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When Israeli software engineering student Bar Harel arrived in Coimbra, Portugal, to pursue a PhD at one of Europe’s oldest and most prestigious universities, he expected a place of learning and intellectual exchange.
However, what he found instead at the University of Coimbra was a campus and city engulfed by overt antisemitism in the aftermath of the October 7th massacre — swastikas defacing stairwells and stickers declaring “Zionism is an evil cult,” “The chosen people like to kill babies,” and “Yahya Sinwar was a hero,” alongside Hamas and Hezbollah displayed in public spaces. Posters demanding “Zionists are not welcome” created a hostile environment for Jewish residents and visitors.
Harel’s detailed research report, “Stickers of Hate: Analysis of Antisemitism at the University of Coimbra,” exposes this alarming situation. The report’s recent publication drew swift and brutal backlash, including defamation, threats, physical assault, and an utter failure by institutional authorities to respond — only further underscoring the disturbing reality facing Jews in Coimbra.
Hate in Plain Sight — A Campus Saturated With Antisemitism
Harel’s report catalogued manifestations of antisemitic symbols and propaganda around Coimbra:
- Swastikas and antisemitic graffiti appeared in faculties across the university, including Law, Medicine, Chemistry, and Engineering.
- Terrorist flags of Hamas and Hezbollah were openly flown near academic buildings and throughout Coimbra.
- Stickers bearing genocidal slogans and antisemitic imagery covered walls, stairwells, street signs — even on the walls of university buildings.
Dehumanizing and Genocidal Messaging
- “Zionists should carry a certificate to prove they’re humans”
- “You can either be a Zionist, or a human being. Pick one!”
- “Every Zionist is a danger to all”
- “The chosen people like to kill babies”
- “Can we start making the Israeli baby killers uncomfortable?”
- “Stay hydrated and drink Zionists’ tears. Cats are cute. Israel is a serial killer”
- “Know your parasites” — showing the Israeli flag as a “Luna tick” alongside dog and wood ticks
Classic Antisemitism and Holocaust Inversion
- “Israelis are the monsters their grandparents warned them about”
- “Zionism is an evil cult”
- “Zionist billionaires own 90% of the media” (with “Jewish” crossed out)
Explicit Hate Speech and Calls for Exclusion
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- “Zionists are not welcome”
- “Every Zionist is a danger to All”
- “Israeli tourists f**k off”
- “Stop the Zionists”
Glorifying Terror
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- “In a world full of soulless scoundrels, be a Yahya!”
- “Sinwar was a king!”
- “Yahya Sinwar was a hero”
- “We are all Yahya Sinwar”
- “Long live Hezbollah”
- “Long live the resistance”
- “You won’t see me criticizing the resistance”
Violent Incitement Disguised as ‘Resistance’
- “Dear Palestinians, may you never run out of stones”
- “All Zionists are bullies. Never forget this, my Palestinian friend. Stay safe!”
- “At this point, you’re for Palestine or a psychopath”
This barrage of hate wasn’t isolated or underground — it was public, systemic, and ignored by the very institutions tasked with protecting students.
From Exposure to Persecution — Report Sparks Relentless Backlash
Harel’s decision to publish the report triggered a firestorm. His name, photo, and IDF background were doxxed. Online, he was branded a “war criminal.” Flyers appeared across the city with messages like “You shouldn’t be allowed to buy bread here.”
Social Media Harassment
- “Nice guy to deport first.”
- “May this man and so many others, who caused so much pain to innocent children, pay for their crimes! I hope it doesn’t take too long.”
- “Let’s clearly do everything to make Zionists NOT feel at home 🔥🔥🔥 out of here!”
- “We hope he’ll accept an open debate and answer questions from the audience. Then he could get out of here, preferably to a prison (which is where all war criminals should be).”
- “You don’t debate with Zionists. You just spit in their faces.”
- “Zionism is far worse than Nazism.”
- “I will receive them as if it were the ‘Kristallnacht’ in Nuremberg.”
- “The cleanup begins in Portugal! We don’t want you Zionists.”
- “Go to the f**king hell, if I see you in Portugal you will see what happens. You are not welcome here.” (Scroll to Appendix B embedded at the end of the article for responses on social media)
False rumors were spread to discredit Harel. Then came physical violence — Harel was assaulted near the Faculty of Law as someone shouted, “Your family should burn in a second Holocaust.”
Bar Harel’s Story: The Human Cost of Campus Hate
In an exclusive interview with the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), Harel reflected on how quickly his life unraveled in Coimbra.
“Walking through Coimbra, you’re surrounded — stickers on walls, posters in windows, flags waving over terror slogans,” he said. “It’s everywhere. It’s absolutely horrendous.”
