Questions were asked in the House of Parliament about threats and an unsafe situation for Jewish students at UM. At least, that is what Ethan Gabriel Bergman, a student at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, said in the online medium Israël Nieuws. According to him, Jewish students do not feel at ease and hide their identity for fear of being stigmatised. In Observant he further explained that he doesn't accuse UM of encouraging a toxic anti-Semitic climate, but that university permits a climate for antisemitism to flourish.
“Maastricht University strongly condemned the antisemitic and Islamophobic remarks that were made by members of the university community,” Van Engelshoven answered (when she was still education minister) on the parliamentary questions. She also says that it is “unacceptable” that Jewish students would be asked to distance themselves from Israel. “But I don’t recognise this image or that this is the case at universities. It must be possible, however, to hold politically sensitive discussions at universities, whether in an academic context or not.”