LONDON – A student at Oxford University who was filmed chanting ‘put the Zios in the ground’ at a pro-Palestine protest has been suspended.
The university is understood to have taken the action after the Daily Mail named Samuel Williams as the student leading the vile anti-Israeli chants.
‘Zio’ is an offensive reference to Zionists, and some have interpreted the words as calling for death to Jews.
The suspension will continue while the university conducts an investigation.
Williams, a philosophy, politics and economics student at Balliol College, is also under investigation by the Metropolitan Police over the incident.
The chants were filmed last Saturday in central London, the day after the ceasefire came into effect in Gaza.
Speaking through a microphone at the march, Williams told the crowd: ‘‘A steadfast and noble resistance in Palestine and in Gaza to look to, to be inspired by and – I don’t want to yap for too long – but a chant that we’ve been workshopping in Oxford that maybe you guys want to join in.
‘It goes ‘Gaza, Gaza make us proud, put the Zios in the ground’.’ It is understood ministers have also made contact with Oxford following the incident and have reiterated calls zero tolerance of anti-Semitism.
Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, said last week that there had been an ‘unacceptable increase in anti-Semitism’ at universities and added that many Jewish students did not feel safe on campus.
She called on universities to strengthen protections for Jewish students and said government was funding training to help staff and students ‘tackle this poison of anti-Semitism’.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: ‘‘Officers are investigating chants made at the demonstration in central London on Saturday, October 11.’’ Other online footage from the rally showed Mr Williams near the front of a group of protesters who were holding signs bearing messages including ‘Oxford University pick a side, justice or genocide’.
A spokesman for the university said: ‘The University of Oxford condemns, in the strongest possible terms, any language urging violence against groups of people or expressing any form of racial hatred.
‘The university’s support for freedom of speech does not extend to any statements, including such language.
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