The Israeli Ambassador to London, Mark Regev, is due to speak this Thursday April 27th at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Plans for the meeting have generated “a storm of protest,” Palestinian News Network reported.
The Director of SOAS, Lady Valerie Amos, has received letters from 32 SOAS student societies, and from over 100 of the college’s academic staff asking her to intervene to stop the meeting. Palestinian students at SOAS have written asking her whether their names will be supplied to Israeli security for vetting prior to the meeting.
They express concern that attending and voicing criticism at the meeting will expose them to retaliation from Israeli officials when they return home, or go to Israel or Palestine to conduct research.
Students' Union statement on upcoming society event hosting Mark Regev: https://t.co/5OIZrky5BV pic.twitter.com/vPRJ5IP76x
— SOAS Students' Union (@soassu) April 24, 2017
Now 52 senior academic figures from across the UK have written to the Director echoing these concerns, and deploring the failure to halt the meeting.
Mark Regev first came to prominence as Israel’s principal spokesperson at the time of Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s assault on Gaza in 2008-9. Since that time English-speaking audiences have regularly experienced his skill in ‘spinning’ justifications for the killing and maiming of Palestinian civilians, and the use against them of high-tech but indiscriminate munitions.
Professor Jonathan Rosenhead, speaking for the organizers of the academics’ letter, said “Holding this meeting at SOAS, where staff and students have voted overwhelmingly in support of Boycott Divestment and Sanctions against Israel, and in support of Palestinian rights, seems like a deliberate provocation”.
(PNN, PC, Social Media)
