UK
LSE accused of platforming ‘Hamas propaganda’ by Israel’s UK ambassador over controversial book launch
Tzipi Hotovely accused the top university of promoting extremism
March 10, 2025 17:13
Tzipi Hotovely accused the top university of promoting extremism
March 10, 2025 17:13Israel’s ambassador to Britain has accused the London School of Economics (LSE) of platforming “Hamas propaganda” by hosting a controversial book launch.
Tzipi Hotovely called on the top university to cancel the talk about the book Understanding Hamas and Why That Matters on Monday, warning it would fuel “extremism”.
The synopsis of the book describes Hamas as a “widely misunderstood movement whose involvement in a just resolution of the Israel/Palestine conflict will be critical”.
In a letter to LSE president Larry Kramer, Hotovely said: “I am deeply concerned that the event is providing a platform for Hamas propaganda – a terror organisation proscribed under United Kingdom law.
“I worry that by promoting such a book, which sympathises with and justifies the survival and existence of Hamas, will only serve to grow support for a brutal terror organisation among your students and beyond.”
The book is a compilation of five transcripts of webinar conversations with five “world-class experts on this little understood and viciously maligned movement”.
Co-edited by British-American writer Helena Cobban and Jordanian-American journalist Rami G. Khouri, the book examines the terror group’s “critical shift from social and religious activism to national political engagement” and “its transformation from early anti-Jewish tendencies to a stance that differentiates between Judaism and Zionism,” among other subjects.
It argues the demonisation of Hamas “intensified after the events in Southern Israel on October 7,” with the militant organisation being branded “as ‘terrorist’ or worse”.
Hotovely warned that the book launch risks “isolating” Jewish and Israeli students on campus and stirring up “religious and racial tensions” at the university.
“Understandably, your Jewish and Israeli students will be feeling anxious and fearful for their own safety at this moment in time,” Hotovely told Kramer. “The book launch taking place on Monday does nothing to allay their fears or improve their safety.”
Stop the Hate UK, a Jewish grassroots group, is calling on people to send emails to LSE demanding the event be cancelled.
Over 50,000 emails have been sent condemning the university for hosting the launch of a “pro-Hamas book”, which includes the “denial and minimisation” of the October 7 attack.
A protest outside the top university’s Middle East Centre will take place on Monday, including speeches from Baroness Ros Altmann, and representatives from the Jewish Leadership Council and the Union of Jewish Students.
The launch will feature a talk by one of the book’s co-authors and academics researching the Middle East.
Despite pressure to cancel the event, LSE said it was preserving “free speech” by refusing to cancel.
“Free speech and freedom of expression underpins everything we do at LSE,” an LSE spokesperson said.
“Students, staff and visitors are strongly encouraged to discuss and debate the most pressing issues around the world.”
They added: “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 individual’s rights to freedom of expression within the law.
“This is formalised in our code of practice on free speech and in our ethics code.”