Durham University has been slammed for its failure to uphold free speech, after cancelling a Gaza war debate due to pro-Palestine protesters locking students in a chamber for over two hours. The Mail has the story.
Students preparing the chamber for the Friday night debate – about whether “Palestinian Leadership is the Biggest Barrier to Peace” – found themselves locked inside when protesters created a human chain around the building.
Those who were set to defend the argument were Natasha Hausdorff, of U.K. Lawyers for Israel, investigative journalist David Collier and Lance Forman, a former Brexit Party MEP.
Students preparing the chamber “locked themselves in to prevent the mob entering the building”, Mr. Forman told the Mail.
Union members called the University authorities to request police assistance to clear the entrance for the debate.
Mr. Forman said: “The University did not act and before long the mob grew in size and formed a human chain around the building to prevent access.
“The students inside were by this point terrified that they would also break in. It was up to the University to speak to the police to facilitate this. But they backed down and caved into the mob.”
The Mail understands that the University could have classified the protesters as ‘trespassers’. If they had done so, the police would have been able to remove the protestors and allow the event to take place, but the University chose not to do this.
Throughout the night, the protestors banged drums, shouted chants and sang songs, including “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, “Israel is a terrorist state” and “Durham Uni you can‘t hide, we charge you with genocide.”
Mr. Forman condemned the University’s actions, stating: “It was an absolute disgrace that the University behaved in this way and did not allow us to make our case.
“They chickened out or were deliberately ensuring their students would not hear from outstanding speakers.
“If universities can’t protect free speech within academia they need to replace the chancellors with those who will.”
He said the students involved “were devastated and we were all looking forward to the engagement which would have helped shed light on a very fraught situation”.
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