UCL bans academic who told students ‘story’ that Jews killed priest for blood to make pancakes

The JC has listened to a recording of the lecture made by a student who left in shock after almost an hour.

Dave Rich from the Community Security Trust (CST) attacked the “outrageously antisemitic lecture” and called for UCL to take “swift action” over Maqusi and the society.

StandWithUs UK Executive Director Isaac Zarfati said UCL should be “ashamed” for providing a “platform for long-debunked racist conspiracy theories”.

UCL President & Provost, Dr Michael Spence, said: “I am utterly appalled by these heinous antisemitic comments. Antisemitism has absolutely no place in our university, and I want to express my unequivocal apology to all Jewish students, staff, alumni, and the wider community that these words were uttered at UCL.

“The individual responsible is a former fixed-term researcher at UCL, but not a current member of UCL staff. We have reported this incident to the police and have banned her from campus. We have launched a full investigation into how this happened and have banned the student group which hosted it from holding any further events on campus pending the outcome of this."

Dr Samar Maqusi delivering another lecture at UCL on 'The right to return through the Palestine refugee camp' (YouTube)[Missing Credit]

The Tuesday evening lecture at UCL was the first in a series by an official university society, UCL Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

During her talk, Dr Maqusi referred to the Damascus Affair but failed to make clear that it was a baseless antisemitic myth. At one point, she told students that Father Thomas “was found murdered and a group of Jews, who lived in Syria... admitted to kidnapping him and murdering him to get drops of blood for the holy bread”.

While she encouraged students to “investigate your own narrative”, she told the room that during “The Feast of Tabernacles,” Jews used gentile blood to make bread.

“The story is that during this feast, they make these special pancakes or bread, and part of the holy ceremony is that drops of blood from someone who is not Jewish, the term is gentile, has to be mixed in that bread.”

Elsewhere in the lecture, she repeated the trope that Jews control the banks.

“At that time, as many of you will know, a lot of the financial network, a lot of the banks, a lot of the financial infrastructure was owned by a lot of Jewish families. The Jews pretty much controlled the financial structure.”

She claimed that Napoleon asked the Jewish community to fund his war and would bestow on them a Jewish state in return.

“He promised them in return that if they gave him the money, if they funded the battle against the British and the Ottomans, that in return he pledged that he would erect the Jewish kingdom. In his words, the revival of the Jewish kingdom in Palestine under French patronage,” Maqusi said.

She went on to bring up Sir Moses Montefiore, who she described as “a British financier and banker, activist and philanthropist, and he was the sheriff of London, so we can also start making the connections between the British and the wealthy Jewish.”

She said that Montefiore tried to buy Palestine.

“This sacred promise to the Jews that they return to Palestine, this is where the whole idea came about, this religious promise of God to the Jews to go back to Palestine.”

Palestinian flags and protest banners at an entrance to UCL in London (Getty Images)Getty Images

She also described Montefiore's mission to build a hospital in Jerusalem, suggesting that he really wanted to build a Jewish settlement. She connected the establishment of Montefiore's village in the 1800s with contemporary settlement expansion in the West Bank.

“’Facts on the ground’ is something that today the Zionists uphold. The settlements on the West Bank are done through something called ‘facts on the ground’... They built this settlement knowing that it is an illegal activity, they confiscate these areas of land, yet once it is built, to the international community, it is ‘facts on the ground’.

“This is a special methodology that Zionism used early on, as early as 1853, and today they still use this methodology,” Maqusi said.

She claimed that Montefiore “starts infusing this idea that living in Jerusalem as a Jew is this scary and threatening thing, which is obviously untrue.

“This was, in a way, the propaganda of promoting this idea that Jews cannot live with their neighbours of the Muslim Palestinians, or the Christians.

“This idea that the Jews are not safe or there is a threat was very much from the beginning of Zionism and the story of building a Jewish nation in Palestine,” she went on.

