A Northern Ireland university has rejected calls to withdraw a speaking invitation to the Israeli ambassador amid student protests.
Connor Veighey, the president of Queen’s University Belfast students’ union, issued an eleventh-hour plea to cancel the event, the Belfast Telegraph reported.
The union argued that the talk would serve to “normalise the actions of the Israeli government” against the Palestinian people, adding that it wanted to “highlight the injustices inflicted upon them by Israeli occupation”.
Students now making it very clear Mark Regev is not welcome at QUB with chants of “Regev, Regev, Regev, out, out, out” pic.twitter.com/FA8JXH4LCy
— Robert Murtagh 🇵🇸 (@robertmurtagh1) October 16, 2018
The university resisted calls to cancel the event, saying that it had also extended a speaking invitation to the Palestinian diplomatic representative to the UK, Manuel Hassassian.
Mark Regev, who has served as the Israeli ambassador since 2016, is due to give an address on “conflict transformation and social justice” on Tuesday.
The Queen’s Students Against Apartheid group staged a demonstration in a university building on Monday, where they chanted “Regev, Regev, Regev, Out, Out, Out”.
The Belfast Palestine Solidarity Campaign also held a protest against the visit this afternoon at the QUB Human Rights Centre.
