Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom was forced to leave an event she attended at the London School of Economics Tuesday night by pro-Palestine students, The New Arab reported.
Videos shared on Twitter show students chasing Tzipi Hotovely out of the building as she is surrounded by bodyguards, while police ward off protesters.
Hotovely was attending a debate forum at the central London university which lasted approximately 90 minutes according to LSE.
In an amazing gesture of solidarity with Palestine, LSE students coming together to challenge those who deny the Palestinian existence, reject the right to a state of Palestine and are complicit in Israeli apartheid policies.#FreePalestine🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/pKltrOzn2q
— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) November 9, 2021
“Shame on you,” shouted the crowd, raising Palestinian flags and booing the ambassador as she was whizzed away. Students reportedly accused the student union of giving a platform for “racism,” calling Israel a “terror state”.
Pro-Palestinian groups applauded the incident, condemning Hotovely as a “war criminal”.
In a statement released on Wednesday, LSE condemned what they called threatening behavior on the side of the students.
🚨 | NEW: Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely fleeing the London School of Economics
— Politics For All (@PoliticsForAlI) November 9, 2021
Hotovely is from former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and previously served as settlement affairs minister. A petition by left-wing British Jewish organization Na’amod was started against the former minister’s appointment as ambassador to the UK last year.
Known for her fervent opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state, the diplomat has dubbed the 1948 Nakba – when Palestinians were expelled from their homes with the creation of the State of Israel – as an “Arab lie,” and that Israeli occupation is a “myth”.
She has even criticized American Jews for not enlisting their children to “fight for their country”.
(The New Arab, PC, Social Media)