“This is how it’s built in a lot of the European Jewish minds, is that the Arab has always been one that’s gonna attack.”

Referring to the Montefiore Mill, which still stands in the Israeli capital, she goes on: “Today this is what it looks like, and it is actually a cultural intellectual centre, so people come to look at the sieged city of Jerusalem in the background, and talk art and culture.

“So when we talk about cultural whitewashing or academic whitewashing of crimes and violence, this is what it looks like, and architecture plays a very big role.”

She claimed that the agricultural work of early Zionists in Israel was completed to “actually convince yourself that you are the indigenous population” and that Jews working the land in Israel are “obviously settlers, they’re not indigenous people”.

At the beginning of the talk, Maqusi framed her lecture: “When we’re talking about Zionism, we're talking about an ideology that’s held within a structure that also controls a lot of what’s within our hands. When you’re trying to read about Zionism, you’re most probably being guided or censored or being directed.

“We have to start rewriting the history from the voices of the oppressed, from the voices of the indigenous.

“I am not refuting Western, and white – and even Israeli sources – some of them can be quite accurate. Be very aware that the narrative is not complete, unless you firstly listen to the voices of the oppressed.”

Maqusi’s talk has drawn sharp condemnation from community groups and politicians.

Dave Rich from the Community Security Trust (CST) said: "The blood libel is a vicious anti-Jewish lie that has incited hatred and violence towards Jews throughout history. We are appalled that a Research Associate at UCL, Dr Samar Marqusi, has delivered such an outrageously antisemitic lecture to students on UCL property.

“At a time when antisemitism is rising at alarming rates, it is utterly disgraceful that such dangerous myths are being presented within an academic setting. This is not education; it is the perpetuation of hate. CST has complained to UCL.”

Meanwhile, Shadow Education Minister Saqib Bhatti connected the incident to rising antisemitism on campus.

“Over the last two years, life has been made intolerable for many Jewish students across the UK due to the surge in antisemitism. This is not what Britain is about,” Bhatti said.

Mark Ben Mikhelson, a 19-year-old Jewish student who attended the event, said: “The acceptance by my fellow students of antisemitic blood libels and conspiracy theories was a chilling moment.”

The second year politics and sociology student added: “These lies have led to the killing of so many Jews throughout history and yet it is seen as perfectly normal discourse at UCL.”

Mikhelson said he “felt like crying” during the lecture. “I am Israeli, my family lives in Israel, it is where I grew up. It was too much for me to bear, that’s why I left the lecture.” He slipped out of the talk after 45 minutes.

“If they knew an Israeli was in the room, they would think I was a coloniser and murderer.”

A StandWithUs fellow, Mikhelson said he “thinks twice” before telling fellow students where he is from. He has been called “an occupier, a genocide supporter, a war criminal and the supporter of war crimes” by his peers.

StandWithUs UK Executive Director Isaac Zarfati said: “It is indefensible that one of the UK’s most prestigious universities is providing a platform for long-debunked racist conspiracy theories.

“UCL should be ashamed for allowing the casual dissemination of one of the oldest antisemitic blood libels which has driven persecution and violent pogroms against Jews throughout the world.

“The so-called ‘anti-Zionist’ movement makes no secret of its antisemitic foundation, and it is time universities, and their leadership took a stand against this poisonous ideology and take responsibility for what happens on their campuses instead of deflecting blame to external authorities. They have all the tools they need”.

Dr Michael Spence, said: “Regrettably, like many UK universities, we continue to confront incidents of antisemitism and are committing to banishing this from our campus. We have initiated disciplinary proceedings against a number of students in relation to antisemitism and reported incidents to the police where appropriate.

“Freedom of speech and academic freedom are fundamental to university life, but they can never be misused as a shield for hatred. UCL remains steadfast in our commitment to ensure our campus is a safe, respectful, and inclusive environment for everyone.”

The JC approached Maqusi for comment.