Israel’s ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, has urged the London School of Economics (LSE) to cancel the launching of the book “Understanding Hamas: And Why It Matters” scheduled for Monday, warning that it would “increase support” among students for the terrorist organization, The Telegraph reported on Saturday.
The book’s synopsis describes Hamas as “a widely misunderstood movement whose involvement in a just resolution of the Israel/Palestine conflict will be critical.”
The book was published in October 2024 by OR Books, an NYC publisher specializing in left-leaning works.
One passage in the book proclaims: “Israeli claims about what happened on Oct 7 have since been proven to be false. They have been proven even to be deliberate lies designed in order to justify what the Israelis were going to do as a revenge attack on Gaza, which we were seeing happening for the past eight months nearly.”
Another passage says that “demonization efforts” against Hamas “impede diplomacy and keep the [Palestinian] populations suffering colonial rule or military occupation trapped for decades in devastating conflict at the hands of their far more violent and heavily armed oppressors.”
The book claims “the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has been subjected to intense vilification,” noting that “Branding it as ‘terrorist’ or worse, this demonization intensified after the events in southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023.”
The Campaign Against Antisemitism claimed that “This book’s synopsis describes Hamas as ‘a widely misunderstood movement’ … Perhaps that is because it capped decades of lethal suicide bombings with the massacre of 1,200 and the abduction of some 250 people. Is such conduct not worthy of ‘vilification’?”
“This appears to be an outrageous attempt to whitewash Hamas’s barbaric acts of horror,” the spokesman continued. “For all their virtuous anti-racism rhetoric, our universities have become epicenters of Jew hatred and this event is yet another example of how bad the problem is. We will be writing to LSE, which must cancel this propaganda event immediately.”
In a letter to Larry Kramer, the president of LSE, Ambassador Hotovely expressed her concerns: “I am deeply worried that this event is giving a platform to Hamas propaganda – a terrorist organization banned under UK law. I fear that promoting a book that sympathizes with and justifies the survival and existence of Hamas will only lead to increased support for this brutal terrorist group among your students and beyond.” She concluded by saying, “I sincerely hope you will reconsider allowing the event to proceed.”
An LSE spokesman responded: “Free speech and freedom of expression underpins everything we do at LSE. Students, staff, and visitors are strongly encouraged to discuss and debate the most pressing issues around the world. We host an enormous number of events each year, covering a wide range of viewpoints and positions. We have clear policies in place to ensure the facilitation of debates in these events and enable all members of our community to refute ideas lawfully and to protect individuals’ rights to freedom of expression within the law. This is formalized in our Code of Practice on Free Speech and in our Ethics Code.”
Of course, it is.
On November 10, 2021, Ambassador Hotovely was forced to flee a university debate after being confronted by a group of angry LSE students and activists waving Palestinian flags. As she exited the event, which focused on the future of the Middle East, the crowd attempted to rush her while she clutched a bouquet of flowers.
Video footage from outside LSE that evening showed security guards hastily escorting Hotovely into her embassy-supplied Jaguar as police worked to hold back the protesters, who could be heard chanting, “Aren’t you ashamed?”
Following the incident, Hotovely vowed, “We will not give in to thuggery and violence. The State of Israel will send its representatives to every stage.”
It later turned out that activists from LSE Class War had posted an Instagram story before the debate, urging students to storm the stage.
