Firebrand speakers at a external socialist conference hosted by University College London (UCL) brazenly supported Hamas and Hezbollah and glorified attacks on Israel in an apparent breach of the Terrorism Act, the JC can reveal.
University authorities asked police to investigate after this newspaper sent them a recording of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) event, which featured a keynote speaker saying he backed Hezbollah “unconditionally” and cheered whenever it destroyed an Israeli tank.
The audience could be heard enthusiastically applauding these remarks.
Another speaker was recorded describing the October 7 massacre by Hamas as a “jailbreak”, while a third said: “We stand behind the Palestinian resistance… formations like Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”
Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are all proscribed organisations under the Terrorism Act 2000, which means it is an offence punishable by fines or imprisonment of up to 14 years to “invite support” or encouragement for them.
It is also an offence to “arrange, manage or assist in arranging a meeting in the knowledge that the meeting is to support… the activities of a proscribed organisation”.
The Community Security Trust (CST) welcomed the involvement of police, denouncing the conference as “toxic” and “hateful”.
SWP claimed that more than 3,000 people attended the annual conference, which has been running for 40 years and takes place over four days.
Other speakers included independent MP Jeremy Corbyn, the former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, film director Ken Loach, former MP Claudia Webbe and the Stop the War coalition leader Lindsey German. There is no suggestion that they voiced support for proscribed terrorist groups or attended any of the sessions where those views were expressed.
Corbyn speaking at the event. There is no suggestion that he voiced support for proscribed terror groups or attended any of the sessions where those views were expressed
Some of the most inflammatory statements were made at a session on July 4 entitled “Palestine 101: A revolutionary struggle”.
The keynote speaker, self-described “revolutionary socialist” Ramsis Kilani, said: “I want to be clear in this introduction that we stand behind the Palestinian resistance and we back the resistance and Palestinians have every right to resist by any means necessary… it is astonishing how the Palestinian resistance and the armed resistance is still holding its ground in Gaza… the leading political military forces are Islamists, formations like Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”
Members of his audience agreed. One said the “resistance” had made “incredibly valid efforts in resisting the ongoing genocide” by destroying tanks and killing IDF officers and troops. This, they added, was “causing splits between the Israeli political and military class, which is something that is fantastic and worth celebrating”.
Another added: “The Palestinian resistance is mighty and we support it, we support it unconditionally, as Ramsis said.”
Later the same day, the Palestinian writer and physician Ghada Karmi gave a lecture entitled: “One State: the only democratic future for Palestine-Israel”.
In this she said: “What happened on October 7 was a jailbreak. It was breaking out from jail... It was somehow inevitable and lots and lots of people sympathised and understood why it was that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other ordinary people, ordinary civilians in Gaza, just went through the fence and ran off and did various things.”
She did not say whether she approved of those “various things”, which may imply the rapes, murders and abductions perpetrated during the massacre. But she also spoke at an anti-Israel protest organised by NHS staff at UCL in December, where she was filmed saying “what you saw on October 7 was breaking out from the cage of Gaza by a resistance movement”.
At a session held on July 6 entitled “Can the Axis of Resistance Liberate Palestine?”, the main speaker, Lebanon-based journalist Simon Assaf, said: “Just in case there are any questions, I unconditionally support Hezbollah. A lot of people coming into Lebanon think I’m too soft, but I support when they fire, when they blow up an Israeli tank, I cheer. I want to be absolutely clear, I stand with the resistance.”
Here too audience members concurred. One said: “We side with Hezbollah when they fend off Zionist attacks”. Another added: “We do stand with national liberation movements, we do want the destruction of the Israeli state, so we’re not going to sit by and kind of wag our finger at Hezbollah or Hamas.” A third said: “We appreciate the resistance when the resistance is real, when the resistance is giving a bloody nose to the Zionist entity. Anyone who will go and do that is doing something helpful… we have to be able to support resistance that is real, that is material, concrete, military resistance.”
A UCL spokesperson told the JC: “We are horrified by these reports of appalling and unacceptable comments made at the Marxism festival and have reported these to the police. We utterly condemn all forms of antisemitism and have made clear to our community that this will not be tolerated at UCL.
“This was an external event run by an external organiser, the Socialist Workers Party, who booked space at UCL and was not organised or endorsed by the university. All external bookings go through our relevant processes and are required to comply with our booking terms and Code of Practice on Freedom of Speech. We are urgently investigating a number of incidents that allegedly took place at the Marxism Festival on our property in breach of these terms. While this investigation is under way, we will not be hosting any future events by the organisers.”
A CST spokesperson said: “This kind of outright support for Hamas and Hezbollah, including approval of the October 7 atrocities, is likely to be illegal and certainly should have no place at a British university given the surge in campus antisemitism in recent months.
“The Socialist Workers Party has stirred up anti-Jewish extremism for decades through their support for terrorism and calls for Israel to be destroyed, and similar hateful comments and speeches are made every year at their Marxism Conference. It is time for UCL and other universities to refuse to host this thoroughly toxic, hateful event in future, and we support the call on police to investigate whether any crimes were committed at this year’s conference.”
The SWP and its speakers did not respond to requests for comment.
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