Hatred towards Israel in general and Jews in particular is so rampant on some UK universities they have effectively become no-go zones for Jewish students.

Baroness Deech, a former higher education adjudicator and law professor, made the claim, adding that institutions’ fear of offending Middle East benefactors could be causing them to fail to combat anti-Semitism on campuses across the country.

Lady Deech told The Daily Telegraph: “Many universities are in receipt of or are chasing very large donations from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states and so on, and maybe they are frightened of offending them.

“I don’t know why they aren’t doing anything about it, it really is a bad situation… Amongst Jewish students, there is gradually a feeling that there are certain universities that you should avoid.”

She singled out the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas) in London and the universities of Manchester, Southampton and Exeter as institutions where Jewish students were no longer made to feel welcome.

Breitbart Jerusalem reported in February that the Co-Chair of the Oxford University Labour Club (OULC) left his post after claiming anti-Semitism and support of Islamist terror among left wing students was becoming routine.

In a Facebook announcement, Alex Chalmers slammed “senior members of the club expressing their ‘solidarity’ with Hamas and explicitly defending their tactics of indiscriminately murdering civilians”. He said concerns about anti-Semitism were dismissed as “just the Zionists crying wolf”.

Last year, Southampton University was forced to cancel a conference on Israel’s right to exist in the face of criticism from opponents who described it as “giving legitimacy to anti-Semitism”.

Saudi Arabia has been a major donor to a range of UK universities over the last 10 years, the Telegraph said.

In 2005, Sultan bin Abdulaziz alSaud, the late crown prince, gave £2 million to Oxford University’s Ashmolean Museum.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad al-Qasimi, the ruler of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, has given more than £8 million to Exeter University over two decades.