PalSoc’s protest against the decision to host the Israeli Ambassador Hon Prosor was done for a number of different and related reasons. Firstly, we felt that the University’s decision to invite him and/or host him on campus was a very antagonistic action given that the senior management must be aware of the fact that the Israeli-Palestinian issue is the subject of ongoing heated debate and a recent large solidarity protest in the form of a student occupation in opposition to Israel’s military assault on the Gaza Strip earlier this year. Moreover, the decision to host the Israeli Ambassador, at a time when a respected international report (Goldstone) has indicted the state he represents for committing “war crimes”, coupled with the seemingly underhand way in which his visit was handled has led many of our members and supporters to the regrettable conclusion that the University is taking a pro-Israel stance.
Further, we object to the fact that the event was not advertised in an appropriate manner in which it could have been accessible to our members and the larger student and academic body of the University. The talk was “publicized” as a “public lecture” yet very few people actually knew about the event being scheduled. PalSoc was alerted of the event only two days before it was actually supposed to happen, and the actual time and venue remained anonymous until a few hours before the talk. A small number of our members did manage to acquire tickets for the “public lecture” and we registered our protest in the form of asking tough questions in the Q&A session of what was purely a PR exercise. The majority of our members registered their protest in the form of a demonstration held outside the Great Hall; both forms of protest being perfectly legitimate exercises of our right to freedom of expression and protest, and at no point was the Ambassador’s right to free speech prevented.
We hope that the protest which was organized very last minute and yet involved about 50 people outside the venue and a number of individuals in the actual talk will put things on the Israel-Palestine issue back into perspective and that the University will reconsider its position within the debate.
