Israeli Foreign Minister Lectures Disrupted
There were
protests and disruption when Daniel Ayalon, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Israel, in the UK to meet British government officials, visited universities.
Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign
organized a sizeable picket, at very short notice, when he visited Bristol University to speak at an early evening lecture.
Then, on 26 October, over 50 students
and activists greeted him outside a lecture at the London School of Economics
(LSE) with placards and banners, whilst inside audience members heckled him as
a “racist” and “murderer” in relation to the illegal occupation
and violence carried out by the Israeli state.
The Minister began and ended his
lecture amid boos and chants of “Free, Free, Palestine” whilst his
speech was interrupted relentlessly throughout with audience members
questioning Israel’s atrocities.
This action was organized by the LSE
Students’ Union Palestine Society and the Palestine Solidarity Initiative
(which advances the Palestinian right to education). The LSE Students’ Union is
officially twinned with Al-Najah University and has previously voted to divest
funds from those companies profiting from the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The motion also called on LSE to respect human rights and follow suit in
embracing a divestment agenda with regards to such companies.
Students held a week long occupation
in January as a response to the Israeli attacks on Gaza last winter, resulting
in LSE agreeing to practically support Palestinian students affected by the
violence.
Mira Hamed who attended the lecture
and is the Chair of the LSE SU Palestine Society said after the protest, “The
Palestine Society at LSE has grown in support since the atrocities committed
in Gaza which explains the huge turnout tonight. We will continue to support
the growing international resistance against the occupation of Palestine until a just peace is achieved.”
Merna Al Azzeh, a Palestinian
Masters student who was in the audience added, “As an LSE student, I find it
disgusting that LSE could invite a Minister to speak from a racist government
that has been committing war crimes for the last 60 years. The recent
Goldstone Report overwhelmingly condemns the genocide waged against Gazan
civilians last winter and as a Palestinian I am reassured by the growing
international resistance to Israeli Apartheid”.