Fury As Durham University Calls Off Gaza War Debate After “Mob” of Pro-Palestine Protesters “Locked” Students Inside Chamber
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”.
Worth reading in full.
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Teachers eh?
What was the last ATL article about?
As a graduate of Durham, this is troubling and embarrassing. Something has gone badly wrong. Stopped donating years ago.
Such a beautiful place, now ruined like everything else.
Why don’t they debate something more useful, like the Mass Third World Invasion of the West?
The useful idiots are even more thick when you see all the footage floating about which demonstrates their inability to answer even the most basic of questions about why they’re protesting. No wonder they’ve started clamming up altogether or just saying ”no comment”. It’s because they’re all literally pig-ignorant and their abject stupidity was getting embarrassing for their handlers. But Leftards apparently have quite the history when it comes to proving themselves traitors and siding with the enemy of the country they happen to be from and residing in. Can’t we send them on a one-week all-inclusive ‘holiday’ to North Korea or Afghanistan? They’d certainly gain some perspective on their understanding of ‘human rights’, and then some; ”Hamas is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Iranian Mullahs, who, since the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s 1979 Revolution, regard Israel as the “Little Satan” the US as the “Great Satan”. Considering the sordid history and current status of Palestinianism, it is quite remarkable that, among all the causes in the world, the left has chosen that cause as its primary focus. Left-wing students do not demonstrate in favor of the Kurds, the Uyghurs, Iranian dissidents or Syrian victims of genocide. There are more demonstrations on… Read more »
I firmly believe in debate, because it is important for any argument or conflict to be discussed freely, to enable all participants to extend their knowledge of the matter in hand and for, hopefully, sensible conclusions to be reached. So the Durham University debate should neither have been hindered nor cancelled. Especially in the modern world, it is important to recognize propaganda, or one-sided reporting, and search for possible justification of matters which may ‘go against the grain’. So, again, debates are important. I also watched a YouTube video ridiculing protesting students (or possibly ‘professional’ demonstrators) but it left me wondering how many answers from sensible students were not reported. And a very pro-USA, and pro-US military website, such as the Gatestone Institute, would unlikely condemn Israeli military operations. But USA and UK (always lurking in the former’s shadow) stand alone in not condemning Israel’s attacks on the Gaza population. I have written too many comments condemning the slaughter of innocent men, women and childen in Gaza, and have always been astounded by the number of comments lauding the Israeli actions. So here is the US military expert, Scott Ritter’s opinion of the current situation: Israel is the worst possible criminal in the world who… Read more »
Good to see that the Hamas supporting students with the support of Durham University have adopted the tactics of Hamas in the incarceration of those they dislike. I wonder when they will kill their first Jewish student as a tribute to the terrorists they admire so much.
“If universities can’t protect free speech within academia they need to replace the chancellors with those who will.”
It is naïve to expect universities to be proponents of ‘free speech’; a nice delusion, but naïve.
We don’t have FREE SPEECH. We have people that shout the loudest and kick up the biggest stink getting their own way. Hundreds of fossil fuel proponents don’t scream blue murder that their fantastic gas central heating is to be scrapped or that their electricity prices are to treble so our governments can pretend to save the planet, so we are going to continue being like lambs to the slaughter. Or as someone once pointed out “All it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to remain silent”. —–We need to STOP being silent or face a horrendous drubbing.