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An attempt to brand Israel as an “apartheid” state by students at one of Britain’s leading universities fell by just seven votes last week.

But members of the Jewish and Israel societies at the London School of Economics may have to return to the students’ union debating chamber after a challenge to the conduct of the ballot.

The union’s constitutional committee is understood to have called into question the 292-285 vote against the motion, although a decision was not due to be announced until yesterday.

The resolution – whose proposers included the head of the students’ Palestine Society – called for a campaign to lobby the LSE and the National Union of Students to “divest from apartheid Israel”.

More than 600 students – six times the usual attendance for union meetings – cast their vote, which was held by secret ballot rather than a show of hands to prevent intimidation.

But the union’s returning officer received complaints that some students had been unable to get into the crowded hall to hear the debate, and that ballot papers lying around may have been used by people not entitled to vote.

The result of the debate, however, buoyed Jewish students, who had only 48 hours to mobilise opinion after learning that it was to take place.

Marilyn Carsley, president of LSE’s Israel Society, said that there had been “a lot of anti-Israel rhetoric” on campus recently and that the outcome of the debate had been “uncertain. We were all on edge.”

Sam Cohen, an MA student, who led the campaign against the resolution, said: “The response has been phenomenal. Jewish and non-Jewish students proudly opposed extremist language at LSE and have shown that we want a moderate, sensible and constructive debate around the issues of the Middle East.

“I really hope this is the last time people try to polarise the student body in this way.”

An editorial in this week’s LSE student newspaper, The Beaver, commented: “The LSE has been in real danger of alienating Jewish and Israeli students, and this motion was another example.”

A History Of Campus Intimidation

When new students arrived at the London School of Economics last autumn, they received a welcome pack from the students’ union that would have been distinctly unwelcome to many Jewish freshers.

Its contents included a letter from two union officials, one the head of the Palestine Society, telling them of the union’s twinning with the West Bank university, An Najah, and accusing Israel of having killed 800 Palestinian children.

It was a taste of what was to come. Pro-Palestinian campaigners have turned up the heat on Israel over the past year, sporting “Make Apartheid History” T-shirts while handing out leaflets denouncing the Jewish state.

“It is time for us to call Israeli apartheid by its name and press our universities to divest and stop funding it,” Palestine Society head Ziyaad Lunat told the JC this week.

But the intense lobbying “has made a lot of Jewish students feel intimidated by the atmosphere this year”, said Sam Cohen, an activist in the Jewish and Israel societies. “They feel particularly targeted because the anti-Israel voice is so loud, extreme and polarising.”

There are 36 Israeli postgrad-uates and three undergraduates at LSE, according to an official website aimed at encouraging applicants from the country.

But one third-year Israeli postgrad, Lior Herman, said he would now think twice about advising compatriots to join him. “I would definitely recommend LSE for academic reasons, but the atmosphere among students is not so pleasant.”

If last week’s resolution labelling Israel as apartheid had passed, Mr Herman believed that many Jewish and Israeli students “would have found it hard to be members of a student body that says if you don’t agree Israel is an apartheid state, or side with the boycott, you’re not one of us.”

Ms Cohen said that Jewish students had come to her in tears, for example after the term “apartheid” had been “tossed around in class”. An MA student in human rights, she said that in one of her own classes, “I have heard students accuse Israel of genocide, ethnic cleansing and of being an apartheid, racist state.”

Marilyn Carsley, Israel Society president, agreed that “a lot of people feel intimidated by the kind of rhetoric and extremism and how readily it is accepted. It’s a hostile environment.”

One incident at the end of last year has been brought to the attention of the university’s deans. This involved posters for a Chanucah party being ripped down in a hall of residence.

The campaign against Israel has not been confined to the students’ union. In October, pro-Palestinian students invaded a meeting of the LSE’s governing council and staged a sit-in to demand a meeting with its director, Sir Howard Davies. He has resisted pressure for the school to host a debate on the proposed academic boycott of Israel, having issued a statement last spring condemning any boycott as “contrary to the values of freedom of speech and academic inquiry”.

Rosalind Altmann, a governor of the LSE for around 20 years, said that the recent increased activity around Israel on campus had been noticed. “We believe in freedom of speech,” she said. “But if it’s a question of people feeling they are being victimised in any way by elements of the student body, we need to have a report on that.”

The bombardment of anti-Israel propaganda may be “depressing”, said Jewish Society head Ben Freedman, but he took encouragement from the reaction to last week’s debate. “I didn’t expect Jewish and pro-Israel students to be able to mobilise at such short notice and in such great numbers. Perhaps this will inspire Jewish students and Israel supporters to build a strong Jewish community on campus.”