Less than two months after he was assaulted by a pie-wielding protester at Rutgers University, a senior Israeli cabinet official said that pro-Palestinian activists are waging a campaign of intimidation on college campuses worldwide.

Speaking to college reporters via telephone from his Jerusalem office, Israeli Minister of Jerusalem and World Jewish Affairs Natan Sharansky said that elements of campus anti-Israel movements are guilty of thinly-veiled anti-Semitism.

Sharansky echoed concerns similar to those expressed by University President Lawrence H. Summers in a well-publicized speech at The Memorial Church last September.

In the wake of a petition campaign encouraging the University to withdraw from its investments in Israeli firms, Summers cautioned, “Serious and thoughtful people are advocating and taking actions that are anti-Semitic in their effect if not their intent.”

Using similar language yesterday, Sharansky praised Jewish students who buck prevalent anti-Israel trends in campus opinion.

“It is very pleasant to see Jewish activists who are not intimidated [by] the strong anti-Israel and sometimes anti-Semitic campaign,” he said.

But according to Sharansky, even well-trained activists face steep obstacles in mobilizing Zionist efforts on campuses.

He accused Palestinian activists of using brainwashing techniques to sway students’ opinions.

After visiting Harvard for a Sept. 16 speech at Hillel, Sharansky said that Zionist students here are intimidated by their anti-Israel peers.

“[O]ne [Harvard graduate] student admitted to me that she was afraid—afraid to express support for Israel, afraid to take part in pro-Israel organizations, afraid to be identified,” Sharansky wrote in the Oct. 24 edition of Forward, a New York Jewish weekly.

But Alexandra B. Vanier ’03-’05, a member of the Harvard Institute for Peace and Justice as well as Harvard Students for Israel (HSI), said that pro-Palestinian students also face intimidation when they express their views.

“Most of the time when someone voices a strong criticism of [Israeli Prime Minister] Ariel Sharon or the Israeli military, they get barraged by accusations of anti-Semitism,” Vanier said.

Pro-Israel students characterized Harvard’s campus as relatively friendly to Zionist viewpoints.

“We have strong faculty support,” said Daniel W. Shoag ’06, senior editor of the Harvard Israel Review, who highlighted the roles of Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz and Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature Ruth R. Wisse.

“On campus the discussions have been more civil,” Shoag said, but he added that he has felt “physically endangered” at pro-Israel events in Boston.