At one protest, Harel recalled, a demonstrator aggressively told him to stop taking photos — accusing him of intimidation, even as others around him chanted for an “Intifada” and glorified terrorism. “They were calling for violence, screaming genocidal slogans — and somehow I was intimidating him for holding a camera,” he said. “That’s the twisted reality.”
But what shocked him even more was the ignorance behind the hate. When asked what surprised him most, he remembered a protester chanting “From the river to the sea” — who then turned to someone else and asked, “Wait — what river and what sea?”
“That’s when it hit me,” Harel said. “They parrot genocidal slogans — and don’t even know what they mean.”
Harel described hearing students say the Jews were responsible for their own Holocaust “because we were forced to work in the death camps.”
He was told to “go back where I came from” — a cruel irony, given that his ancestors had already been expelled from Portugal centuries earlier. “This country that now rejects me is the same one that once forced my family out,” he said. “Now I’m back, and they want me gone again.”
When asked about the university’s response, he said: “There are Hezbollah flags, images of Nasrallah, and Yahya Sinwar everywhere. The university says it’s not their jurisdiction.”
“Professors told me I don’t deserve to sleep,” he added. “Some glorified violent resistance. The silence feels like complicity.”
Two images, Bar said, left the deepest scars.
One sticker read: “Zionists should carry a certificate to prove they’re human.”
Another: “Israelis are the monsters their grandparents warned them about.”
“These aren’t just slogans,” he said. “They try to strip us of our humanity. That first one — it echoes the yellow stars Jews had to wear in Nazi Germany. Now, they want us to carry a certificate to prove we’re human… still alive… not demons.”
The second, he noted, was Holocaust inversion at its most grotesque, casting Israelis into the new Nazis.
“The messages don’t criticize policies,” Harel said. “They try to erase our existence, isolate us, dehumanize us, and make violence feel justified. That’s how genocides begin.”
Silence From Institutions — Letters, Complaints, and Evasion
Harel filed formal complaints with the University of Coimbra, the Portuguese Ministry of Education, local law enforcement, and the European Commission.
- The university deflected responsibility, citing freedom of expression and claiming that much of the incitement occurred on “public property.” The Student Ombudsman Cristina Vieira wrote, “I also consider that the student needs medical treatment and that he can and may cause us problems.”
- Portuguese police refused to proceed with a physical assault investigation unless Harel could provide full identification of his attacker — an impossible demand given the anonymity of street violence.
- The Ministry of Education deferred the matter back to the university, stating that student welfare was their remit.
- The European Commission acknowledged receipt of the complaint but failed to take any substantive action.
This bureaucratic ping-pong amounts to abandonment. Hate speech laws are ignored. International antisemitism definitions are bypassed. Institutions protect themselves, not the vulnerable.
Faculty Complicity — Academic Voices Fueling Hate
Emerging evidence suggests that the atmosphere of hostility at the University of Coimbra may be reinforced by individuals within the faculty itself.
Professor Joana Antunes, an Art History scholar at the Faculty of Letters, publicly shares antisemitic imagery — similar to the grotesque content found across campus — on her Instagram account. These include stickers invoking Holocaust inversion, glorifying terrorists, and recycling classic anti-Jewish tropes. Her posts don’t just mirror the hate — they help normalize it. In an academic environment already steeped in threats, when a faculty member amplifies this content and the university stays silent, that silence becomes complicity. This is not mere neglect — it’s participation.
This warrants urgent scrutiny — not only of the physical safety of Jewish students but of the cultural and moral climate shaping Portugal’s next generation of leaders.
A Presidential Visit — and a Silent Endorsement
Last June, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa encountered a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the University of Coimbra’s Faculty of Arts. He approached the crowd and listened as one protest leader demanded Portugal cut ties with Israeli institutions and recognize the “ongoing genocide” in Gaza.
In brief remarks, the president highlighted Portugal’s recent vote in favor of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations and its support for an international ceasefire resolution. Yet his comments made no reference to the October 7th massacre, the 1,200 Israelis slaughtered, or the hostages still held in Gaza. Protesters around him celebrated Hamas leaders and accused Israel of genocide — while Jewish students targeted by that incitement were forced into hiding.
A Defining Moment
Bar Harel’s story is a warning. When hate is excused as activism and antisemitism masquerades as resistance, the consequences are real.
Universities must speak clearly. Governments must act decisively. Law enforcement must protect victims. And the world must pay attention.
No student should have to hide in fear, cut off from daily life. Bar’s words resonate hauntingly:
“There are too many similarities to Nazi Germany.”
If we fail to listen, we risk reliving the very history we vowed never to repeat.
View Appendix A (images of antisemitic stickers) and Appendix B (images of social media responses to Harel’s report) here:
Read the full “Stickers of Hate: Analysis of Antisemitism at the University of Coimbra” report HERE.
