious parents. In February, the University of Leeds’ Hillel House – the center for Jewish life on campus – was daubed with antisemitic graffiti. In a separate incident, the Jewish chaplain there was targeted with death threats after it emerged that he was an IDF reservist.

“The idea was that all you need to defend against antisemitism is a table and a couple of Jewish students willing to have a conversation,” he explained.

There were “positive conversations,” said Gil, but on one occasion the table was vandalized. Nevertheless, he and his peers continued to present a Jewish front on campus, despite growing anti-Israel demonstrations.

“The things being said transitioned from an anti-Zionist agenda to antisemitic comments,” he said, giving one example of Zionists being compared to “judenrats” – councils of Jews appointed by the Nazis to implement their antisemitic agenda.

Gil said the defacing of Hillel House was the “biggest shock,” as well as the abuse leveled at the chaplain, who has since stepped down.

“It was a very difficult time and a lot of Jewish students started to become scared. People weren’t wearing their magen david (Star of David) on campus or going to campus as often.”

“As a university, we’re committed to supporting free speech within the law, which means tolerating a wide range of views while respecting the rights of others,” the spokesperson said.

“Antisemitism, Islamophobia, abuse, or harassment of any kind is not acceptable. The university does not support any views or actions which seek to exclude or make Jewish, Muslim or any other people unwelcome on campus.”

Universities have long been a “crucible for different types of politics, including extremist politics,” with people from different backgrounds “coming together in a close-knit community,” according to Dave Rich, CST’s director of policy.

Rich described the uptick in antisemitism as “entirely predictable,” as the organization’s data, collected over the last four decades, shows antisemitism rises when trouble flares in Israel. Yet the last year has been “much worse” than ever before, he said.

“Some of this comes from ignorance and some comes from more hardline extremist groups. It only ever involves a minority of students, but the problem is it can affect the atmosphere for everybody.”

He said pro-Palestinian encampments on UK campuses were smaller than in the United States and largely peaceful, though often accompanied by “very noisy protests and banners and chanting about genocide” which many Jewish students find unsettling.

“Most students aren’t involved in this and there’s always a balance to be struck between the right to protest and free speech and the right of everyone else to go about their daily lives without disruption,” he said.

The level of antisemitism was “unprecedented – quantitatively and qualitatively,” he said, adding: “I’d never experienced anything like it in my 10 years at Oxford.

“For me, one of the things that was most difficult and would have been unfathomable before October 7, were the calls for intifada (uprising). It was extremist language that became almost normalized overnight.”

‘We are very worried’

Britain is not the only European country experiencing these tensions on campus and on the streets.

She said the situation has been particularly bad in Western European countries including France, Germany and the Netherlands.

In France, where religion is generally kept separate from academic settings, a government study published in June noted a steep increase in antisemitic acts on campuses since October 7, with 67 instances recorded – twice as many as were registered in the 2022-2023 academic year. The real figure was likely higher, the report noted.

Reports to EUJS have included many cases of harassment – both verbal and physical – Hallali said, and it has recently been informed of a particularly unsettling potential development.

“We have some information about student organizations on campus planning to celebrate the one-year anniversary of October 7,” she said. “It’s very problematic because the universities are not planning on doing anything as of now. So, we are pushing (for action) and our national unions will be ready to react, but we are very worried.”

The antisemitism experienced on university campuses has been mirrored too by rising incidents in wider society.

“Jewish students ask themselves a painful question every day: whether there’s still a future for Jewish life on European campuses and whether there’s still a future for Jewish life in Europe,” said Hallali.

“When contacted about their responsibility to provide a safe environment for Jewish students and faculty, the university administration said we could use an ‘alternative entrance,’” she said. “Jewish students were basically told to use a back door.”

Laitinen said the suggestion that students use alternative entrances in order to avoid the encampment “was not in reference to representatives of any particular faith” and that the university cannot by law keep a record of students’ religious beliefs. “Again, campus safety is of utmost concern to us, and this applies to everyone.”

Mental health impact

Bleak as the situation appears, Rosenfeld is keen to point out a silver lining – Jewish students strengthening their own ties.

“The community of Jewish students in Oxford has never been stronger and it’s a really vibrant place to be,” he said.

Sami Berkoff, president of the UK Union of Jewish Students (UJS), said the pattern has been replicated across the country, with her organization having boosted its membership by 2,000 students this year.

“It’s really a want for a ‘Jewish space’ where you feel at home, where you feel seen and heard and you’re talking to people with shared experiences,” said Berkoff.

“It’s a kind of breather where you aren’t having to discuss the conflict if you don’t want to.”

A “hotline” set up by the UJS to support students during the Israel-Hamas war has been inundated with calls, Berkoff added, with many students saying their mental health has been affected. UJS has had more than 1,000 calls to the hotline since it was set up on October 8 last year.

Last week, Berkoff and other Jewish students met with the UK’s newly appointed solicitor general, Sarah Sackman, who won a seat in Parliament in July, and shared their feelings about antisemitism on campus and perceived inaction from the authorities.

According to a news release from the Union of Jewish Students, Sackman told the students the government was “actively considering” how best to tackle support for groups like Hamas on campus and beyond.

“I’m confident we’ll see changes and we’re seeing the need for changes from universities,” said Berkoff, adding that UJS is running antisemitism awareness training for thousands of university employees, student bodies and societies.

“The ultimate goal is to make sure Jewish student life isn’t just surviving and plodding along, but really thriving on campus. You can wear a kippah on campus, you can wear a Star of David and you can be proud to do that.”